Harmonic Cheeger-Simons characters with applications (Q1017433)

In general, Cheeger-Simons characters, also known as differential characters, provide a useful refinement of integral cohomology into differential cohomology theories. In the present paper, the notion of harmonic Cheeger-Simons characters is introduced and some basic properties are studied. In particular, an analogue of the Hodge theorem is established and the harmonic Picard variety for compact Riemann surfaces is introduced. This leads to applications in smooth versions of the geometric Langlands program in the Abelian case.