A lax monoidal topological quantum field theory for representation varieties (Q2183093)

One of the main reasons for studying character varieties is their prominent role in non-abelian Hodge theory. It is important to point out that the framework developed in this paper might be useful for understanding the mirror symmetry conjectures related to character varieties. The authors in the present paper construct a lax monoidal Topological Quantum Field Theory that computes Deligne-Hodge polynomials of representation varieties of the fundamental group of any closed manifold into any complex algebraic group \(G\). They also extend the result to the parabolic case with any number of punctures and arbitrary monodromies. As a byproduct, the authors obtain formulas for these polynomials in terms of homomorphisms between the space of mixed Hodge modules on \(G\). The construction is developed in a categorical-theoretic framework that can be applied to other situations. This research proposes a general categorical framework for studying the recursive pattern of \(E\)-polynomials of representation varieties found by the geometric method. This framework is valid for any complex algebraic group \(G\), any manifold and any parabolic configuration. The organization of the article is the following: Section 2 is devoted to reviewing the fundamentals of Hodge theory and Saito's mixed Hodge modules as a way of tracing variations of Hodge structures with nice functorial properties [\textit{M. Saito}, Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. 26, No. 2, 221--333 (1990; Zbl 0727.14004)]. In Section 3 one finds an introduction to the main categorical tool that will allow one to formalize the recursion required. In Section 4 the authors apply these ideas to the computation of Deligne-Hodge polynomials of representation varieties by defining the geometrisation in terms of the fundamental groupoid of the underlying manifolds and using the previously developed theory of mixed Hodge modules for an algebraisation. Under this formulation the authors obtain an explicit formula for these polynomials as a main result.