On Hitchin’s connection

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to give an explicit expression for Hitchin’s connection in the case of stable rank 2 bundles on genus 2 curves. Some general theory (in the algebraic geometric setting) concerning heat operators is developed. In particular the notion of compatibility of a heat operator with respect to a closed subvariety is introduced. This is used to compare the heat operator in the nonabelian rank 2 genus 2 case to the abelian heat operator (on theta functions) for abelian surfaces. This relation allows one to perform the computation; the resulting differential equations are similar to the Knizhnik-Zalmolodshikov equations.