Hecke modifications, wonderful compactifications and moduli of principal bundles

In this paper we obtain parametrizations of the moduli space of principal bundles over a compact Riemann surface using spaces of Hecke modifications in several cases. We begin with a discussion of Hecke modifications for principal bundles and give constructions of "universal" Hecke modifications of a fixed bundle of fixed type. This is followed by an overview of the construction of the "wonderful," or De Concini-Procesi, compactification of a semi-simple algebraic group of adjoint type. The compactification plays an important role in the deformation theory used in constructing the parametrizations. A general outline to construct parametrizations is given and verifications for specific structure groups are carried out.