### Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (SIGMA)

SIGMA 15 (2019), 039, 32 pages      arXiv:1809.07290      https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2019.039
Contribution to the Special Issue on Geometry and Physics of Hitchin Systems

### Higgs Bundles and Geometric Structures on Manifolds

Daniele Alessandrini
Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 205, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

Received September 28, 2018, in final form April 17, 2019; Published online May 10, 2019

Abstract
Geometric structures on manifolds became popular when Thurston used them in his work on the geometrization conjecture. They were studied by many people and they play an important role in higher Teichmüller theory. Geometric structures on a manifold are closely related with representations of the fundamental group and with flat bundles. Higgs bundles can be very useful in describing flat bundles explicitly, via solutions of Hitchin's equations. Baraglia has shown in his Ph.D. Thesis that Higgs bundles can also be used to construct geometric structures in some interesting cases. In this paper, we will explain the main ideas behind this theory and we will survey some recent results in this direction, which are joint work with Qiongling Li.

Key words: geometric structures; Higgs bundles; higher Teichmüller theory; Anosov representations.

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