Monodromy of the \(\mathrm{SL}(n)\) and \(\mathrm{GL}(n)\) Hitchin fibrations (Q1709780)

Let \(\mathcal{A} =\bigoplus_{j=2}^n H^0(\Sigma, L^j)\) be the affine space [\textit{N. J. Hitchin}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 55, 59--126 (1987; Zbl 0634.53045); Duke Math. J. 54, 91--114 (1987; Zbl 0627.14024)] and [\textit{N. Nitsure}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 62, No. 2, 275--300 (1991; Zbl 0733.14005)]. The aim of this paper is to determine the monodromy of the \(\mathrm{SL}(n, \mathbb{C})\)-Hitchin fibration (also known as the Hitchin map or Hitchin system) \(h : \mathcal{M}(n,L)\longrightarrow\mathcal{A}\) for all \(n\). Here \(\mathcal{M}(n, L)\) is the moduli space of \(L\)-twisted \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})\)-Higgs bundles on a compact Riemann surface of genus \(g>1\) and \(L\) is a line bundle which is either the canonical bundle \(K\), or satisfies \(\deg(L)>2g-2\). As shown by Hitchin [loc. cit.], when \(L=K\) the Hitchin map gives \(\mathcal{M}(n, L)\) the structure of an algebraically completely integrable system with respect to a natural holomorphic symplectic structure on \(\mathcal{M}(n, L)\). For \(L\neq K\), there is no holomorphic symplectic structure, but it remains the case that the non-singular fibres of the Hitchin map are abelian varieties. Finding the monodromy of this fibration is a natural problem which has a number of important applications. For \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\), the monodromy was first determined in [\textit{D. J. Copeland}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 2005, No. 29, 1743--1785 (2005; Zbl 1093.14016)] using a combinatorial approach and later revisited in [the author and \textit{L. P. Schaposnik}, ``Monodromy of rank 2 twisted Hitchin systems and real character varieties'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1506.00372}] from a more geometric point of view. It does not seem possible to extend the arguments used in [loc. cit.] to rank \(n>2\). In this paper the author's demonstration also gives the monodromy of the corresponding \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\)-Hitchin fibration. More precisely, the author computes the monodromy of the Hitchin fibration for the moduli space of \(L\)-twisted \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) and \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\)-Higgs bundles for any \(n\), on a compact Riemann surface of genus \(g>1\). He requires the line bundle \(L\) to either be the canonical bundle or satisfy \(\deg(L)>2g-2\). The monodromy group is generated by Picard-Lefschetz transformations associated to vanishing cycles of singular spectral curves. He constructs such vanishing cycles explicitly and uses this to show that the \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) monodromy group is a skew-symmetric vanishing lattice in the sense of Janssen. Using the classification of vanishing lattices over \(\mathbb{Z}\), he completely determines the structure of the monodromy groups of the \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) and \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) Hitchin fibrations. In this paper the author introduces new techniques that apply for all \(n\). As an application he determines the image of the restriction map from the cohomology of the moduli space of Higgs bundles to the cohomology of a non-singular fibre of the Hitchin fibration.