Intersection cohomology of representation spaces of surface groups

We show by studying the symplectic geometry of the extended moduli space that the intersection cohomology of the representation space $Hom(\pi_1(\Sigma),G)/G$ for a simply connected compact Lie group $G$ is naturally embedded into the $G$ equivariant cohomology of $Hom(\pi_1(\Sigma),G)$ where $\Sigma$ is a closed Riemann surface. This enables us to compute the intersection cohomology as a graded vector space with intersection pairing, in terms of the equivariant cohomology ring. The case where $G=SU(2)$ -- the moduli space of rank 2 holomorphic vector bundles of even degree -- is discussed in detail.