Very stable Higgs bundles, equivariant multiplicity and mirror symmetry (Q2131232)

For a smooth complex projective curve \(C\) of genus \(g\) with canonical line bundle \(K\), the term \textit{very stable bundle} was introduced by Drinfeld and Laumon to mean a vector bundle \(E\to C\) for which the only nilpotent Higgs field \(\Phi \in {{H}^{0}}(C;\mathrm{End}(E)\otimes K)\) is the trivial one. When \(g>1\), \textit{G. Laumon} [Duke Math. J. 57, No. 2, 647--671 (1988; Zbl 0688.14023)] showed that very stability is an open and dense property on the moduli space of rank \(n\) and degree \(d\) stable bundles over the curve \(C\). \textit{C. Pauly} and \textit{A. Peón-Nieto} [Geom. Dedicata 198, 143--148 (2019; Zbl 1409.14060)] showed that a vector bundle \(E\) is very stable if and only if the family \[ {{U}_{E}}=\left\{ (E,\Phi )\vert \Phi \in {{H}^{0}}(C;\mathrm{End}(E)\otimes K) \right\} \] is closed in the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}\) of semistable rank \(n\) and degree \(d\) Higgs bundles over \(C\); the result was generalized to the case of principal \(G\)-bundles, for any reductive linear algebraic group \(G\), by \textit{H. Zelaci} [Geom. Dedicata 204, 165--173 (2020; Zbl 1430.14070)]. The first part of the article under review concerns a generalization of the characterization by Pauly and Péon-Nieto. Namely, for a stable Higgs bundle \(\mathsf{E}=(E,\Phi )\) fixed by the \(\mathbb{T}:={{\mathbb{C}}^{\times }}\)-action \((E,\Phi )\mapsto (E,\lambda \Phi )\), for \(\lambda \in \mathbb{T}\), the \textit{upward flow} at \(\mathsf{E}\) is defined as the subset \[ W_{\mathsf{E}}^{+}:=\left\{ ({E}',{\Phi }')\in \mathsf{M} \vert \underset{\lambda \to 0}{\lim} ({E}',\lambda {\Phi }')=(E,\Phi )\right\}. \] A \(\mathbb{T}\)-fixed stable Higgs bundle \(\mathsf{E}\in \mathsf{M}^{s\mathbb{T}}\) is defined to be a \textit{very stable Higgs bundle} if the only Higgs bundle \(({E}',{\Phi }')\in W_{\mathsf{E}}^{+}\) with nilpotent Higgs field is \(\mathsf{E}\); the current term used for a not very stable \(\mathsf{E}\) is \textit{wobbly}. Then, the first main result of the article provides that a Higgs bundle \(\mathsf{E}\in \mathsf{M}^{s\mathbb{T}}\) is very stable if and only if \(W_{\mathsf{E}}^{+}\subset \mathsf{M}\) is a closed subset. For the proof of this theorem, the authors study the Białynicki-Birula theory for a general normal complex semi-projective variety \(M\) and show that for a smooth \(\mathbb{T}\)-fixed point \(\alpha\) in \(M\), the upward and downward flows, \(W_{\alpha }^{+}\) and \(W_{\alpha }^{-}\) respectively, are \(\mathbb{T}\)-invariant locally closed subvarieties in \(M\); the downward flow from the point \(\alpha\) is defined as the subset \(W_{\alpha }^{-}=\{ x\in M\vert \underset{\lambda \to \infty}\lim \lambda x=\alpha \}\). For \(M=\coprod\limits_{\alpha }{W_{\alpha }^{+}}\), the \textit{Białynicki-Birula partition} of \(M\), and for \(\mathsf{C}:=\coprod\limits_{\alpha \in {{M}^{\mathbb{T}}}}{W_{\alpha }^{-}}\), the \textit{core} of \(M\), it is shown that the upward flows and the core of a semi-projective variety with a homogeneous symplectic form of weight 1 are Lagrangian subvarieties. A stable \(\mathbb{T}\)-fixed point \(\alpha \in {{M}^{s\mathbb{T}}}\) in this general setting is defined as \textit{very stable}, if the only point in its upward flow which lies also in the core of \(\mathsf{C}\) is the point \(\alpha\): \[ W_{\alpha }^{+}\cap \mathsf{C}=\{\alpha \}. \] Then, it is proven that \(\alpha \in {{M}^{s\mathbb{T}}}\) is very stable if and only if \(W_{\alpha }^{+}\in M\) is a closed subvariety, and the application of this theory on the moduli space of Higgs bundles \(\mathcal{M}\) gives the aforementioned first main result. A complete description of the Higgs bundles belonging to the upward flows and the downward flows is also provided. As a special case, note that for the \textit{uniformizing Higgs bundle} \({{\mathsf{E}}_{L,0}}:=({{E}_{L}},{{\Phi }_{0}})\), where \({{E}_{L}}:=L\oplus L{{K}^{-1}}\oplus \cdots \oplus L{{K}^{1-n}}\) for a line bundle \(L\to C\) and Higgs field \({{\Phi }_{0}}:{{E}_{L}}\to {{E}_{L}} K\) given by the companion matrix \[ {{\Phi }_{0}}:=\left( \begin{matrix} 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0\\ 0 & 1 & \cdots & 0 & 0\\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots & \vdots \\ 0 & 0 & \cdots & 1 & 0 \\ \end{matrix} \right), \] the upward flow \(W_{{{\mathsf{E}}_{L,0}}}^{+}\) is just a Hitchin section, as introduced in [\textit{N. J. Hitchin}, Topology 31, No. 3, 449--473 (1992; Zbl 0769.32008)]. Moreover, choosing \(L\simeq {{\mathsf{O}}_{C}}\) then \(\mathsf{E}_{\mathsf{O}_{C}},0\) is the \textit{canonical} uniformizing Higgs bundle and the corresponding upward flow \(W_{{{\mathsf{E}}_{{{\mathsf{O}}_{C}},0}}}^{+}\) describes the canonical section for the structure sheaves of the spectral curves under the BNR correspondence. Subsequently, for \(h:(E,\Phi )\to \det(\Phi -x)\), the \textit{Hitchin map} given by the characteristic polynomial, the authors study the multiplicity of the very stable \(\mathbb{T}\)-fixed components of the nilpotent cone \(N:={{h}^{-1}}(0)\); this space is a non-reduced subscheme of nilpotent Higgs bundles and the core \(\mathcal{C}\) introduced above is isomorphic to the reduction \(N_{red}\) of \(N\). In particular, an explicit computation of the multiplicity is given for type \((n)\) and type \((1,\dots,1)\) components of \(N\), where the \textit{type} of a rank \(n\) \(\mathbb{T}\)-invariant semistable Higgs bundle \((E,\Phi )\) is the ordered partition of \(n=(\mathrm{rank}({{E}_{1}}),\ldots ,\mathrm{rank}({{E}_{j}}))\), for the ranks of the vector subbundles in a decomposition \(E={{E}_{1}}\oplus \cdots \oplus {{E}_{j}}\). A detailed study of the relevant Hecke transform is used for this computation. As stated in the text, the main motivation of this work was to understand the mirror of upward flows for a stable \(\mathbb{T}\)-fixed Higgs bundle \(\mathcal{E}\) in the framework of \textit{A. Kapustin} and \textit{E. Witten} [Commun. Number Theory Phys. 1, No. 1, 1--236 (2007; Zbl 1128.22013)]. The complete classification of all type \((1,\dots,1)\) very stable Higgs bundles, and the relative Fourier-Mukai transform of upward flows for a very stable Higgs bundle of type \((1,\dots,1)\) and degree \(-n(n-1)(g-1)\) provide a candidate for the \textit{mirror of an upward flow} and show an agreement of \(\mathbb{T}\)-equivariant Euler forms for pairs of mirror branes, thus attesting to the mirror relationship globally, in particular over the nilpotent cone. In the final section of the article, the authors raise a number of intriguing questions relevant to further progress and provide supporting evidence for the formulation of two clear Conjectures. No doubt these are going to inspire new directions for future research.