Quasi-Hamiltonian geometry of meromorphic connections (Q996174)

The paper presents a family of new examples of complex quasi-Hamiltonian \(G\)-spaces with \(G\)-valued moment maps for any connected complex reductive group \(G\). They are in fact the moduli spaces of meromorphic connections on principal \(G\)-bundles over a disk and generalize the examples of \textit{A. Alekseev, A. Malkin} and \textit{E. Meinrenken} [J. Differ. Geom. 48, No. 3, 445--495 (1998; Zbl 0948.53045)]. The paper is a continuation of \textit{P. Boalch} [Adv. Math. 163, No. 2, 137--205 (2001; Zbl 1001.53059)], where the Atiyah-Bott infinite-dimensional approach to moduli spaces of flat connections was extended to allow certain singularities in the connections. This quasi-Hamiltonian approach permits the author to present a finite dimensional construction of the natural symplectic structures on some more general moduli spaces where such constructions are not available. In sections 2 and 3 the author constructs algebraically new quasi-Hamiltonian \(G\)-spaces and prove that these spaces arise from certain Hamiltonian loop group manifolds of framed meromorphic connections over a disk. The key results of the paper are the explicit computations the quasi-Hamiltonian structures corresponding to the generalized Atiyah-Bott structure of the paper of P. Boalch (loc. cit.), and the presentation of a direct finite-dimensional proof that these structures are indeed quasi-Hamiltonian. It is done in Section 4. These results are applied to present a finite-dimensional construction of rather general symplectic moduli spaces of meromorphic connections over curves and then to the theory of isomonodromic deformations.