\(E\)-polynomial of the \(\operatorname{SL}(3, \mathbb{C})\)-character variety of free groups (Q5963072)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely generated group. Recall that a representation of \(\Gamma\) in a complex reductive algebraic group \(G\) is a map group \(\rho:\Gamma\to G\). We say that \(\rho\) is irreducible if there is no invariant subspace; otherwise we say that \(\rho\) is reducible. Two representations are equivalent by conjugation of \(G\). The set of representations are denoted by \(\mathcal{R}(\Gamma,G)\). The moduli space is denoted by \(\mathcal{M}(\Gamma,G)\). On the other hand, we define the E-polynomial of an algebraic variety \(Z\) to be \[ e(Z)=\sum_{p,q,k}\dim \text{Gr}_F^p \text{Gr}_{p+q}^W H_c^k(Z) \] where \(F\) is the Hodge filtration and \(W\) the weight filtration for the Hodge decomposition. In this article, the authors compute the E-polynomial for the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}(F_r,\text{SL}(n,\mathbb{C}))\) and \(\mathcal{M}(F_r,\text{PGL}(n,\mathbb{C}))\) for \(n=2,3\), where \(F_r\) is the free group of rank \(r\). The method that appeared in [\textit{M. Logares} et al., Rev. Mat. Complut. 26, No. 2, 635--703 (2013; Zbl 1334.14006)] is used in this paper, also, the characterization of the reducible representation given in [\textit{S. Cavazos} and \textit{S. Lawton}, Int. J. Math. 25, No. 6, Article ID 1450058, 27 p. (2014; Zbl 1325.14065)]. Hence, they introduce a stratification for the set of reducible representation. Each stratum is determinated -- more or less -- by the Jordan normal form shared by the matrices defining the reducible representation. For the case \(\operatorname{SL}(3,\mathbb{C})\), the authors compute the E-polynomial for 35 strata. Once done this, they are able to compute the E-polynomial of the irreducible set and hence of the character variety. Despite these E-polynomials have been computed in earlier works like [Zbl 1325.14065] and [\textit{S. Mozgovoy} and \textit{M. Reineke}, Int. J. Math. 26, No. 12, Article ID 1550100, 19 p. (2015; Zbl 1346.14115)], these authors used a more geometric method. Moreover, following this method it is possible to compute the even case (\(\mathrm{SL}(4,\mathbb{C})\), for instance) unlike the cited papers.