An analytic construction of the universal moduli space of $\mathrm{SL}_r(\mathbb C)$-Higgs bundles

Abstract

We construct the moduli space of marked polystable $\mathrm{SL}_r(\mathbb C)$-Higgs bundles via analytic methods. The resulting space is normal and Hausdorff, and its local models are products of a Teichm\"uller neighbourhood with a quotient of a quadratic cone. These models preserve the curve parameter and identify the stabilizers. We prove agreement with the complex and unitary gauge-quotient topologies and establish the coarse moduli property for semistable families over reduced analytic bases. The mapping class group and Higgs scaling act holomorphically. Besides, on the stable locus, the moduli spaces that we consider agree with the joint moduli constructed by Collier, Toulisse and Wentworth.