Complex Hyperbolic Quasi-Fuchsian Groups and Toledo's Invariant

We consider discrete, faithful, type-preserving representations of the fundamental group of a punctured Riemann surface into PU(21), the holomorphic isometry group of complex hyperbolic space. Our main result is that there is a continuous family of such representations which interpolates between -Fuchsian representations and -Fuchsian representations. Moreover, these representations take every possible (real) value of the Toledo invariant. This contrasts with the case of closed surfaces where -Fuchsian and -Fuchsian representations lie in different components of the representation variety. In that case the Toledo invariant lies in a discrete set and indexes the components of the representation variety.