Harmonic metrics and semi-simpleness

Abstract

Given a flat vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold, Corlette and Donaldson proved that it admits harmonic metrics if and only if it is semi-simple. In this paper, we extend this equivalence to arbitrary vector bundles without any additional hypothesis, the result can be viewed as a Riemannian Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence. Furthermore, we also prove an equivalence of categories in Sasakian geometry, relating the category of projective flat complex vector bundles to the category of Higgs bundles.