Representations of orbifold groups and parabolic bundles (Q1179512)

The author gives a description of the space of projective unitary representations of the orbifold fundamental group of a compact holomorphic orbifold \(X\) of dimension 2 in terms of the moduli space of stable parabolic bundles over \(X\). This allows the author to compute the cohomology of the \(SU(2)\)-character variety \({\mathcal R}(\Sigma)\) of any Seifert-fibered homology sphere. In particular, he shows that \(H^ k({\mathcal R}(\Sigma))=0\), for \(k\) odd. This extends to a complete computation of the cohomology of the character variety for Seifert fibrations which are torsion-free and of genus one and a partial computation for genus greater than one. Related results have been independently obtained by \textit{M. Furuta} and \textit{B. Steer} [Adv. Math. 96, No. 1, 38-102 (1992)] and \textit{S. Bauer} [Math. Ann. 290, No. 3, 509- 526 (1991; Zbl 0752.14035)].