Topological components of surface group representations into the unitary group

Abstract

We study representations of compact oriented surface groups into $\mathrm U(p)$ with elliptic-unipotent boundary holonomies, meaning that no boundary holonomy has eigenvalue $1$. We prove that the signature of the associated flat Hermitian bundle completely determines the connected component, and that every component is path-connected. For genus $g\geq1$ and $n\geq1$ boundary components, there are $np-1$ components; for $g=0$ and $n\geq2$, there are $(n-2)p+1$. The disk case is empty, while the closed-surface representation spaces are connected. The same component classification holds after taking the quotient by conjugation. Our proofs use the boundary rho invariant and explicit matrix deformations. For a three-holed sphere, the representation components have the homotopy types of complex Grassmannians, and their conjugation quotients are contractible.