Flows on the PGL(V)-Hitchin component

Abstract: In this article we define new flows on the Hitchin components for PGL(V). Special examples of these flows are associated to simple closed curves on the surface and give generalized twist flows. Other examples, so called eruption flows, are associated to pair of pants in S and capture new phenomena which are not present in the case when n = 2. Using these flows, we construct a global coordinate system on the Hitchin component. In a companion paper to this article two of the authors develop new tools to compute the Goldman symplectic form on the Hitchin component, and prove that this global coordinate system is a Darboux coordinate system.