Stokes phenomenon of Kloosterman and Airy connections

Abstract

We define categories of Stokes filtered and Stokes graded $G$-local systems for reductive groups $G$ and use the formalism of Tannakian categories to show that they are equivalent to the category of $G$-connections. We then use the interpretation of moduli spaces of Stokes filtered $G$-local systems as braid varieties to prove physical rigidity of two well-known families of cohomologically rigid connections, the Kloosterman and Airy connections. In the Kloosterman case, our proof relies on Steinberg's cross-section.