Related papers: Higgs bundles and diffeomorphism groups
We develop a description of higher gauge theory with higher groupoids as gauge structure from first principles. This approach captures ordinary gauge theories and gauged sigma models as well as their categorifications on a very general…
We extend the recently developed kinematical framework for diffeomorphism invariant theories of connections for compact gauge groups to the case of a diffeomorphism invariant quantum field theory which includes besides connections also…
Here we survey questions and results on the Hodge theory of hyperkaehler quotients, motivated by certain S-duality considerations in string theory. The problems include L^2 harmonic forms, Betti numbers and mixed Hodge structures on the…
Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve of genus $g \geq 3$, and let $G$ be a nontrivial connected reductive affine algebraic group over $\mathbb{C}$. Examining the moduli spaces of regularly stable $G$-Higgs bundles and holomorphic…
We study harmonic sections of a Riemannian vector bundle whose total space is equipped with a 2-parameter family of metrics which includes both the Sasaki and Cheeger-Gromoll metrics. This enables the theory of harmonic unit sections to be…
Analogous to Weil-Petersson quasicircles, we investigate infinite circle patterns in the Euclidean plane parameterized by discrete harmonic functions of finite Dirichlet energy. The space of such circle patterns forms an…
We prove a closed formula counting semistable twisted (or meromorphic) Higgs bundles of fixed rank and degree over a smooth projective curve of genus g, defined over a finite field, when the degree of the twisting line bundle is at least…
We define Hitchin's moduli space for a principal bundle $P$, whose structure group is a compact semisimple Lie group $K$, over a compact non-orientable Riemannian manifold $M$. We use the Donaldson-Corlette correspondence, which identifies…
We review some results and techniques from our papers devoted to the computation of motivic classes of stacks of parabolic Higgs budles and bundles with connections on a curve. In the last section we present some directions for future work,…
In this paper, we define locally convex vector spaces of weighted vector fields and use them as model spaces for Lie groups of weighted diffeomorphisms on Riemannian manifolds. We prove an easy condition on the weights that ensures that…
We explicitly construct a symplectomorphism that relates magnetic twists to the invariant hyperk\"ahler structure of the tangent bundle of a Hermitian symmetric space. This symplectomorphism reveals foliations by (pseudo-) holomorphic…
We use the cohomological interpretation of anti-holomorphic derivatives of the isomonodromic deformation of a Higgs bundle, as established in our previous work \cite{HSZ}, to provide a short new proof of the non-existence of holomorphic…
We prove that group homology of the diffeomorphism group of $\#^g S^n \times S^n$ as a discrete group is independent of $g$ in a range, provided that $n>2$. This answers the high dimensional version of a question posed by Morita about…
The correlation functions of supersymmetric gauge theories on a four-manifold X can sometimes be expressed in terms of topological invariants of X. We show how the existence of superconformal fixed points in the gauge theory can provide…
We prove that the Teichm\"uller space of the Hirsch foliation (a minimal foliation of a closed 3-manifold by non-compact hyperbolic surfaces) is homeomorphic to the space of closed curves in the plane. This allows us to show that that the…
M-theory geometric engineering on manifolds of special holonomy yields a rich class of novel field theories. In this paper, we construct new 3d $\mathcal{N}=2^{\ast}$ and $\mathcal{N}=4^{\ast}$ gauge theories, realized as mass-deformations…
We study the asymptotic behavior of Hitchin's hyperk\"ahler metric on the moduli space of rank two irregular Higgs bundles over $\mathbb{C}P^1$. Along a generic curve, we prove that the Hitchin metric is asymptotic to the semiflat metric at…
We investigate the moduli space of holomorphic $GL(1|1)$ Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface. The supergroup $GL(1|1)$, the simplest non-trivial example beyond abelian cases, provides an ideal setting for developing supergeometric…
By extending a result of Kronheimer-Mrowka to the family setting, we prove a gluing formula for the family Seiberg-Witten invariant. This formula allows one to compute the invariant for a smooth family of 4-manifolds by cutting it open…
We study the viability of five-dimensional gauge theories as candidates for the origin of the Higgs field and its mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking. Within the framework of lattice field theory, we consider the simplest model of…