(AOPP (Oxford University))

I will talk about a recent proof, joint with M. Gröchenig and D. Wyss, of a conjecture of Hausel and Thaddeus which predicts the equality of suitably defined Hodge numbers of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles with SL(n)- and PGL(n)-structure. The proof, inspired by an argument of Batyrev, proceeds by comparing the number of points of these moduli spaces over finite fields via p-adic integration. I will start with an introduction to Higgs bundles and their moduli spaces and then explain our argument.