Local obstructions to the surjectivity of spectral morphisms

Abstract

Chen and Ngo showed that the Hitchin morphism for Higgs bundles on a projective manifold $X$ factors through a closed subscheme of the Hitchin base called the spectral base, and the induced map is called the spectral morphism. In this paper, we investigate local Cohen-Macaulay obstructions to the surjectivity of spectral morphisms via a refined spectral correspondence. We show that every affine normal variety with a local ring that admits no rank one maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules can be geometrically realized as a local obstruction to the surjectivity of spectral morphisms, and that these local obstructions can be compactified via the Kawamata covering trick. As an application of these constructions, we provide counterexamples to the Chen-Ngo conjecture on the surjectivity of spectral morphisms for $GL_r$-Higgs bundles in dimensions $n\geq 9$. Moreover, we construct counterexamples to the Chen-Ngo conjecture for $SL_2$-Higgs bundles in every dimension $n\geq 2$ and for semistable $GL_3$-Higgs bundles on a smooth projective surface.