Character varieties of virtually nilpotent Kähler groups and G-Higgs bundles

Abstract: Let G be a connected complex reductive affine algebraic group, and let K be a maximal compact subgroup. Let X be a compact connected K\"ahler manifold whose fundamental group Gamma is virtually nilpotent. We prove that the character variety Hom(Gamma, G)/G admits a natural strong deformation retraction to the subset Hom(Gamma, K)/K. The natural action of C^* on the moduli space of G-Higgs bundles over X extends to an action of C. This produces the deformation retraction.