Lectures on Klein surfaces and their fundamental group

Abstract

The goal of these lectures is to give an introduction to the study of the fundamental group of a Klein surface. We start by reviewing the topological classification of Klein surfaces and by explaining the relation with real algebraic curves. Then we introduce the fundamental group of a Klein surface and present its main basic properties. Finally, we study the variety of unitary representations of this group and relate it to the representation variety of the topological fundamental group of the underlying Riemann surface.