Related papers: Morse Theory and Hyperkahler Kirwan Surjectivity f…

We study the hyperk\"ahler analogues of moduli spaces of semistable n-gons in complex projective space. We prove that the hyperk\"ahler Kirwan map is surjective and produce a formula that recursively calculates the Betti numbers of these…

Here we prove the necessary analytic results to construct a Morse theory for the Yang-Mills-Higgs functional on the space of Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface. The main result is that the gradient flow with initial conditions…

In this thesis we study the topology and geometry of hyperk\"ahler quotients, as well as some related non-compact K\"ahler quotients, from the point of view of Hamiltonian group actions. The main technical tool we employ is Morse theory…

Using Morse-theoretic techniques, we show that the moduli space of U*(2n)-Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface is connected.

Let $C$ be a smooth complex projective curve and $G$ a connected complex reductive group. We prove that if the center $Z(G)$ of $G$ is disconnected, then the Kirwan map $H^*\big(\operatorname{Bun}(G,C),\mathbb{Q}\big)\rightarrow…

This paper provides an introduction to non-abelian Hodge theory and moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on compact Riemann surfaces. We develop the moduli theory of vector bundles and Higgs bundles, establish the main correspondences of…

Let X be a compact Riemann surface together with a finite set of marked points. We use Morse theoretic techniques to compute the Betti numbers of the parabolic U(2,1)-Higgs bundles moduli spaces over X. We give examples for one marked point…

In this paper we use the Morse theory of the Yang-Mills-Higgs functional on the singular space of Higgs bundles on Riemann surfaces to compute the equivariant cohomology of the space of semistable U(2,1) and SU(2,1) Higgs bundles with fixed…

We compute the Betti numbers of the moduli space of rank 3 parabolic Higgs bundles, using Morse theory. A key point is that certain critical submanifolds of the Morse function can be identified with moduli spaces of parabolic triples. These…

For the moduli space of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface of positive genus, critical points of the natural Morse-Bott function lie along the nilpotent cone of the Hitchin fibration and are representations of $\mbox{A}$-type quivers in a…

The Hamiltonian reduction $\mathcal N///T$ of the nilpotent cone in $\mathfrak{sl}_n$ by the torus of diagonal matrices is a Nakajima quiver variety which admits a symplectic resolution $\widetilde{\mathcal N///T}$, and the corresponding…

Let $(E,\overline{\partial}_E,\theta)$ be a stable Higgs bundle of degree $0$ on a compact connected Riemann surface. Once we fix the flat metric $h_{\det(E)}$ on the determinant of $E$, we have the harmonic metrics $h_t$ $(t>0)$ for the…

Suppose that M is a complete hyperkahler manifold with a compact Lie group K acting via hyperkahler isometries and with hyperkahler moment map $(\mu_{\mathbb{C}}, \mu_{\mathbb{R}}): M\rightarrow…

Consider the transverse isometric action of a finite dimensional Lie algebra g on a Riemannian foliation. This paper studies the equivariant Morse-Bott theory on the leaf space of the Riemannian foliations in this setting. Among other…

For algebraic varieties defined by hyperkahler or, more generally, algebraic symplectic reduction, it is a long-standing question whether the "hyperkahler Kirwan map" on cohomology is surjective. We resolve this question in the affirmative…

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…

Higgs bundles and non-abelian Hodge theory provide holomorphic methods with which to study the moduli spaces of surface group representations in a reductive Lie group G. In this paper we survey the case in which G is the isometry group of a…

Let $X$ be an arbitrary non-compact hyperbolic Riemann surface, that is, not $\mathbb C$ or $\mathbb C^*$. Given a tuple of holomorphic differentials $\boldsymbol q=(q_2,\cdots,q_n)$ on $X$, one can define a Higgs bundle…

Let G be a compact Lie group and LG its associated loop group. The main result of this manuscript is a surjectivity theorem from the equivariant K-theory of a Hamiltonian LG-space onto the integral K-theory of its Hamiltonian LG-quotient.…

It is a folklore theorem that the Kuranishi slice method can be used to construct the moduli space of semistable Higgs bundles on a closed Riemann surface as a complex space. The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof in detail. We…