Hitchin integrable systems, deformations of spectral curves, and KP-type equations

TL;DR

This paper links Hitchin integrable systems with KP equations by embedding Higgs bundle moduli spaces into the Sato Grassmannian, revealing new geometric and algebraic structures and dualities.

Contribution

It establishes a correspondence between Hitchin integrable systems and KP equations, and explores dualities and reductions within Higgs bundle moduli spaces.

Findings

Hitchin systems coincide with KP equations on the Grassmannian

Serre duality corresponds to the formal adjoint of pseudo-differential operators

Dual Abelian fibrations are constructed via symplectic quotients

Abstract

An effective family of spectral curves appearing in Hitchin fibrations is determined. Using this family the moduli spaces of stable Higgs bundles on an algebraic curve are embedded into the Sato Grassmannian. We show that the Hitchin integrable system, the natural algebraically completely integrable Hamiltonian system defined on the Higgs moduli space, coincides with the KP equations. It is shown that the Serre duality on these moduli spaces corresponds to the formal adjoint of pseudo-differential operators acting on the Grassmannian. From this fact we then identify the Hitchin integrable system on the moduli space of Sp(2m)-Higgs bundles in terms of a reduction of the KP equations. We also show that the dual Abelian fibration (the SYZ mirror dual) to the Sp(2m)-Higgs moduli space is constructed by taking the symplectic quotient of a Lie algebra action on the moduli space of GL-Higgs bundles.