Abelianization of Fuchsian Systems on a 4-punctured sphere and applications

Abstract

In this paper we consider special linear Fuchsian systems of rank $2$ on a $4-$punctured sphere and the corresponding parabolic structures. Through an explicit abelianization procedure we obtain a $2-$to$-1$ correspondence between flat line bundle connections on a torus and these Fuchsian systems. This naturally equips the moduli space of flat $SL(2,\mathbb C)-$connections on a $4-$punctured sphere with a new set of Darboux coordinates. Furthermore, we apply our theory to give a complex analytic proof of Witten's formula for the symplectic volume of the moduli space of unitary flat connections on the $4-$punctured sphere.