Convex foliated projective structures and the Hitchin component for \({\text{PSL}}_4(\mathbf{R})\) (Q943563)

\textit{N. J. Hitchin} [Topology 31, No.~3, 449--473 (1992; Zbl 0769.32008)] discovered a special connected component of the representation variety of the fundamental group of a closed Riemann surface \(\Sigma\) into a simple adjoint \(\mathbb R\)-split Lie group \(G\), and showed that this ``Hitchin component'' is diffeomorphic to a ball of dimension \(| \chi(\Sigma)| \dim(G)\). The main result of the present paper is a geometric interpretation of the Hitchin component for the case of \(G = \text{ PSL}_4(\mathbb R)\): it is shown that in this case the Hitchin component is naturally homeomorphic to the moduli space of (marked) properly convex foliated projective structures on the unit tangent bundle of \(\Sigma\) (locally homogeneous \((\text{PGL}_4(\mathbb R), \mathbb P^3(\mathbb R))\)-structures satisfying two additional conditions). Such geometric interpretations were previously known for \(G = \text{PSL}_2(\mathbb R)\) and \(G = \text{PSL}_3(\mathbb R)\); in the former case, the Hitchin component consists of the holonomy representations of hyperbolic surfaces in the Fricke-Teichmüller space of \(\Sigma\), in the latter case \textit{S. Choi} and \textit{W. M. Goldman} showed [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 118, No.~2, 657--661 (1993; Zbl 0810.57005)] that the Hitchin component is homeomorphic to the moduli space of convex real projective structures on \(\Sigma\). It is a consequence of the main result of the present paper that the Hitchin component for the symplectic group \(G = \text{PSp}_4(\mathbb R)\) is naturally homeomorphic to the moduli space of properly convex foliated projective contact structures on the unit tangent bundle of \(\Sigma\) (modeled on \(\mathbb P^3(\mathbb R)\) with its natural contact structure induced by that of \(\mathbb R^4\), and \(\text{PSp}_4(\mathbb R)\) as the maximal subgroup of \(\text{PSL}_4(\mathbb R)\) preserving this contact structure).