The singularities of Yang-Mills connections for bundles on a surface. II: The stratification (Q1910184)

Let \(\Sigma\) be a closed surface, \(G\) a compact Lie group, not necessarily connected, with Lie algebra \(g\), endowed with an adjoint action invariant scalar product, let \(\xi:P\to\Sigma\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle, and pick a Riemannian metric and orientation on \(\Sigma\) so that the corresponding Yang-Mills equations are defined. In an earlier paper we determined the local structure of the moduli space \(N(\xi)\) of central Yang-Mills connections on \(\xi\) near an arbitrary point. Here we show that the decomposition of \(N(\xi)\) into connected components of orbit types of central Yang-Mills connections is a stratification in the strong (i.e. Whitney) sense; furthermore each stratum, being a smooth manifold, inherits a finite volume symplectic structure from the given data. This complements, in a way, results of Atiyah-Bott in that it will in general decompose further the critical sets of the corresponding Yang-Mills functional into smooth pieces. For part I, see the author, ibid. 220, No. 4, 595-609 (1995; Zbl 0843.58009).