Commuting elements in reductive groups and Higgs bundles on abelian varieties (Q2438912)

The article under review studies the \(G\)-character variety \[ R_{\mathbb{Z}^{m}}(G):=\Hom(\mathbb{Z}^{m},G)/\!/G \] of \(S\)-equivalence classes of \(m\) commuting semisimple elements in \(G\) up to conjugay, i.e. reductive representations, where \(G\) is a connected real affine algebraic reductive group. If we fix a maximal compact subgroup \(K\subset G\), calling \(H=K_{\mathbb{C}}\) its complexification sitting inside the complexification \(G_{\mathbb{C}}\) of \(G\), the non-abelian Hodge theory provides a homeomorphism between the space of representations \(R_{\mathbb{Z}^{2d}}(G)\) and the moduli space \(\mathcal{H}^{F}_{X}(G)\) of semistable \(G\)-Higgs bundles with vanishing characteristic classes over a compact Riemann surface \(X\) of fundamental group \(\pi(X)=\mathbb{Z}^{2d}\), through flat principal \(G_{\mathbb{C}}\)-bundles (the superscript \(F\) in the moduli space reminds the flatness). This construction can be translated to higher dimensional abelian varietes, as it is pointed out in Remark 4.2. The moduli space of \(G\)-Higgs bundles can be retracted by strong deformation to the moduli space \(\mathcal{P}_{X}^{F}(H)\) of semistable principal \(H\)-bundles by multiplying the Higgs field with the scalar action and recalling that the \(G\)-Higgs bundles with vanishing Higgs field are indeed \(H\)-bundles. To do this it needs to be proved that the stability of \(G\)-Higgs bundles over abelian varieties is equivalent to the semistability of the corresponding principal \(H\)-bundle. Finally, \(R_{\mathbb{Z}^{2d}}(K)\) can be identified to \(\mathcal{P}_{X}^{F}(K_{\mathcal{C}})=\mathcal{P}_{X}^{F}(H)\) and, therefore, we obtain a strong deformation retract from the \(G\)-character variety \(R_{\mathbb{Z}^{2d}}(G)\) to the \(K\)-character variety \(R_{\mathbb{Z}^{2d}}(K)\). In the last part of the article some applications to the calculation of the homotopy type of moduli spaces are given. This construction generalizes the one in [\textit{C. Florentino} and \textit{S. Lawton}, ``Topology of character varieties of abelian groups'', \url{arXiv:1301.7616}] where \(G\) is a complex reductive algebraic group, to the case of real algebraic reductive groups. Moreover, this article makes the strong deformation retract to be explicit.