Kirwan surjectivity in real symplectic geometry and moduli spaces of vector bundles over a real curve
    Speaker: 
  
  
  
      Thomas Baird, Memorial University  
Date and Time: 
Thursday, September 15, 2016 - 11:10am to 1:00pm
Location: 
Fields Institute, Room 210
Abstract: 
In the early 80s, Kirwan proved a relationship between the equivariant cohomology of a Hamiltonian action on a symplectic manifold, and the cohomology of its symplectic quotient. I present an version of this relationship for symplectic manifolds equipped with an anti-symplectic involution, relating the cohomology of corresponding fixed point Lagrangian submanifolds. I then apply this result to study the topology of moduli spaces of vector bundles and Higgs bundles over a real algebraic curve, in the style of Atiyah-Bott and Hitchin.

