Geometric Milnor-Wood inequalities (Q2468434)

The authors prove a generalization of the Milnor-Wood inequality [\textit{J. W. Milnor}, Comment. Math. Helv. 32, 215--223 (1958; Zbl 0196.25101), and \textit{J. W. Wood}, Comment. Math. Helv. 46, 257--273 (1971; Zbl 0217.49202)]. If \(Y\) is a closed Riemannian manifold, they consider a representation of its fundamental group into the isometry group of a symmetric space of the same dimension. When \(X\) is the product of symmetric spaces of negative curvature and of dimension greater than 2, the authors prove an upper bound of the volume of this representation computed in terms of the volume entropies of \(Y\) and \(X\). The case of equality is studied and gives rise to a rigidity theorem. Then the authors describe examples of representations of non-zero volume. In dimension 3 the inequality gives a simple proof of a theorem due to \textit{T. Soma} [J. Differ. Geom. 49, No. 3, 517--546 (1998; Zbl 0990.57005)] showing the finiteness of the number of closed hyperbolic manifolds dominated by the same closed manifold.