Lagrangian correspondences for moduli spaces of Higgs bundles and holomorphic connections

Abstract

On a compact connected Riemann surface $C$ of genus at least $2$, we construct Lagrangian correspondences between moduli spaces of rank-$n$ Higgs bundles (respectively, holomorphic connections) and the Hilbert schemes of points on $T^\ast C$ (respectively, the twisted cotangent bundles of $C$). Central to these constructions are Higgs bundles (respectively, holomorphic connections) which are transversal to line subbundles of the underlying bundles: these naturally induce divisors on $C$ together with auxiliary parameters, namely lifts to divisors on spectral curves for Higgs bundles and residue parameters of apparent singularities for holomorphic connections. We discuss the evidence showing that the Dolbeault geometric Langlands correspondence is generically realized by these Lagrangian correspondences; we expect that the de Rham geometric Langlands correspondence can be realized by their quantization, following Drinfeld's construction of Hecke eigensheaves. We also discuss the relations of our constructions to various topics, including reductions of Kapustin-Witten equations, the conformal limit, separation of variables, and degenerate fields in conformal field theories.