Configurations of flags and representations of surface groups in complex hyperbolic geometry (Q658537)

Representations of surface groups in \(PU(1, 1)\) or \(PSL(2, \mathbb R)\) are classical and have been intensively studied since Fricke and Klein. They provide an effective way to study Teichmüller spaces of surfaces. Representations of surface groups in other Lie groups such as \(PU(2, 1)\) have also been studied by many people. When the surface is compact and of negative Euler characteristics, an analogy of Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates has been obtained by Parker and Platis on the representation variety in \(PU(2, 1)\) of the surface group. This paper studies the representation variety in \(PU(2, 1)\) for orientable surfaces with punctures and negative Euler characteristics. The main purpose of this paper is to describe a set of coordinates on such a representation variety, or rather on a finite cover of an open subset of the representation variety. The introduction explains the reason for going to a covering space of the representation variety, or a slightly different representation variety.