Zariski dense surface subgroups in $SL(n,\mathbb{Q})$ with odd $n$

Abstract

For odd $n$ we construct a path $\rho_t\colon \pi_1(S) \to SL(n,\mathbb{R})$ of discrete, faithful and Zariski dense representations of a surface group such that $\rho_t(\pi_1(S)) \subset SL(n,\mathbb{Q})$ for every $t\in \mathbb{Q}$.