Given a generic stable strongly parabolic $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-Higgs bundle $(\mathcal{E}, φ)$, we describe the family of harmonic metrics $h_t$ for the ray of Higgs bundles $(\mathcal{E}, t φ)$ for $t\gg0$ by perturbing from an explicitly constructed family of approximate solutions $h_t^{\mathrm{app}}$. We then describe the natural hyperKähler metric on $\mathcal{M}$ by comparing it to a simpler "semi-flat" hyperKähler metric. We prove that $g_{L^2} - g_{\mathrm{sf}} = O(\mathrm{e}^{-γt})$ along a generic ray, proving a version of Gaiotto-Moore-Neitzke's conjecture.
Our results extend to weakly parabolic $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-Higgs bundles as well.
In the case of the four-puncture sphere, we describe the moduli space and metric more explicitly. In this case, we prove that the hyperkähler metric is ALG and show that the rate of exponential decay is the conjectured optimal one, $γ=4L$, where $L$ is the length of the shortest geodesic on the base curve measured in the singular flat metric $|\mathrm{det}\, φ|$.
In \cite{BR1}, \cite{BR2}, a parabolic determinant line bundle on a moduli space of stable parabolic bundles was constructed, along with a Hermitian structure on it. The construction of the Hermitian structure was indirect: The parabolic determinant line bundle was identified with the pullback of the determinant line bundle on a moduli space of usual vector bundles over a covering curve. The Hermitian structure on the parabolic determinant bundle was taken to be the pullback of the Quillen metric on the determinant line bundle on the moduli space of usual vector bundles. Here a direct construc…
For moduli space of stable parabolic bundles on a compact Riemann surface, we derive an explicit formula for the curvature of its canonical line bundle with respect to Quillen's metric and interpret it as a local index theorem for the family of dbar-operators in associated parabolic endomorphism bundles. The formula consists of two terms: one standard (proportional to the canonical Kaehler form on the moduli space), and one nonstandard, called a cuspidal defect, that is defined by means of special values of the Eisenstein-Maass series. The cuspidal defect is explicitly expressed through curvat…
For a semisimple real Lie group $G$, we study topological properties of moduli spaces of polystable parabolic $G$-Higgs bundles over a Riemann surface with a divisor of finitely many distinct points. For a split real form of a complex simple Lie group, we compute the dimension of apparent parabolic Teichm{ü}ller components. In the case of isometry groups of classical Hermitian symmetric spaces of tube type, we provide new topological invariants for maximal parabolic $G$-Higgs bundles arising from a correspondence to orbifold Higgs bundles. Using orbifold cohomology we count the least number of…
Given a discrete subgroup $Γ$ of finite co-volume of $\mathrm{PGL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, we define and study parabolic vector bundles on the quotient $Σ$ of the (extended) hyperbolic plane by $Γ$. If $Γ$ contains an orientation-reversing isometry, then the above is equivalent to studying real and quaternionic parabolic vector bundles on the orientation cover of $Σ$. We then prove that isomorphism classes of polystable real and quaternionic parabolic vector bundles are in bijective correspondence with equivalence classes of real and quaternionic unitary representations of $Γ$. Similar results are obt…
We use the Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence for parabolic bundles to reprove the results of Troyanov and Luo-Tian regarding existence and uniqueness of conformal spherical metrics on the Riemann sphere with prescribed cone angles in the interval $(0, 2π)$ at a given configuration of three or more points.
We generalize the classical Beauville-Narasimhan-Ramanan correspondence to the case of parabolic Higgs bundles with regular singularities and Higgs $V$-bundles. Using this correspondence along with Bott-Morse theoretic techniques we provide an exact component count for moduli spaces of maximal parabolic $\text{Sp}\left( 2n,\mathbb{R} \right)$-Higgs bundles with fixed parabolic structure.
For a Riemann surface $X$ and the moduli of regularly stable $G$-bundles $M$, there is a naturally occuring "$adjoint$" vector bundle over $X \times M$. One can take the determinant of this vector bundle with respect to the projection map onto $M$. Our aim here is to study the curvature of the determinant bundle as the conformal structure on $X$ varies over the Teichmüller space.
The aim of this paper is to construct the parabolic version of the Donaldson--Uhlenbeck compactification for the moduli space of parabolic stable bundles on an algenraic surface with parabolic structures along a divisor with normal crossing singularities. We prove the non--emptiness of the moduli space of parabolic stable bundles of rank 2 and also prove the existence of components with smooth points.
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 moduli spaces come in families depending on a real parameter and we study their variation with this parameter.
We introduce a notion of admissible Hermitian metrics on parabolic bundles and define positivity properties for the same. We develop Chern-Weil theory for parabolic bundles and prove that our metric notions coincide with the already existing algebro-geometric versions of parabolic Chern classes. We also formulate a Griffiths conjecture in the parabolic setting and prove some results that provide evidence in its favour for certain kinds of parabolic bundles. For these kinds of parabolic structures, we prove that the conjecture holds on Riemann surfaces. We also prove that a Berndtsson-type resu…
In this paper we investigate the moduli space of parabolic Higgs bundles over a punctured Riemann surface with varying weights at the punctures. We show that the harmonic metric depends analytically on the weights and the stable Higgs bundle. This gives a Higgs bundle generalisation of a theorem of McOwen on the existence of hyperbolic cone metrics on a punctured surface within a given conformal class, and a generalisation of a theorem of Judge on the analytic parametrisation of these metrics.
The moduli space of holomorphic fiber bundles ${\cal M}_n(\Si)$ over a compact Riemann surface $\Si$ is considered. A formula for the regularised determinant and an other for the symplectic form at trivial bundle are proposed.
We prove a gluing theorem for solutions of Hitchin's self-duality equations with logarithmic singularities on a rank-2 vector bundle over a noded Riemann surface representing a boundary point of Teichmüller moduli space.
Given a smooth complex projective variety X and a smooth divisor D on X, we prove the existence of Hermitian-Einstein connections, with respect to a Poincaré-type metric on X - D, on polystable parabolic principal Higgs bundles with parabolic structure over D, satisfying certain conditions on its restriction to D.
Let X be a smooth complex projective curve and S a finite subset of X. We show that an orthogonal or symplectic parabolic Higgs bundle on X with parabolic structure over S admits a Hermitian-Einstein connection if and only if it is polystable.
Using the $L^2$-norm of the Higgs field as a Morse function, we count the number of connected components of the moduli space of parabolic $U(p,q)$-Higgs bundles over a Riemann surface with a finite number of marked points, under certain genericity conditions on the parabolic structure. This space is homeomorphic to the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of the punctured surface in $U(p,q)$, with fixed compact holonomy classes around the marked points. We apply our results to the study of representations of the fundamental group of elliptic surfaces of general type.
We study natural families of d-bar operators on the moduli space of stable parabolic vector bundles. Applying a families index theorem for hyperbolic cusp operators from our previous work, we find formulae for the Chern characters of the associated index bundles. The contributions from the cusps are explicitly expressed in terms of the Chern characters of natural vector bundles related to the parabolic structure. We show that our result implies formulae for the Chern classes of the associated determinant bundles consistent with a result of Takhtajan and Zograf.
We study the ring generated by the Chern classes of tautological line bundles on the moduli space of parabolic bundles of arbitrary rank on a Riemann surface. We show the Poincaré duals to these Chern classes have simple geometric representatives. We use this construction to show that the ring generated by these Chern classes vanishes below the dimension of the moduli space, in analogy with the Newstead-Ramanan conjecture for stable bundles.
We construct a Petersson-Weil type Kähler form on the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles over a compact Kähler manifold. A fiber integral formula for this form is proved, from which it follows that the Petersson-Weil form is the curvature of a certain determinant line bundle, equipped with a Quillen metric, on the moduli space of Higgs bundles over a projective manifold. The curvature of the Petersson-Weil Kähler form is computed. We also show that, under certain assumptions, a moduli space of Higgs bundles supports of natural hyper-Kähler structure.
We construct explicit geometric models for moduli spaces of semi-stable strongly parabolic Higgs bundles over the Riemann sphere, in the case of rank two, four marked points, arbitrary degree, and arbitrary weights. The mechanism of construction relies on elementary geometric and combinatorial techniques, based on a detailed study of orbit stability of (in general non-reductive) bundle automorphism groups on certain carefully crafted spaces. The aforementioned techniques are not exclusive to the case we examine, and this work elucidates a general approach to construct arbitrary moduli spaces o…
