Incompressible solvable representations of surface groups (Q2401748)

Let \(S\) be a compact surface with or without boundary. A representation (i.e. a homomorphism) from the fundamental group \(\pi_1(S)\) to another group is called \textit{incompressible} if its kernel contains no simple loop, i.e. a non-trivial element representing a simple closed curve in \(S\). The authors show: Theorem: If \(S\) is not the projective plane or the Klein bottle then there is an incompressible representation of \(\pi_1(S)\) to a torsion-free group of upper triangular matrices in \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb R)\), which therefore injects under the quotient map to \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb K)\) or \(\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathbb K)\), for \(\mathbb K = \mathbb R\) or \(\mathbb C\).