Group cohomology construction of the cohomology of moduli spaces of flat connections on 2-manifolds
Let \({\mathcal M}_\beta\) be the moduli space of representations \(Y_\beta /K\), where \(Y_\beta\) equals the space of those representations of \(F_{2g}= \pi_1 (\Sigma_g-\)point) in the compact, connected, semisimple Lie group \(K\) such that \(R\) (a simple loop round the deleted point) maps to a fixed central element \(\beta\) in \(K\). The group \(K\) acts on \(Y_\beta\) by conjugation, and \(\pi_1 (\Sigma_g)\) is represented in \(K/Z(K)\). It is well known that \({\mathcal M}_\beta\) may be described either in terms of flat connections or in terms of semistable holomorphic vector bundles. In contrast to earlier calculations of the cohomology of \({\mathcal M}_g\) the author generalizes a construction due to A. Weinstein of the natural symplectic form on \({\mathcal M}_g\), so as to obtain explicitly a complete family of generators. This involves a simplicial description of the spaces involved, together with an equivariant formulation of certain characteristic classes taking values in \(H^*_{DR}\) due to R. Bott and H. Shulman.
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