Michael Thaddeus

Geometric invariant theory and flips

We study the dependence of geometric invariant theory quotients on the choice of a linearization. We show that, in good cases, two such quotients are related by a flip in the sense of Mori, and explain the relationship with the minimal model programme. Moreover, we express the flip as the blow-up and blow-down of specific ideal sheaves, leading, under certain hypotheses, to a quite explicit description of the flip. We apply these ideas to various familiar moduli problems, recovering results of Kirwan, Boden-Hu, Bertram-Daskalopoulos- Wentworth, and the author. Along the way we display a chamber structure, following Duistermaat-Heckman, on the space of all linearizations. We also give a new, easy proof of the Bialynicki-Birula decomposition theorem.

Stable pairs, linear systems and the Verlinde formula

We study the moduli problem of pairs consisting of a rank 2 vector bundle and a nonzero section over a fixed smooth curve. The stability condition involves a parameter; as it varies, we show that the moduli space undergoes a sequence of flips in the sense of Mori. As applications, we prove several results about moduli spaces of rank 2 bundles, including the Harder-Narasimhan formula and the SU(2) Verlinde formula. Indeed, we prove a general result on the space of sections of powers of the ideal sheaf of a curve in projective space, which includes the Verlinde formula.

Mirror symmetry, Langlands duality, and the Hitchin system

Among the major mathematical approaches to mirror symmetry are those of Batyrev-Borisov and Strominger-Yau-Zaslow (SYZ). The first is explicit and amenable to computation but is not clearly related to the physical motivation; the second is the opposite. Furthermore, it is far from obvious that mirror partners in one sense will also be mirror partners in the other. This paper concerns a class of examples that can be shown to satisfy the requirements of SYZ, but whose Hodge numbers are also equal. This provides significant evidence in support of SYZ. Moreover, the examples are of great interest in their own right: they are spaces of flat SLr-connections on a smooth curve. The mirror is the corresponding space for the Langlands dual group PGLr. These examples therefore throw a bridge from mirror symmetry to the duality theory of Lie groups and, more broadly, to the geometric Langlands program.

Generators For The Cohomology Ring of The Moduli Space of Rank 2 Higgs Bundles

The moduli space of stable vector bundles on a Riemann surface is smooth when the rank and degree are coprime, and is diffeomorphic to the space of unitary connections of central constant curvature. A classic result of Newstead and Atiyah and Bott asserts that its rational cohomology ring is generated by the universal classes, that is, by the Kunneth components of the Chern classes of the universal bundle. This paper studies the larger, non-compact moduli space of Higgs bundles, as introduced by Hitchin and Simpson, with values in the canonical bundle

Relations in the cohomology ring of the moduli space of rank 2 Higgs bundles

K

On the quantum cohomology of a symmetric product of an algebraic curve

. This is diffeomorphic to the space of all connections of central constant curvature, whether unitary or not. The main result of the paper is that, in the rank 2 case, the rational cohomology ring of this space is again generated by universal classes. The spaces of Higgs bundles with values in

Compactifications of reductive groups as moduli stacks of bundles

K(n)

Mirror symmetry, Langlands duality, and commuting elements of Lie groups

for

Examples of mirror partners arising from integrable systems

n > 0

Resolving Toric Varieties with Nash Blowups

turn out to be essential to the story. Indeed, we show that their direct limit has the homotopy type of the classifying space of the gauge group, and hence has cohomology generated by universal classes.