Following the work of Mazzeo–Swoboda–Weiß–Witt [Duke Math. J. 165 (2016), 2227–2271] and Mochizuki [J. Topol. 9 (2016), 1021–1073], there is a map $\overline{\Xi }$ between the algebraic compactification of the Dolbeault moduli space of ${\rm SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ Higgs bundles on a smooth projective curve coming from the $\mathbb{C}^\ast$ action and the analytic compactification of Hitchin’s moduli space of solutions to the $\mathsf{SU}(2)$ self-duality equations on a Riemann surface obtained by adding solutions to the decoupled equations, known as ‘limiting configurations’. This map extends the classical Kobayashi–Hitchin correspondence. The main result that this article will show is that $\overline{\Xi }$ fails to be continuous at the boundary over a certain subset of the discriminant locus of the Hitchin fibration.

KSB stability holds at codimension $1$ points trivially, and it is quite well understood at codimension $2$ points because we have a complete classification of $2$-dimensional slc singularities. We show that it is automatic in codimension $3$.

We consider the space $\mathcal{P}_d$ of smooth complex projective plane curves of degree $d$. There is the tautological family of plane curves defined over $\mathcal{P}_d$, which has an associated monodromy representation $\rho _d: \pi _1(\mathcal{P}_d) \to \textrm{Mod}(\Sigma _g)$ into the mapping class group of the fiber. For $d \le 4$, classical algebraic geometry implies the surjectivity of $\rho _d$. For $d \ge 5$, the existence of a $(d-3)^{rd}$ root of the canonical bundle implies that $\rho _d$ cannot be surjective. The main result of this paper is that for $d = 5$, the image of $\rho _5$ is as large as possible, subject to this constraint. This requires combining the algebro-geometric work of Lönne with Johnson’s theory of the Torelli subgroup of $\textrm{Mod}(\Sigma _g)$.

We prove that the period mapping is dominant for elliptic surfaces over an elliptic curve with $12$ nodal fibers, and that its degree is larger than $1$. This settles the final case of infinitesimal Torelli for a generic elliptic surface.

Given a connected reductive algebraic group G over an algebraically closed field, we investigate the Picard group of the moduli stack of principal G-bundles over an arbitrary family of smooth curves.

We generalize Illusie’s definition of the Atiyah class to complexes with quasi-coherent cohomology on arbitrary algebraic stacks. We show that this gives a global obstruction theory for moduli stacks of complexes in algebraic geometry without derived methods. We give a similar generalization of the reduced Atiyah class, and we show various useful properties for working with Atiyah classes, such as compatibilities between the reduced and ordinary Atiyah class, and compatibility with tensor products and determinants.

Mirror symmetry for a semistable degeneration of a Calabi–Yau manifold was first investigated by Doran–Harder–Thompson when the degenerate fiber is a union of two quasi-Fano manifolds. They proposed a topological construction of a mirror Calabi–Yau by gluing of two Landau–Ginzburg models that are mirror to those Fano manifolds. We extend this construction to a general type semistable degeneration where the dual boundary complex of the degenerate fiber is the standard N-simplex. Since each component in the degenerate fiber comes with the simple normal crossing anticanonical divisor, one needs the notion of a hybrid Landau–Ginzburg model – a multipotential analogue of classical Landau–Ginzburg models. We show that these hybrid Landau–Ginzburg models can be glued to be a topological mirror candidate for the nearby Calabi–Yau, which also exhibits the structure of a Calabi–Yau fibration over $\mathbb P^N$. Furthermore, it is predicted that the perverse Leray filtration associated to this fibration is mirror to the monodromy weight filtration on the degeneration side [12]. We explain how this can be deduced from the original mirror P=W conjecture [18].

Geometric Langlands predicts an isomorphism between Whittaker coefficients of Eisenstein series and functions on the moduli space of $\check {N}$-local systems. We prove this formula by interpreting Whittaker coefficients of Eisenstein series as factorization homology and then invoking Beilinson and Drinfeld’s formula for chiral homology of a chiral enveloping algebra.

We prove several boundedness statements for geometrically integral normal del Pezzo surfaces X over arbitrary fields. We give an explicit sharp bound on the irregularity if X is canonical or regular. In particular, we show that wild canonical del Pezzo surfaces exist only in characteristic $2$. As an application, we deduce that canonical del Pezzo surfaces form a bounded family over $\mathbb {Z}$, generalising work of Tanaka. More generally, we prove the BAB conjecture on the boundedness of $\varepsilon $-klt del Pezzo surfaces over arbitrary fields of characteristic different from $2, 3$ and $5$.

We study a quiver description of the nested Hilbert scheme of points on the affine plane and its higher rank generalization – that is, the moduli space of flags of framed torsion-free sheaves on the projective plane. We show that stable representations of the quiver provide an ADHM-like construction for such moduli spaces. We introduce a natural torus action and use equivariant localization to compute some of their (virtual) topological invariants, including the case of compact toric surfaces. We conjecture that the generating function of holomorphic Euler characteristics for rank one is given in terms of polynomials in the equivariant weights, which, for specific numerical types, coincide with (modified) Macdonald polynomials. From the physics viewpoint, the quivers we study describe a class of surface defects in four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories in terms of nested instantons.

Let ${\mathcal {R}} \subset \mathbb {P}^1_{\mathbb {C}}$ be a finite subset of markings. Let G be an almost simple simply-connected algebraic group over $\mathbb {C}$. Let $K_G$ denote the compact real form of G. Suppose for each lasso l around the marked point, a conjugacy class $C_l$ in $K_G$ is prescribed. The aim of this paper is to give verifiable criteria for the existence of an irreducible homomorphism of $\pi _{1}(\mathbb P^1_{\mathbb {C}} \,{\backslash}\, {\mathcal {R}})$ into $K_G$ such that the image of l lies in $C_l$.

For $2 \leq d \leq 5$, we show that the class of the Hurwitz space of smooth degree $d$, genus $g$ covers of $\mathbb {P}^1$ stabilizes in the Grothendieck ring of stacks as $g \to \infty$, and we give a formula for the limit. We also verify this stabilization when one imposes ramification conditions on the covers, and obtain a particularly simple answer for this limit when one restricts to simply branched covers.

For any smooth proper rigid space $X$ over a complete algebraically closed extension $K$ of $\mathbb {Q}_p$ we give a geometrisation of the $p$-adic Simpson correspondence of rank one in terms of analytic moduli spaces: the $p$-adic character variety is canonically an étale twist of the moduli space of topologically torsion Higgs line bundles over the Hitchin base. This also eliminates the choice of an exponential. The key idea is to relate both sides to moduli spaces of $v$-line bundles. As an application, we study a major open question in $p$-adic non-abelian Hodge theory raised by Faltings, namely which Higgs bundles correspond to continuous representations under the $p$-adic Simpson correspondence. We answer this question in rank one by describing the essential image of the continuous characters $\pi ^{{\mathrm {\acute {e}t}}}_1(X)\to K^\times$ in terms of moduli spaces: for projective $X$ over $K=\mathbb {C}_p$, it is given by Higgs line bundles with vanishing Chern classes like in complex geometry. However, in general, the correct condition is the strictly stronger assumption that the underlying line bundle is a topologically torsion element in the topological group $\operatorname {Pic}(X)$.

Let $G$ be a reductive group, and let $\check {G}$ be its Langlands dual group. Arkhipov and Bezrukavnikov proved that the Whittaker category on the affine flags ${\operatorname {Fl}}_G$ is equivalent to the category of $\check {G}$-equivariant quasi-coherent sheaves on the Springer resolution of the nilpotent cone. This paper proves this theorem in the quantum case. We show that the twisted Whittaker category on ${\operatorname {Fl}}_G$ and the category of representations of the mixed quantum group are equivalent. In particular, we prove that the quantum category $\mathsf {O}$ is equivalent to the twisted Whittaker category on ${\operatorname {Fl}}_G$ in the generic case. The strong version of our main theorem claims a motivic equivalence between the Whittaker category on ${\operatorname {Fl}}_G$ and a factorization module category, which holds in the de Rham setting, the Betti setting, and the $\ell$-adic setting.

The goal of this paper is to describe certain nonlinear topological obstructions for the existence of first-order smoothings of mildly singular Calabi–Yau varieties of dimension at least $4$. For nodal Calabi–Yau threefolds, a necessary and sufficient linear topological condition for the existence of a first-order smoothing was first given in [Fri86]. Subsequently, Rollenske–Thomas [RT09] generalized this picture to nodal Calabi–Yau varieties of odd dimension by finding a necessary nonlinear topological condition for the existence of a first-order smoothing. In a complementary direction, in [FL22a], the linear necessary and sufficient conditions of [Fri86] were extended to Calabi–Yau varieties in every dimension with $1$-liminal singularities (which are exactly the ordinary double points in dimension $3$ but not in higher dimensions). In this paper, we give a common formulation of all of these previous results by establishing analogues of the nonlinear topological conditions of [RT09] for Calabi–Yau varieties with weighted homogeneous k-liminal hypersurface singularities, a broad class of singularities that includes ordinary double points in odd dimensions.

Let $X$ and $Y$ be compact hyper-Kähler manifolds deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of length $n$ subschemes of a $K3$ surface. A class in $H^{p,p}(X\times Y,{\mathbb {Q}})$ is an analytic correspondence, if it belongs to the subring generated by Chern classes of coherent analytic sheaves. Let $f:H^2(X,{\mathbb {Q}})\rightarrow H^2(Y,{\mathbb {Q}})$ be a rational Hodge isometry with respect to the Beauville–Bogomolov–Fujiki pairings. We prove that $f$ is induced by an analytic correspondence. We furthermore lift $f$ to an analytic correspondence $\tilde {f}: H^*(X,{\mathbb {Q}})[2n]\rightarrow H^*(Y,{\mathbb {Q}})[2n]$, which is a Hodge isometry with respect to the Mukai pairings and which preserves the gradings up to sign. When $X$ and $Y$ are projective, the correspondences $f$ and $\tilde {f}$ are algebraic.

We systematically study the moduli stacks of Higgs bundles, spectral curves, and Norm maps on Deligne–Mumford curves. As an application, under some mild conditions, we prove the Strominger–Yau–Zaslow duality for the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles over a hyperbolic stacky curve.

Kobayashi–Ochiai proved that the set of dominant maps from a fixed variety to a fixed variety of general type is finite. We prove the natural extension of their finiteness theorem to Campana’s orbifold pairs.

We consider K-theoretic Gromov-Witten theory of root constructions. We calculate some genus $0$ K-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants of a root gerbe. We also obtain a K-theoretic relative/orbifold correspondence in genus $0$.

Let $\alpha \colon X \to Y$ be a finite cover of smooth curves. Beauville conjectured that the pushforward of a general vector bundle under $\alpha $ is semistable if the genus of Y is at least $1$ and stable if the genus of Y is at least $2$. We prove this conjecture if the map $\alpha $ is general in any component of the Hurwitz space of covers of an arbitrary smooth curve Y.