Gravitational interpretation of the Hitchin equations (Q998002)

In this paper the author establishes a new physical interpretation of the two-dimensional SO(3) Hitchin equations as the coupled dual version of the \((2+1)\)-dimensional vacuum Einstein equation. This interpretation is formalized within an AdS/CFT-type correspondence between classical \((2+1)\)-dimensional vacuum general relativity theory on \(\Sigma\times \mathbb R\) (\(\Sigma\) a compact, oriented Riemann surface of genus greater than 1) and SO(3) Hitchin theory (regarded as a classical conformal field theory) on the space-like past boundary \(\Sigma\). On the one hand, the author proves that a real solution of the SO(3) Hitchin equations over \(\Sigma\) with a fixed conformal class induces a certain cohomology class of singular (metrics may be degenerate) solutions of the Lorentzian vacuum Einstein equation over the annulus \(\Sigma\times \mathbb R\), whose Levi-Civita connections are precisely the lifts of this induced flat connection, and the conformal class induced by this cohomology class on \(\Sigma\) agrees with the fixed one. This construction is based on a theorem of \textit{N. J. Hitchin} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 55, 59--126 (1987; Zbl 0634.53045)] on the relationship between real SO(3) Hitchin pairs and flat \(\text{SO}(2,1)\) connections. Then, by referring to a theorem of \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 55, 127--131 (1987; Zbl 0634.53046)] which states the equivalence between flat \(\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb C)\) connections and SO(3) Hitchin pairs, the author develops the reversed construction, namely, starting from a cohomology class of flat singular Lorentzian metrics on \(\Sigma\times \mathbb R\) its Levi-Civita connection gives rise to a real solution of the SO(3) Hitchin equations on \(\Sigma\) with respect to the conformal class induced by the corresponding cohomology class of the Lorentzian metric.