Degenerations of bundle moduli (Q2685677)

This paper is devoted to degenerations of bundle moduli. Over a family of complete curves of genus \(g\), which gives the degeneration of a smooth curve into one with nodal singularities, the authors build a moduli space which is the moduli space of holomorphic \(SL(n,\mathbb{C})\) bundles over the generic smooth curve in the family, and is a moduli space of bundles equipped with extra structure at the nodes for the nodal curves in the family. This moduli space is a quotient by \((\mathbb{C}^*)^s\) of a moduli space on the desingularization. Taking a maximal degeneration of the curve into a nodal curve built from the glueing of three-pointed spheres, the authors obtain a degeneration of the moduli space of bundles into a \((\mathbb{C}^*)^{(3g-3)(n-1)}\)-quotient of a \((2g-2)\)-th power of a space associated to the three-pointed sphere. Via the Narasimhan-Seshadri theorem [\textit{M. S. Narasimhan} and \textit{C. S. Seshadri}, Ann. Math. (2) 82, 540--567 (1965; Zbl 0171.04803)], the moduli space of \(SL(n,\mathbb{C})\) bundles on the smooth curve is a space of representations of the fundamental group into \(SU(n)\) (the symplectic picture). The authors obtain the degenerations also in this symplectic context, in a way that is compatible with the holomorphic degeneration, so that their limit space is also a \((S^1)^{(3g-3)(n-1)}\) symplectic quotient of a \((2g-2)\)-th power of a space associated to the three-pointed sphere. This paper is organized as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to the subject. Sections 2 is devoted to symplectic degeneration. The authors begin in this section with the symplectic category of representations of the fundamental group of the Riemann surface. Representing the degenerations of the curve on an open set as a family of quadrics in the plane, the degeneration is easy to obtain, in terms of flat connections, as the restriction of a singular flat connection in the plane. This gives them by the way another desired property, that isomonodromic deformations should give them a holomorphic family, well-behaved in the limit. As a limiting flat connection, the authors obtain on the twice punctured surface constructed by unglueing the curve a connection with regular singular points at the punctures, with opposite residues. The reduction is a (partial) identification of the fibers at the singular points. Such a process has already been discussed earlier in [\textit{J. Hurtubise} et al., Am. J. Math. 128, No. 1, 167--214 (2006; Zbl 1096.53045); Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 28, No. 4, 351--370 (2005; Zbl 1095.14034)]. Section 3 deals with holomorphic models for parabolic moduli. In this section the authors give a holomorphic interpretation of all this. Referring to the above references, they deform the holomorphic bundles into bundles over the desingularized nodal curve equipped with a framed parabolic structure. One product of this by-discussion is an emphasis on a particularly apposite interpretation of parabolic weights, as the decay rates of sections of a connection with a regular singular point; alternately, as the eigenvalues of the residue of the connection at a singular point. They then turn to moduli; this is a fibered problem, over the family \(X_t\) of curves degenerating to a nodal curve \(X_0\). From the symplectic point of view, this is quite straightforward; one is simply dealing with a family of representations of the fundamental group, with some extra structure at \(t=0\). This already gives the family of moduli spaces as a topological space; the authors concentrate on the holomorphic structure. Fiberwise, this is given by the natural Narasimhan-Seshadri correspondence, with a variant introduced in [loc. cit.] for \(t=0\). The paper closes in Sections 4 with a discussion of multiple degenerations, allowing occurrence of several nodes.