Symmetric products of a real curve and the moduli space of Higgs bundles (Q1704616)

Let \(X\) denote a Riemann surface of genus \(g=2\) equipped with an antiholomorphic involution \(\tau\). This induces a natural involution on the moduli space \(M(r,d)\) of semistable Higgs bundles of rank \(r\) and degree \(d\). If \(D\in \mathrm{Div}(X)\) is a divisor such that \(\tau(D)=D\), this restricts to an involution on the moduli space \(M(r,D)\) of those Higgs bundles with fixed determinant \(\mathcal{O}(D)\) and trace-free Higgs field. The fixed point sets of these involutions \(M(r,d)^\tau\) and \(M(r,D)^\tau\) are \((A,A,B)\)-branes introduced by \textit{D. Baraglia} and \textit{L. P. Schaposnik} [Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 20, No. 3, 525--551 (2016; Zbl 1372.81165)]. The aim of this paper is to derive formulas for the mod \(2\) Betti numbers of \(M(r,d)^\tau\) and \(M(r,D)^\tau\) when \(r=2\) and \(d\) is odd. In the course of this calculation, the author computes the mod \(2\) cohomology ring of \(\mathrm{Sym}^m(X)^\tau\), the fixed point set of the involution induced by \(\tau\) on symmetric products of the Riemann surface. The paper is organized as follows. Section 1 is an introduction to the subject. Topology of real curves and Picard groups are provided in Section 2. Symmetric products of a real curve are discussed in Section 3. In Section 4, real Abel-Jacobi and covering spaces are presented. Finally in Section 5, entitled Betti numbers of the moduli space, the author calculates the Poincaré series of the moduli space of real Higgs bundles.