Opers and nonabelian Hodge: numerical studies

Abstract

We present numerical experiments that test the predictions of a conjecture of Gaiotto-Moore-Neitzke and Gaiotto concerning the monodromy map for opers, the nonabelian Hodge correspondence, and the restriction of Hitchin's hyperkähler metric to the Hitchin section. These experiments are conducted in the setting of polynomial holomorphic differentials on the complex plane, where the predictions take the form of conjectural formulas for the Stokes data and the Hitchin metric tensor. Overall, the results of our experiments support the conjecture.

58 pages, 21 figures; v2: typos corrected and references added; v3: minor corrections and references added/updated