Compactifications of representation spaces of finitely generated groups (Q455616)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely generated infinite group and \(\varGamma \) be a noncompact semisimple connected real Lie group with a finite center. The author considers the set \(\mathcal X(\Gamma ,\varGamma)\) of conjugacy classes of completely reducible representations \(\Gamma \to \varGamma\) and denotes by \(\mathcal X_{fd}(\Gamma,\varGamma)\) its subset formed by the classes of discrete representations with a trivial kernel. Let \(\mathcal X\) be the symmetric space without compact factors associated with \(\varGamma\) and let \(d \mathcal X\) denote the infinite bord of \(\mathcal X\). The author identifies \(\mathcal X(\Gamma,\varGamma )\) with the quotient \(R_{cr}(\Gamma,G)/G\subset R(\Gamma,G)/G\) formed by the classes of completely reducible representations. The compactification of \(X(\Gamma,G)\) was already made in some cases by different authors. It generalizes Thurston's compactification of the Teichmüller space.