The symplectic structure of the $\mathrm{PGL}_n(\mathbb{R})$-Hitchin component

Abstract

The $\mathrm{PGL}_n(\mathbb{R})$-Hitchin component of a closed oriented surface is a preferred component of the character variety consisting of homomorphisms from the fundamental group of the surface to the projective linear group $\mathrm{PGL}_n(\mathbb{R})$. It admits a symplectic structure, defined by the Atiyah-Bott-Goldman symplectic form. The main result of the article is an explicit computation of this symplectic form in terms of certain global coordinates for the Hitchin component. A remarkable feature of this expression is that its coefficients are constant.