Integrable systems and special Kähler metrics (Q1983979)

A large class of algebraically completely integrable systems is provided by the so-called Hitchin system. This is defined on the quasi-projective variety which is the moduli space of Higgs bundles on a curve of genus \(>1\). The aim of this paper is to describe the special Kähler structure on the base of the Hitchin system in terms of the geometry of the space of spectral curves. It yields a simple formula for the Kähler potential. This extends to the case of a singular spectral curve and it's shown that this defines the special Kähler structure on certain natural integrable subsystems. Examples include the extreme case where the metric is flat. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 contains the geometry of integrable systems, Higgs bundle and spectral curves. Section 3 is devoted to two families of Lagrangians, fibres of the integrable systems, curves and the special Kähler metric. Section 4 is devoted to singular curves, singular fibres and the subintegrable system. Section 5 deals with a discussion of examples, in particular there is a subsystem where the special Kähler metric is flat.