Relative log-symplectic structure on a semi-stable degeneration of moduli of Higgs bundles (Q2099099)

\textit{V. Balaji} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2016, No. 21, 6581--6625 (2016; Zbl 1404.14039)] have constructed a semi-stable degeneration of moduli space of Higgs bundles on a curve, extending the techniques of \textit{D. Gieseker} [J. Differ. Geom. 19, 173--206 (1984; Zbl 0557.14008)] and \textit{D. S. Nagaraj} and \textit{C. S. Seshadri} [Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Math. Sci. 109, No. 2, 165--201 (1999; Zbl 0957.14021)]. Such construction begins with a choice of a degeneration of the smooth curve, i.e., a flat family of curves over a complete discrete valuation ring \(S\), whose generic fibre is a smooth projective curve of genus \(\geq2\) and the closed fibre is an irreducible nodal curve with a single node. In this paper, the author shows that there is a relative log-symplectic form on this degeneration, whose restriction to the generic fibre is the classical symplectic form discovered by Hitchin. He computes the Poisson ranks at every point and describes the symplectic foliation on the closed fibre. He also shows that the closed fibre, which is a variety with normal crossing singularities, acquires a structure of an algebraically completely integrable system. Let \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB,S}\) be the degeneration of moduli of Higgs bundles and \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB}\) the closed fibre. This paper is organized as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to the subject and summarizes the main results. Section 2 deals with some preliminaries. Section 3 is devoted to functorial log structures on the moduli spaces. It aims to define two natural logarithmic structures on the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB,S}\) and to show that they are isomorphic. Sections 4 and 5 deal with relative log-tangent space and relative log-symplectic structure on \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB,S}\). The author shows that there is a relative log symplectic structure on \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB,S}\longrightarrow S\) and also describes it functorially. Sections 6, 7 and 8 are devoted to moduli space of Higgs bundles on a fixed Gieseker curve, stratification of \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB}\) by Poisson ranks and description of the symplectic foliation. The author computes the Poisson rank at every point of \(\mathcal{M}_{GHB}\) and shows that the stratification by Poisson ranks coincides with the stratification given by the successive singular loci. To compute the Poisson rank, he first shows that every smooth stratum is isomorphic, as a Poisson scheme, to a torus-quotient of a smooth variety equipped with an equivariant symplectic form. Then he computes the drop in the Poisson rank because of the torus-quotient. At the end of the paper (Section 9), the author discusses briefly the algebraically completely integrable system structure (ACIS) on a variety with normal-crossing singularities.