Topology of the space of $d$-pleated surfaces

Abstract

Given a maximal geodesic lamination $\lambda$ on a closed oriented surface $S$ of genus $g$, the space of $d$-pleated surfaces with pleating locus $\lambda$ is an open subset of $\mathrm{Hom}(\pi_1(S),\mathsf{PGL}_d(\mathbb{C}))$ obtained by applying generalized bending along $\lambda$ to Hitchin representations. When $d=2$, one recovers abstract pleated surfaces in $\mathbb{H}^3$. In this paper, we study the topology of the space $\mathfrak{R}(\lambda,d)$ of conjugacy classes of $d$-pleated surfaces with pleating locus $\lambda$. Firstly, we prove that $\mathfrak{R}(\lambda,d)$ is real-analytically diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^{(d^2-1)(2g-2)}\times(\mathbb{R}/2\pi\mathbb{Z})^{(d^2-1)(2g-2)}\times \mathbb{Z}_d$, where $\mathbb{Z}_d$ denotes the finite cyclic group of order $d$. Furthermore, we show that each connected component of the space of conjugacy classes in $\mathrm{Hom}(\pi_1(S),\mathsf{PGL}_d(\mathbb{C}))$ contains exactly one component of $\mathfrak{R}(\lambda,d)$.