Katz's middle convolution algorithm (Q1022832)

The Deligne-Simpson problem is formulated like this: Give necessary and sufficient conditions upon the conjugacy classes \(c_j\subset gl(n,{\mathbb C})\) or \(C_j\subset GL(n,{\mathbb C})\) so that there exist matrices \(A_j\in c_j\) or \(M_j\in C_j\) satisfying the condition \(A_1+\cdots +A_{p+1}=0\), resp. \(M_1\cdots M_{p+1}=I\). In the so-called rigid case these tuples of matrices are unique up to conjugacy; Katz's middle convolution operation (MCO) furnishes an algorithm in the rigid case for the construction of tuples of matrices \(M_j\). The paper is an expository account of Katz's MCO. It describes the Betti and de Rham versions and points out that they give isomorphisms between different moduli spaces of local systems, following Völklein, Dettweiler-Reiter, Haraoka-Yokoyama. Kostov and Crawley-Boevey have extended the construction of tuples in the non-rigid case. The author describes an alternative construction using cyclotomic harmonic bundles which are variations of Hodge structures except that the Hodge decomposition can go around a circle.