Related papers: Toric geometry of $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$ free group ch…
Let $M_C(G)$ be the moduli space of semistable principal $G-$bundles over a smooth curve $C$. We show that a flat degeneration of this space $M_{C_{\Gamma}}(G)$ associated to a singular stable curve $C_{\Gamma}$ contains the free group…
In this paper, we describe explicit relations in the symplectomorphism groups of toric hypersurfaces. To define the elements involved, we construct a proper stack of toric hypersurfaces with compactifying boundary representing toric…
We will survey the work on the topology of $Out(F_n)$ in the last 20 years or so. Much of the development is driven by the tantalizing analogy with mapping class groups. Unfortunately, $Out(F_n)$ is more complicated and less well-behaved.…
First we survey and explain the strategy of some recent results that construct holomorphic $\text{sl}(2, \mathbb C)$-differential systems over some Riemann surfaces $\Sigma_g$ of genus $g\geq 2$, satisfying the condition that the image of…
The SL(3,C)-representation variety R of a free group F arises naturally by considering surface group representations for a surface with boundary. There is a SL(3,C)-action on the coordinate ring of R. The geometric points of the subring of…
For any complex affine reductive group G and a fixed choice of maximal compact subgroup K, we show that the G-character variety of a free group strongly deformation retracts to the corresponding K-character space, which is a real…
For an algebraic torus defined over a local (or global) field $F$, a celebrated result of R.P. Langlands establishes a natural homomorphism from the group of continuous cohomology classes of the Weil group, valued in the dual torus, onto…
Let X \subset Proj(V) be a projective spherical G-variety, where V is a finite dimensional G-module and G = SP(2n, C). In this paper, we show that X can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to the toric variety corresponding to a convex…
For every integer $g \,\geq\, 2$ we show the existence of a compact Riemann surface $\Sigma$ of genus $g$ such that the rank two trivial holomorphic vector bundle ${\mathcal O}^{\oplus 2}_{\Sigma}$ admits holomorphic connections with…
Let $X$ be an $n$-dimensional smooth complex projective variety embedded in $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{N}$. We construct a smooth family $\mathcal{X}$ over $\mathbb{C}$ with an embedding in $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{N} \times \mathbb{C}$ whose…
The SL(2)-character variety X of a closed surface M enjoys a natural complex-symplectic structure invariant under the mapping class group G of M. Using the ergodicity of G on the SU(2)-character variety, we deduce that every G-invariant…
Let $G$ be a simply connected semisimple algebraic group over $\mathbb{C}$ and let $\rho :G\rightarrow GL(V_\lambda)$ be an irreducible representation of highest weight $\lambda$. Suppose that $\rho$ has finite kernel. Springer defined…
We associate a contractible ``outer space'' to any free product of groups G=G_1*...*G_q. It equals Culler-Vogtmann space when G is free, McCullough-Miller space when no G_i is Z. Our proof of contractibility (given when G is not free) is…
Let G be a complex affine algebraic reductive group, and let K be a maximal compact subgroup of G. Fix elements h_1,...,h_m in K. For n greater than or equal to 0, let X (respectively, Y) be the space of equivalence classes of…
We study properties of irreducible and completely reducible representations of finitely generated groups Gamma into reductive algebraic groups G in in the context of the geometric invariant theory of the G-action on Hom(Gamma,G) by…
Denote the free group on two letters by F2 and the SL(3,C)-representation variety of F2 by R = Hom(F2, SL(3, C)). There is a SL(3,C)-action on the coordinate ring of R, and the geometric points of the subring of invariants is an affine…
The SL(3,C)-representation variety R of a free group F arises naturally by considering surface group representations for a surface with boundary. There is a SL(3,C)-action on the coordinate ring of R by conjugation. The geometric points of…
Let G be a semisimple group over an algebraically closed field of very good characteristic for G. In the context of geometric invariant theory, G. Kempf has associated optimal cocharacters of G to an unstable vector in a linear…
Let $S$ be a nonorientable surface of genus $g\ge 5$ with $n\ge 0$ punctures, and $\Mcg(S)$ its mapping class group. We define the complexity of $S$ to be the maximum rank of a free abelian subgroup of $\Mcg(S)$. Suppose that $S_1$ and…
There is a well-known correspondence between the symplectic variety of representations of the fundamental group of a punctured Riemann surface into a compact Lie group G, with fixed conjugacy classes at the punctures, and a complex variety…