We compute the Riemannian volume on the moduli space of flat connections on a nonorientable 2-manifold, for a natural class of metrics. We also show that Witten's volume formula for these moduli spaces may be derived using Haar measure, and we give a new proof of Witten's volume formula for the moduli space of flat connections on an orientable surface using Haar measure.
We study the topology of the moduli space of flat SU(2)-bundles over a nonorientable surface X. This moduli space may be identified with the space of homomorphisms Hom(π_1(X),SU(2)) modulo conjugation by SU(2). In particular, we compute the (rational) equivariant cohomology ring of Hom(π_1(X),SU(2)) and use this to compute the ordinary cohomology groups of the quotient Hom(π_1(X),SU(2))/SU(2). A key property is that the conjugation action is equivariantly formal.
We study the connectedness of the moduli space of gauge equivalence classes of flat G-connections on a compact orientable surface or a compact nonorientable surface for a class of compact connected Lie groups. This class includes all the compact, connected, simply connected Lie groups, and some non-semisimple classical groups including U(n) and Spin^C(n).
It is known that every nonorientable surface $Σ$ has an orientable double cover $\tildeΣ$. The covering map induces an involution on the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$ of gauge equivalence classes of flat $G$-connections on $\tildeΣ$. We identify the relation between the moduli space $\M$ and the fixed point set of the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$. In particular, $\M$ is isomorphic to the fixed point set of $\tilde{\M}$ if and only if the order of the center of $G$ is odd. One important application is that we give a way to construct a minimal Lagrangian submanifold of the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$.
For an equivariant Morse stratification which contains a unique open stratum, we introduce the notion of equivariant antiperfection, which means the difference of the equivariant Morse series and the equivariant Poincare series achieves the maximal possible value (instead of the minimal possible value 0 in the equivariantly perfect case). We also introduce a weaker condition of local equivariant antiperfection. We prove that the Morse stratification of the Yang-Mills functional on the space of connections on a principal U(n)-bundle over a connected, closed, nonorientable surface is locally equ…
In this paper we study the symplectic and Poisson geometry of moduli spaces of flat connections over quilted surfaces. These are surfaces where the structure group varies from region to region in the surface, and where a reduction (or relation) of structure occurs along the boundaries of the regions. Our main theoretical tool is a new form moment-map reduction in the context of Dirac geometry. This reduction framework allows us to use very general relations of structure groups, and to investigate both the symplectic and Poisson geometry of the resulting moduli spaces from a unified perspective…
We show that the prequantum line bundle on the moduli space of flat $SU(2)$ connections on a closed Riemann surface of positive genus has degree 1. It then follows from work of Lawton and the second author that the classifying map for this line bundle induces a homotopy equivalence between the stable moduli space of flat $SU(N)$ connections, in the limit as $N$ tends to infinity, and $\mathbb{C}P^\infty$. Applications to the stable moduli space of flat unitary connections are also discussed.
In a 1992 paper, Witten gave a formula for the intersection pairings of the moduli space of flat $G$-bundles over an oriented surface, possibly with markings. In this paper, we give a general proof of Witten's formula, for arbitrary compact, simple groups, and any markings for which the moduli space has at most orbifold singularities.
We prove that if G is a compact connected Lie group and X is a compact connected hyper-Kahler manifold, then the L^2 metric on (the smooth locus of) the moduli space of flat G-bundles on X is a hyper-Kahler metric.
If we consider the moduli space of flat connections of a non trivial principal SO(3)-bundle over a surface, then we can define a map from the set of perturbed closed geodesics, below a given energy level, into families of perturbed Yang-Mills connections depending on a small parameter. In this paper we show that this map is a bijection and maps perturbed geodesics into perturbed Yang-Mills connections with the same Morse index.
In this short note, we compute the Betti numbers of the moduli stack of flat SU(3)-bundles over a Klein bottle. We also handle the general compact group case over RP^2. In all cases the cohomology is found to be equivariantly formal, supporting a conjecture from the author's doctoral thesis. Our results also verify conjectural formulas obtained by Ho-Liu using Yang-Mills Morse theory.
It is known that there is a bijection between the perturbed closed geodesics, below a given energy level, on the moduli space of flat connections M and families of perturbed Yang-Mills connections depending on a small parameter. In this paper we study the heat flow on the loop space on M and the Yang-Mills L^2-flows for a 3-manifold N with partial rescaled metrics. Our main result is that the bounded Morse homology of the loop space on M is isomorphic to the bounded Morse homologies of the connections space of N.
Using the framework of quasi-Hamiltonian actions, we compute the obstruction to prequantization for the moduli space of flat ${\rm PU}(p)$-bundles over a compact orientable surface with prescribed holonomies around boundary components, where $p>2$ is prime.
We give simple explicit formulas for deformation quantization of Poisson-Lie groups and of similar Poisson manifolds which can be represented as moduli spaces of flat connections on surfaces. The star products depend on a choice of Drinfeľd associator and are obtained by applying certain monoidal functors (fusion and reduction) to commutative algebras in Drinfeľd categories. From a geometric point of view this construction can be understood as a quantization of the quasi-Poisson structures on moduli spaces of flat connections.
We prove that the restriction map from the subspace of regular points of the holonomy perturbed SU(2) traceless flat moduli space of a tangle in a 3-manifold to the traceless flat moduli space of its boundary marked surface is a Lagrangian immersion. A key ingredient in our proof is the use of composition in the Weinstein category, combined with the fact that SU(2) holonomy perturbations in a cylinder induce Hamiltonian isotopies. In addition, we show that $(S^2,4)$, the 2-sphere with four marked points, is its own traceless flat SU(2) moduli space.
The moduli space of flat SU(2) connections on a punctured surface, having prescribed holonomy around the punctures, is a compact smooth manifold if the prescription is generic. This paper gives a direct, elementary proof that the trace of the holonomy around a certain loop determines a Bott-Morse function on the moduli space which is perfect, meaning that the Morse inequalities are equalities. This leads to an attractive recursion for the Betti numbers of the moduli space, which agrees with the Harder-Narasimhan formula in the case of one puncture with holonomy -1.
We study moduli spaces of flat connections on surfaces with boundary, with boundary conditions given by Lagrangian Lie subalgebras. The resulting symplectic manifolds are closely related with Poisson-Lie groups and their algebraic structure (such as symplectic groupoid structure) gets a geometrical explanation via 3-dimensional cobordisms. We give a formula for the symplectic form in terms of holonomies, based on a central extension of the gauge group by closed 2-forms. This construction is finally used for a certain extension of the Morita equivalence of quantum tori to the world of Poisson-L…
For a simply connected, compact, simple Lie group G, the moduli space of flat G-bundles over a closed surface is known to be pre-quantizable at integer levels. For non-simply connected G, however, integrality of the level is not sufficient for pre-quantization, and this paper determines the obstruction -- namely a certain cohomology class in H^3(G^2;Z) -- that places further restrictions on the underlying level. The levels that admit a pre-quantization of the moduli space are determined explicitly for all non-simply connected, compact, simple Lie groups G.
We consider analytic curves $\nabla^t$ of symplectic connections of Ricci type on the torus $T^{2n}$ with $\nabla^0$ the standard connection. We show, by a recursion argument, that if $\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of such connections then there exists a formal curve of symplectomorphisms $ψ_t$ such that $ψ_t\cdot\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of flat invariant symplectic connections and so $\nabla^t$ is flat for all $t$. Applying this result to the Taylor series of the analytic curve, it means that analytic curves of symplectic connections of Ricci type starting at $\nabla^0$ are also flat. The gr…
In this paper, we prove homological stability of symplectomorphisms and extended hamiltonians of surfaces made discrete. We construct an isomorphism from the stable homology group of symplectomorphisms and extended Hamiltonians of surfaces to the homology of certain infinite loop spaces. We use these infinite loop spaces to study characteristic classes of surface bundles whose holonomy groups are area preserving, in particular we give a homotopy theoretic proof of the Kotschick-Morita theorem.
Let $(X,ω)$ be a compact symplectic manifold, $L$ be a Lagrangian submanifold and $V$ be a codimension 2 symplectic submanifold of $X$, we consider the pseudoholomorphic maps from a Riemann surface with boundary $(Σ,\partialΣ)$ to the pair $(X,L)$ satisfying Lagrangian boundary conditions and intersecting $V$. In some special cases, for instance, under the semi-positivity condition, we study the stable moduli space of such open pseudoholomorphic maps involving the intersection data. If $L\cap V=\emptyset$, we study the problem of orientability of the moduli space. Moreover, assume that there e…
This thesis studies the pre-quantization of quasi-Hamiltonian group actions from a cohomological viewpoint. The compatibility of pre-quantization with symplectic reduction and the fusion product are established, and are used to understand the sufficient conditions for the pre-quantization of $M_G(Σ)$, the moduli space of flat $G$-bundles over a closed surface $Σ$. For a simply connected, compact, simple Lie group $G$, $M_G(Σ)$ is known to be pre-quantizable at integer levels. For non-simply connected $G$, however, integrality of the level is not sufficient for pre-quantization, and this thesis…
We use quilted Floer theory to construct functor-valued invariants of tangles arising from moduli spaces of flat bundles on punctured surfaces. As an application, we show the non-triviality of certain elements in the symplectic mapping class groups of moduli spaces of flat bundles on punctured spheres.
We give a comparative description of the Poisson structures on the moduli spaces of flat connections on real surfaces and holomorphic Poisson structures on the moduli spaces of holomorphic bundles on complex surfaces. The symplectic leaves of the latter are classified by restrictions of the bundles to certain divisors. This can be regarded as fixing a "complex analogue of the holonomy" of a connection along a "complex analogue of the boundary" in analogy with the real case.