Anti-holomorphic involutions of the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles

Abstract: We study anti-holomorphic involutions of the moduli space of principal $G$-Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface $X$, where $G$ is a complex semisimple Lie group. These involutions are defined by fixing anti-holomorphic involutions on both $X$ and $G$. We analyze the fixed point locus in the moduli space and their relation with representations of the orbifold fundamental group of $X$ equipped with the anti-holomorphic involution. We also study the relation with branes. This generalizes work by Biswas--Garc\'{\i}a-Prada--Hurtubise and Baraglia--Schaposnik.