Related papers: Surface group representations to $SL(2,{\mathbb C}…

We describe spectral data for singular fibres of the $\mathsf{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$-Hitchin fibration with irreducible and reduced spectral curve. Using Hecke transformations we give a stratification of these singular spaces by fibre bundles…

We prove the representation given by a stable $\alpha_1$-cyclic parabolic $\mathrm{SO}_0(2,3)$-Higgs bundle through the non-Abelian Hodge correspondence is $\{\alpha_2\}$-almost dominated. This is a generalization of Filip's result on…

The paper considers the Dirac operator on a Riemann surface coupled to a symplectic holomorphic vector bundle W. Each spinor in the null-space generates through the moment map a Higgs bundle, and varying W one obtains a holomorphic…

These are the lecture notes from my course in the January 2011 School on Moduli Spaces at the Newton Institute. I give an introduction to Higgs bundles and their application to the study of character varieties for surface group…

We determine the asymptotic behavior in the limit of large Higgs fields of the sectional curvatures of the natural $L^2$ hyperk\"ahler metric $G_{L^2}$ of the moduli space $\mathcal M$ of rank-$2$ Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface $\Sigma$…

The space of representations of a surface group into a given simple Lie group is a very active area of research and is particularly relevant to higher Teichm\"uller theory. For a closed surface, classical Teichm\"uller space is a connected…

The fundamental group of every surface that is not the projective plane or Klein bottle has a representation to a torsion-free group of upper-triangular matrices in SL(2,R) with no simple loop (i.e. a nontrivial element representing a…

We define and study spectral data associated to U(m,m)-Higgs bundles through the Hitchin fibration. We give a new interpretation of the topological invariants involved, as well as a geometric description of the moduli space.

We place the representation variety in the broader context of abelian and nonabelian cohomology. We outline the equivalent constructions of the moduli spaces of flat bundles, of smooth integrable connections, and of holomorphic integrable…

We extend Hitchin's results on "The self-duality equations on a Riemann surface" (Proc. LMS (3), vol. 55, 1987) to orbifold Riemann surfaces. We prove existence results for orbifold solutions of the Yang-Mills-Higgs equations and construct…

We study moduli spaces of Higgs sheaves valued in line bundles and the associated Hitchin maps on surfaces. We first work out Picard groups of generic (very general) spectral varieties which holds for dimension of at least 2, i.e., a…

We calculate the characteristic classes for flat SL(n,R) and Sp(2m,R)-bundles over a compact surface as functions of the spectral data in the Higgs bundle description, which consists of the points of order 2 in an abelian variety. Using…

Given a tuple of holomorphic differentials on a Riemann surface, one can define a Higgs bundle in the Hitchin section and a natural symmetric pairing of the Higgs bundle. We study whether a Higgs bundle of rank 3 in the Hitchin section has…

The Betti numbers of moduli spaces of representations of a universal central extension of a surface group in the groups U(2,1) and SU(2,1) are calculated. The results are obtained using the identification of these moduli spaces with moduli…

In this article we give a geometric interpretation of the Hitchin component for PSL(4,R) in the representation variety of a closed oriented surface of higher genus. We show that representations in the Hitchin component are precisely the…

Let $S$ be a closed surface of genus $g \geq 2$. We construct locally homogeneous geometric structures on closed 5-manifolds fibering over $S$, modeled on the two partial flag manifolds $\mathrm{Ein}^{2,3}$ and $\mathrm{Pho}^\times$ of the…

This paper unites the gauge-theoretic and hyperbolic-geometric perspectives on the asymptotic geometry of the character variety of SL(2,C) representations of a surface group. Specifically, we find an asymptotic correspondence between the…

Hitchin in [Duke Math. J. 54 (1), 91-114 (1987)] introduced a proper morphism from the moduli space of stable $G$-Higgs bundles ($G=\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C}),\mathrm{Sp}(2m,\mathbb{C})$ and $\mathrm{SO}(n,\mathbb{C})$) over a curve to a…

We explore the cohomological structure for the (possibly singular) moduli of $\mathrm{SL}_n$-Higgs bundles for arbitrary degree on a genus g curve with respect to an effective divisor of degree >2g-2. We prove a support theorem for the…

We study the asymptotic hyperk\"ahler geometry of the $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-Hitchin moduli space over the singular fibers of the Hitchin fibration. We extend the previously known exponential convergence results for solutions to the…