Related papers: Higgs fields, bundle gerbes and string structures

We study Higgs bundles over an elliptic curve with complex reductive structure group, describing the (normalization of) its moduli spaces and the associated Hitchin fibration. The case of trivial degree is covered by the work of Thaddeus in…

We construct equivariant, string and leading order characteristic classes and Chern-Simons classes for certain infinite rank bundles associated to fibrations occurring in loop spaces, Gromov-Witten theory and gauge theory. Results include a…

This survey provides an introduction to basic questions and techniques surrounding the topology of the moduli space of stable Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface. Through examples, we demonstrate how the structure of the cohomology ring of…

The paper contains a differential-geometric foundations for an attempt to formulate Lagrangian (canonical) quantum field theory on fibre bundles. In it the standard Hilbert space of quantum field theory is replace with a Hilbert bundle; the…

We give an overview of the work of Corlette, Donaldson, Hitchin and Simpson leading to the non-abelian Hodge theory correspondence between representations of the fundamental group of a surface and the moduli space of Higgs bundles. We then…

We study 1+1-dimensional theories of vector and hypermultiplets with (4,4) supersymmetry. Despite strong infrared fluctuations, these theories flow in general to distinct conformal field theories on the Coulomb and Higgs branches. In some…

Through the action of anti-holomorphic involutions on a compact Riemann surface, we construct families of (A,B,A)-branes in the moduli spaces of G_c-Higgs bundles on the Riemann surface. We study the geometry of these (A,B,A)-branes in…

In addition to being a prime candidate for a fundamental unified theory of all interactions in nature, string theory provides a natural setting to understand gauge field theories. This is linked to the concept of "D-branes": extended,…

The caloron correspondence is a tool that gives an equivalence between principal $G$-bundles based over the manifold $M \times S^1$ and principal $LG$-bundles on $M$, where $LG$ is the Fr\'echet Lie group of smooth loops in the Lie group…

We present an overview of some recent applications of Higgs bundles and the Hitchin fibration.

We define a subcategory of the category of diffeological spaces, which contains smooth manifolds, the diffeomorphism subgroups and its coadjoint orbits. In these spaces we construct a tangent bundle, vector fields and a de Rham cohomology.

This article is devoted to the investigation of wrap groups of connected fiber bundles over the fields of real $\bf R$, complex $\bf C$ numbers, the quaternion skew field $\bf H$ and the octonion algebra $\bf O$. These groups are…

In this paper we introduce the concept of Deligne cohomology of an orbifold. We prove that the third Deligne cohomology group of a smooth \'{e}tale groupoid classify gerbes with connection over the groupoid. We argue that the $B$-field and…

The nonabelian Hodge correspondence for vector bundles over noncompact curves is adequately described by implementing a weighted filtration on the objects involved. In order to establish a full correspondence between a Dolbeault and a de…

Considering a compact Riemann surface of genus greater than two, a Higgs~bundle is a pair composed of a holomorphic bundle over the Riemann surface, joint with an auxiliar vector field, so-called Higgs field. This theory started around…

We summarize the main results of our recent investigation of bundles of real Clifford modules and briefly touch on some applications to string theory and supergravity.

In this paper we conduct a general, model-independent analysis of the running of gauge couplings within closed string theories. Unlike previous discussions in the literature, our calculations fully respect the underlying modular invariance…

I categorify the definition of fibre bundle, replacing smooth manifolds with differentiable categories, Lie groups with coherent Lie 2-groups, and bundles with a suitable notion of 2-bundle. To link this with previous work, I show that…

Let X be a compact connected Riemann surface of genus g > 0 equipped with a nonzero holomorphic 1-form. Let M denote the moduli space of semistable Higgs bundles on X of rank r and degree r(g-1)+1; it is a complex symplectic manifold. Using…

Through Cayley and Langlands type correspondences, we give a geometric description of the moduli spaces of real orthogonal and symplectic Higgs bundles of any signature in the regular fibres of the Hitchin fibration. As applications of our…