Generators for the cohomology of the moduli space of irregular parabolic Higgs bundles

Abstract

We prove that the pure part of the cohomology ring of the moduli space of irregular $\underline{\xi }$-parabolic Higgs bundles is generated by the Künneth components of the Chern classes of a universal bundle and the Chern classes of the successive quotients of a universal flag of subbundles. As an application, in the regular full-flag case, we demonstrate a similar result for the cohomology ring of the moduli spaces of parabolic and strongly parabolic Higgs bundles.

22 pages; some typos fixed; some references added