Real Higgs pairs and non-abelian Hodge correspondence on a Klein surface (Q6185124)

The article studies real structures on twisted Higgs pairs over a Klein surface \((X, \sigma_X)\), that is, a compact connected Riemann surface \(X\) equipped with an anti-holomorphic involution \(\sigma_X : X \to X\). These pairs involve several layers of structure and include as special cases, quiver bundles, real Higgs bundles and Hodge bundles among other mathematical pairs. The authors give a characterization of the space of infinitesimal automorphisms for a stable real twisted Higgs pair in order to establish a Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence with a compatible reduction of structure group satisfying an Hermite-Einstein equation. The method used here is for the most part an adaptation of arguments from \textit{S. B. Bradlow} et al. [Q. J. Math. 54, No. 2, 171--208 (2003; Zbl 1064.53056)] studying the Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence for pairs consisted of a holomorphic principal bundle together with a holomorphic section of an associated Kähler fibration. The authors then restrict to a particular class of twisted Higgs pairs, namely, to real \(G^{\mathbb{R}}\)-Higgs bundles, where \(G^{\mathbb{R}}\) is a real form of a connected semisimple complex affine algebraic group \(G\). A version of the Donaldson-Corlette Theorem on the existence of harmonic metrics is then proven. Combined with the previous result, this gives a homeomorphism between the variety of representations of the orbifold fundamental group of \((X, \sigma_X)\) modulo conjugation by \(G^{\mathbb{R}}\) and the moduli space of polystable real \(G^{\mathbb{R}}\)-Higgs bundles, subject to certain compatibility conditions involving the real structure on both sides. In the final section of the article, useful descriptions appear of the fixed points of the involutions for the moduli spaces involved.