Twisted character varieties, covering spaces, and gerbes (Q269035)

Let \(X\) be a manifold and \(G\) be a Lie group. By the \(G\)-character variety is meant a space of \(G\)-conjugacy classes of reductive homomorphisms from \(\Pi=\pi_1(X)\) to \(G\), i.e., it can be written \[ \mathcal M(\Pi, G)=\mathrm{Hom}^{\mathrm{red}}(\Pi, G)/G. \] It also can be identified as the moduli space of flat \(G\)-connections on \(X\). There has been interest particularly in the case of a nonorientable manifold \(X\). Let \(\tilde{X}\) be the oriented double cover of \(X\) and \(\tau\) be a nontrivial involution on \(\mathcal M(\tilde{\Pi}, G)\) induced by its deck transformation where \(\tilde{\Pi}=\pi_1(\tilde{X})\). The aim of this paper is to extend earlier studies on the relation between \(\mathcal M(\Pi, G)\) and the fixed point set \(\mathcal M(\tilde{\Pi}, G)^\tau\) by \textit{N.-K. Ho} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2004, No. 61, 3263--3285 (2004; Zbl 1075.53086)] and by \textit{N.-K. Ho}, \textit{G. Wilkin} and the author [``Hitchin's equations on a nonorientable manifold'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1211.0746}]. Let \(\Pi\) denote here an arbitrary finitely generated group, apart from the fundamental group of a manifold, and suppose that \(G\) is a connected, compact or complex reductive Lie group. Given a 2-cocycle \(m:\Pi\times\Pi\to Z(G)\) on \(\Pi\) with coefficients in the center \(Z(G)\), we define an \(m\)-twisted homomorphism from \(\Pi\) to \(G\) to be a map \(\phi:\Pi\to G\) satisfying \(\phi(a)\phi(b)=\phi(ab)m(a, b)\) for \(a,b\in\Pi\). Then replacing reductive homomorphisms in the above definition by reductive \(m\)-twisted homomorphisms we obtain the \(m\)-twisted \(G\)-character variety of \(\Pi\), i.e., \[ \mathcal M_m(\Pi,G)=\mathrm{Hom}^{\mathrm{red}}_m(\Pi, G)/G,\quad m\in Z^2(\Pi, Z(G)). \] Let \(\tilde{\Pi}\subset\Pi\) be a normal subgroup of finite index and put \(\Gamma=\Pi/\tilde{\Pi}\). The author then establishes relations between \(\mathcal M_m(\Pi, G)\) and the \(\Gamma\)-invariant part of \(\mathcal M_m(\tilde{\Pi}, G)\). For example, the author proves that (a generic part of) \(\mathcal M_m(\Pi, G)\) is a regular cover of a disjoint subset of \(\mathcal M_m(\tilde{\Pi}, G)^\Gamma\) with the structure group \(H^1(\Gamma, Z(G))\). This recovers the same result presented in the papers cited above; the same can be said for all other results obtained here. In addition, the author provides a geometric interpretation of these results via the use of regular coverings \(p : \tilde{X} \to X\) with the structure group \(\Gamma\).