Triality and Non-Abelian Spectral Data for Spin(8,C)-Higgs Bundles

In this research, we study the geometry of the moduli space of Spin(8,C)-Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface through the analysis of singular spectral curves and the triality automorphism of Spin(8,C). We establish a characterization of triality invariance, proving that a Spin(8,C)-Higgs bundle admits a reduction to the exceptional group G2 if and only if its spectral curve is invariant under the induced triality action. This transforms the problem of detecting G2-structures into a question about spectral data. We decompose the discriminant locus of the Hitchin fibration into two disjoint strata: a fixed stratum arising from G2-Higgs bundles with singular spectral curves and a free stratum consisting of orbits of size three under triality. We prove the existence of non-abelian spectral data compatible with triality symmetry, showing that non-abelian phenomena persist in free triality orbits. To quantify symmetry breaking, we introduce a triality defect invariant, which measures the dimension of the quotient of the Prym variety by its triality-invariant sublocus, and we prove that Higgs bundles with positive defects form a Zariski open dense subset.