On weakly maximal representations of surface groups (Q524873)

Let \(\Sigma\) be a surface and let \(\pi_1(\Sigma)\) denote its fundamental group. In this paper the authors are concerned with a particular kind of representation of this group in the case where \(\Sigma\) is compact, oriented and of negative Euler characteristic. More specifically they are concerned with group homomorphisms \(\pi_1(\Sigma)\rightarrow G\) where \(G\) is a semisimple Lie group, representations that they call \textit{weakly maximal representations}. They prove a number of related geometrically interesting results about these representations.