Integrating over Higgs branches (Q1970902)

The regularized volume for hyper-Kähler quotients is introduced, and regularized volumes of the Hitchin space, the moduli space of instantons and quiver varieties are computed. It is shown in the case of Hitchin spaces that the evaluation of the volume reduces to a summation over solutions of Bethe Ansatz equations for the nonlinear Schrödinger system. To define the regularized volume, first Kähler and hyper-Kähler quotients are explained in Section 2. Let \(X\) be a symplectic manifold with the symplectic form \(\omega\), \(K\) a compact group acting on \(X\) and preserving \(\omega\), \(\mu:X\to \underline{\mathfrak k}^*\) be an equivariant momentum map: \(d\langle \mu,\xi \rangle= -\iota_{V_\xi} \omega\). The symplectic quotient is \(X//K= \mu^{-1}(0)/K\). If \(X\) is a Kähler manifold, then \(X//K\) is a Kähler manifold. If \(X\) is a hyper-Kähler manifold and \(K\) preserves the hyper-Kähler structure, then the momentum map is extended to the hyper-Kähler moment map \(\vec\mu: X\to \underline{\mathfrak k}^*\otimes \mathbb{R}^3\), \(d\langle\vec \mu,\xi\rangle =-\iota_{V_\xi} \vec \omega\), where \(\vec\omega\) is the triplet of symplectic forms. The hyper-Kähler quotient is \(X////K= \vec\mu^{-1} (0)/K\). It is a hyper-Kähler manifold [\textit{N. Hitchin}, \textit{A. Karlhede}, \textit{U. Lindström} and \textit{M. Roček}, Commun. Math. Phys. 108, 535-589 (1987; Zbl 0612.53043)]. By using these notations, the following definitions are given: (a) The Hamiltonian regularized volume: \(\text{Vol}_\varepsilon ({\mathcal M})= \int_{\mathcal M}e^{ \overline \omega-H_\varepsilon}\). Here, \({\mathcal M}\) is acted on by a group \(H\) in a Hamiltonian way such that for some \(\varepsilon\in \underline h\) the Hamiltonian \(H_\varepsilon= \langle\mu_h, \varepsilon \rangle\) is sufficiently positive at infinity. (b) The hyper-Kähler regularized volume: \(\text{Vol}_{ \vec \varepsilon} ({\mathcal M}(\vec\zeta))=\int_{{\mathcal M}(\vec\zeta)} \text{vol}_g e^{\langle \vec\varepsilon, \vec\mu_t \rangle}\). The authors remark that this definition is the direct analogue of the ``equivariant volumes'' of \textit{A. B. Givental} [Equivariant Gromov-Witten invariants, Int. Math. Res. Not. 1996, 613-663 (1996; Zbl 0881.55006)]. But it requires a triholomorphic action on \({\mathcal M}\) of the torus of dimension \(\dim{\mathcal M}/4\). Let \({\mathfrak T}\) be such a torus and \(\vec\varepsilon \in{\mathfrak t}\otimes \mathbb{R}^3\). If \(\vec \varepsilon \in{\mathfrak t}\otimes \mathbb{R}\), then this regularization reduces to the Hamiltonian regularization (Section 3). To compute the regularized volume, localization is useful. It is explained in Section 2. In Section 4, the regularized volume of ALE gravitational instanton is computed in terms of the fundamental weights in the \(A_n\) case. The regularized volume of the Hitchin space is computed in Section 5. It is expressed as the double summand with respect to the decomposition of the bundle as the sum of line bundles and the decomposition of the Chern numbers. So there are two ways to get the answer and this leads to the relation of the Bethe Ansatz equation for the nonlinear system and the regularized volume. Volumes of the moduli spaces of instantons and quiver varieties are computed in Sections 6 and 7.