Mirror symmetry for moduli spaces of Higgs bundles via \(p\)-adic integration (Q785931)

The Hitchin system is an algebraic completely integrable system. Since it was introduced by \textit{N. Hitchin} [Duke Math. J. 54, 91--114 (1987; Zbl 0627.14024); Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 55, 59--126 (1987; Zbl 0634.53045)] more than thirty years ago, it has been the subject of much interest, and it has turned out to have profound connections with several other areas of mathematics. Its basic ingredient is the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}_G\) of \(G\)-Higgs bundles \((E,\theta)\) on a smooth projective curve \(X\) for a complex reductive group \(G\). Here \(E\) is a holomorphic principal \(G\)-bundle on \(X\) and \(\theta\) is a holomorphic \(1\)-form with values in \(\mathrm{Ad}(E)=E\times_G\mathfrak{g}\), hence a holomorphic section of \(\mathrm{Ad}(E)\otimes K\), where \(K\) is the canonical bundle of \(X\). This moduli space is a holomorphic symplectic manifold carrying a hyper-Kähler metric. The integrable system is given by the Hitchin map \(h\colon\mathcal{M}_G\to\mathcal{A}\), where the Hitchin base \(\mathcal{A}\) is an affine space whose dimension is half that of \(\mathcal{M}_G\) and \(h\) is roughly defined as a global version of the adjoint quotient map \(\mathfrak{g}\to\mathfrak{g}/\hspace{-.1cm}/G\). Mirror symmetry for the Hitchin system was introduced in the work of \textit{T. Hausel} and \textit{M. Thaddeus} [Invent. Math. 153, No. 1, 197--229 (2003; Zbl 1043.14011)]. It involves the Hitchin systems for the pair of Langlands dual groups \(G=\mathrm{SL}_n\) and \(G^L=\mathrm{PGL}_n\). Hausel and Thaddeus proved that the moduli spaces are mirror partners in the sense of \textit{A. Strominger} et al. [Nucl. Phys., B 479, No. 1--2, 243--259 (1996; Zbl 0896.14024)]. They have also shown that, in the cases \(n=2,3\), the moduli spaces \(\mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{SL}_n}\) and \(\mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{PGL}_n}\), of degree \(d\) coprime with \(n\), satisfy topological mirror symmetry. This is an equality of their stringy \(E\)-polynomials (which encode stringy Hodge numbers and involve a unitary gerbe or a \(B\)-field). Moreover, Hausel and Thaddeus conjectured that this holds for any \(n\) and \(d\) with \((n,d)=1\). Such conjecture is proved in the present paper. The authors use the arithmetic of abelian varieties to compare topological and complex-analytic invariants of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles for different structure groups. The proof of their main result is inspired by Batyrev's proof of the fact that smooth projective birational Calabi Yau varieties over \(\mathbb{C}\) share the same Betti numbers [\textit{V. V. Batyrev}, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 264, 1--11 (1999; Zbl 0955.14028)] and by using a ``stringy version'' of the Weil conjectures. It proceeds by proving an equality for stringy point-counts over finite fields, and relating it with the \(p\)-adic volume of an orbifold, followed by the use of \(p\)-adic Hodge theory to deduce the topological assertion from the arithmetic one. Actually, the methods used in this paper are general enough to be applicable far beyond the case of the pair of dual groups \(\mathrm{SL}_n\) and \(\mathrm{PGL}_n\). So the authors prove an equality of appropriately defined Hodge numbers for any ``dual pair of abstract Hitchin systems'', a concept appropriately defined in the paper.