Aspects of the topology and combinatorics of Higgs bundle moduli spaces (Q1755879)

This survey article is an excellent resource for graduate students and non-experts on ``basic questions and techniques surrounding the topology of the moduli space of stable Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface.'' After a brief introduction and history of this moduli space \(\mathcal{M}_X (r,d)\) from both the gauge theoretic and the algebro-geometric points of view, the author uses elements of deformation theory to compute the dimension, followed by the description of the Hitchin fibration. The main bulk of the article is devoted to using the \(\mathbb{C}^\times\)-action (or the \(U(1)\)-action) in order to reduce topological questions about \(\mathcal{M}_X (r,d)\) to questions about the nilpotent cone and holomorphic chains. These discussions culminate in understanding the Localisation Identity and its immediate consequences. The article ends with explicit calculations of the Poincaré series of \(\mathcal{M}_X (1,d)\) and \(\mathcal{M}_X (2,d)\), as well as a ``small sample'' of some combinatorial questions (such as the partition problem) arising from the degree independence of the Betti numbers. The presentation is ``bare bones and involves only traditional Morse-Bott theory'', supplemented by a number of helpful exercises, and accompanied by many well-placed references. A reader wishing to gain a big-picture overview of the subject will find this article useful. A reader wishing to enter the subject will find this article an excellent starting point from which to begin learning the available literature.