Integrality of Hausel-Letellier-Villegas kernels (Q1756019)

This paper proves that ``the coefficients of the generating function of Hausel, Letellier, and Rodriguez-Villegas [\textit{T. Hausel} et al., Duke Math. J. 160, No. 2, 323--400 (2011; Zbl 1246.14063)] and its recent generalization by \textit{E. Carlsson} and \textit{F. Rodriguez Villegas} [Adv. Math. 330, 38--60 (2018; Zbl 1390.05246)]'' are polynomials with integer coefficients. For any punctured Riemann surface, the author introduces the \textit{exponential Hausel-Letellier-Villegas kernel} $\Omega$, defined roughly speaking as an infinite sum over partitions, where each summand is a certain product of modified Macdonald polynomials, appropriately normalised using the modified Hall inner product. The generating function $\mathbb{H}$ is then essentially the logarithm of $\Omega$. It is apparent from the definition that the coefficients of $\mathbb{H}$ are Laurent polynomials; the main result in this paper is that the denominators are in fact trivial. \par One geometric significance of this result relates to the cohomology of the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles or the corresponding character varieties: conjecturally, the generating function $\mathbb{H}$ (specialised in a certain way) is its mixed Hodge polynomial.