Hitchin characters and geodesic laminations

Abstract

For a closed surface $S$, the Hitchin component $\mathrm{Hit}_n (S)$ is a preferred component of the character variety consisting of group homomorphisms from the fundamental group $\pi_1(S)$ to the Lie group $\mathrm{PSL}_n (\mathbb{R})$. We construct a parametrization of the Hitchin component that is well-adapted to a geodesic lamination $\lambda$ on the surface. This is a natural extension of Thurston’s parametrization of the Teichmüller space $\mathcal{T}(S)$ by shearing coordinates associated with $\lambda$, corresponding to the case $n=2$. However, significantly new ideas are needed in this higher-dimensional case. The article concludes with a few applications.