On the Hitchin System

Abstract

The Hitchin system is a completely integrable hamiltonian system (CIHS) on the cotangent space to the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles over a curve. We consider the case of rank-two vector bundles with trivial determinant. Such a bundle $E$ defines a divisor $D_E$ in the Jacobian of the curve and for any smooth point of $D_E$ we define a cotangent vector (a Higgs field). The Hitchin map on these Higgs fields is then determined in terms of the Gauss map on the divisor $D_E$. We apply the results to the $g=2$ case and show how Hitchin's system is related to classical line geometry in $\PP^3$.