Periods for irregular singular connections on surfaces

Abstract

We define homology groups for flat irregular singular connections on surfaces and a pairing between these and the de Rham cohomology of the connection, generalizing work of S. Bloch and H. Enault in dimension one. Assuming a conjecture of C. Sabbah (known to be true if the rank of the vector bundle is at most 5), we prove perfectness of the pairing. We comment on certain new phenomena appearing in dimension two.