Some spaces of representations of orbifold fundamental groups, and their dimensions

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Abstract

Our starting point is a canonical representation of
an orbifold fundamental group into a Lie group.  Typically this representation
is not deformable, owing (for example) to Mostow rigidity.  Since our aim is
to deform, we circumvent this rigidity by representing further into a
larger target group.  Having thus obtained a deformation space of
representations, we see how its dimension can be determined.  The target groups
we shall consider are SL(n,R) for n at least 3 and the
exceptional Lie group G_2.

Speaker

Morwen Thistlethwaite
Professor of Mathematics
University of Tennessee, Knoxille

Location
WXLR A206