Symmetric cubic surfaces and G_2 character varieties

Abstract: We will consider a two dimensional "symmetric" subfamily of the four dimensional family of Fricke cubic surfaces. The main result is that such symmetric cubic surfaces arise as character varieties for the exceptional group of type G_2. Further, this symmetric family will be related to the fixed points of the triality automorphism of Spin(8), and an example involving the finite simple group of order 6048 inside G_2 will be considered.