Very stable bundles and properness of the Hitchin map (Q1737578)

Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve of genus $g \ge 2$ with canonical bundle $K$. The moduli space $\mathrm{Higgs}_X (n, d)$ parametrises pairs $(E, \phi)$ where $E$ is a vector bundle of rank $n$ and degree $d$ over $X$, and $\phi$ an element of $H^0 ( X, \mathrm{End} (E) \otimes K )$, subject to a semistability condition. The Hitchin fibration \[ h : \mathrm{Higgs}_X (n, d) \ \to \ \bigoplus_{i=1}^n H^0 ( X, K^{\otimes i} ) \] associates to a pair $(E, \phi)$ the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of $\phi$. \textit{N. Nitsure} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 62, No. 2, 275--300 (1991; Zbl 0733.14005)] showed that $h$ is a proper map. \par The authors fix $E$ and study the restriction $h_V$ of $h$ to the locus $V := H^0 ( X, \mathrm{End} (E) \otimes K )$; more precisely, the relationship between properness of $h_V$ and \textit{very stability} of $E$. We recall that a vector bundle $E$ over $X$ is said to be \textit{very stable} if there is no nonzero nilpotent map $E \to E \otimes K$. \textit{G. Laumon} [Duke Math. J. 57, No. 2, 647--671 (1988; Zbl 0688.14023)] showed that very stability is an open and dense property on the moduli space $M_X (n, d)$ of semistable bundles of rank $n$ and degree $d$. \par The main result of the present paper is that the following are equivalent. \begin{itemize} \item The bundle $E$ is very stable. \item The locus $V$ is closed in $\mathrm{Higgs}_X (n, d)$. \item The map $h_V$ is proper. \item The map $h_V$ is quasi-finite. \end{itemize} \par As a corollary, the authors show that if $E$ is very stable, then $h_V$ is finite and surjective. \par The reader's attention is also drawn to a forthcoming paper of \textit{H. Zelaci} [``On very stablity of principal $G$-bundles'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1804.04881}], where these results are generalised to principal $G$-Higgs bundles over $X$.