The hyperbolic meaning of the Milnor-Wood inequality (Q765899)

In this paper the author introduces a twist function Tw. This function assigns a real number to a point in the closure of the hyperbolic plane and an element in \(\widetilde{PSL(2,\mathbb{R})}\) , the universal covering of the isometry group of the hyperbolic plane. The twist function is a generalization of the translation-quasimorphism on \(\widetilde{PSL(2,\mathbb{R})}\), which coincides with the twist function when evaluated at a specific point in the hyperbolic plane. The author gives relations between the twist function of commutators and hyperbolic area of polygons. The paper discusses the relation between the twist function and the translation-quasimorphism, but does not give much background on quasimorphisms and related results. For this the reader can consult e.g. Calegari's book on ``scl''.