Morse theory, Higgs fields, and Yang-Mills-Higgs functionals (Q692370)

The paper gives an overview over applications of Morse theory to the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles. Higgs bundles are certain principal bundles over a closed Riemannian surface, and they are discussed here in a more general context associated with real reductive Lie groups rather than only complex ones. The moduli spaces are finite-dimensional analytic varieties that arise as quotients of infinite-dimensional spaces. You can find natural functions for Morse theory on both of them. There are complementary interpretations of the moduli spaces. While one type of Morse theory is based on what is called the Hitchin function of the finite-dimensional moduli space, the second Morse function is the Yang-Mills-Higgs functional on the infinite-dimensional space of connections and Higgs fields. It is important that this functional satisfies a Palais-Smale condition. Algebraic and analytic aspects combine to a theory that is still evolving, and the paper reviews the state of art.