No Arabic abstract
Here we survey several results and conjectures on the cohomology of the total space of the Hitchin system: the moduli space of semi-stable rank n and degree d Higgs bundles on a complex algebraic curve C. The picture emerging is a dynamic mixture of ideas originating in theoretical physics such as gauge theory and mirror symmetry, Weil conjectures in arithmetic algebraic geometry, representation theory of finite groups of Lie type and Langlands duality in number theory.
For G = GL_2, PGL_2 and SL_2 we prove that the perverse filtration associated to the Hitchin map on the cohomology of the moduli space of twisted G-Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface C agrees with the weight filtration on the cohomology of the twisted G character variety of C, when the cohomologies are identified via non-Abelian Hodge theory. The proof is accomplished by means of a study of the topology of the Hitchin map over the locus of integral spectral curves.
We study the moduli spaces of flat SL(r)- and PGL(r)-connections, or equivalently, Higgs bundles, on an algebraic curve. These spaces are noncompact Calabi-Yau orbifolds; we show that they can be regarded as mirror partners in two different senses. First, they satisfy the requirements laid down by Strominger-Yau-Zaslow (SYZ), in a suitably general sense involving a B-field or flat unitary gerbe. To show this, we use their hyperkahler structures and Hitchins integrable systems. Second, their Hodge numbers, again in a suitably general sense, are equal. These spaces provide significant evidence in support of SYZ. Moreover, they throw a bridge from mirror symmetry to the duality theory of Lie groups and, more broadly, to the geometric Langlands program.
We provide a construction of the moduli spaces of framed Hitchin pairs and their master spaces. These objects have come to interest as algebra
We give an algebro-geometric construction of the Hitchin connection, valid also in positive characteristic (with a few exceptions). A key ingredient is a substitute for the Narasimhan-Atiyah-Bott Kahler form that realizes the Chern class of the determinant-of-cohomology line bundle on the moduli space of bundles on a curve. As replacement we use an explicit realisation of the Atiyah class of this line bundle, based on the theory of the trace complex due to Beilinson-Schechtman and Bloch-Esnault.
Let $X$ be a compact Riemann surface $X$ of genus at--least two. Fix a holomorphic line bundle $L$ over $X$. Let $mathcal M$ be the moduli space of Hitchin pairs $(E ,phiin H^0(End(E)otimes L))$ over $X$ of rank $r$ and fixed determinant of degree $d$. We prove that, for some numerical conditions, $mathcal M$ is irreducible, and that the isomorphism class of the variety $mathcal M$ uniquely determines the isomorphism class of the Riemann surface $X$.