On character varieties with non-connected structure groups (Q6169061)

Given a connected complex reductive group \(G\) and a Riemann surface \(X\), the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence and the non abelian Hodge correspondence identify three moduli spaces: the moduli space of Higgs \(G\)-bundles on \(X\), the moduli space of flat \(G\)-connections on \(X\), and the \(G\)-character variety of \(X\). In the paper under review, the author studies \(G \rtimes \Gamma\)-character varietes for specific semi-direct products. In particular, for any connected complex reductive group \(G\), any finitely generated discrete group \(\Pi\) and a normal subgroup \(\widetilde{\Pi}\) with quotient group \(\Gamma\), he studies the associated \(G \rtimes \Gamma\)-character variety, the space of admissible \(G \rtimes \Gamma\)-representations of \(\Pi\). He focuses his attention on the relation between this variety and the \(\Gamma\)-fixed points in the usual \(G\)-character variety associated to \(\widetilde{\Pi}\) and he supplies the classification of the isomorphism classes of the semi-direct products \(G \rtimes \Gamma\), with fixed \(G\) and \(\Gamma\). In the case where \(\Pi\) and \(\widetilde{\Pi}\) are fundamental groups of Riemann surfaces, a genericity condition on the conjugacy classes of monodromy is introduced as a sufficient condition for the irreducibility of \(G \rtimes \Gamma\)-representations.