Vanishing theorems for parabolic Higgs bundles

Abstract: This is a sequel to "Kodaira-Saito vanishing via Higgs bundles in positive characteristic" (arXiv:1611.09880). However, unlike the previous paper, all the arguments here are in characteristic zero. The main result is a Kodaira vanishing theorem for semistable parabolic Higgs bundles with trivial parabolic Chern classes. This implies a general semipositivity theorem. This also implies a Kodaira-Saito vanishing theorem for complex variations of Hodge structure.