Castling equivalence for logarithmic flat connections

Let $X$ be a complex manifold containing a hypersurface $D$ and let $D^s$ denote the singular locus. We study the problem of extending a flat connection with logarithmic poles along $D$ from the complement $X\setminus D^s$ to all of $X$. In the setting where $D$ is a weighted homogeneous plane curve, we give a new proof of Mebkhout’s theorem that extensions always exist. Our proof makes use of a Jordan decomposition for logarithmic connections as well as a version of Grothendieck’s decomposition theorem for vector bundles over the football' orbifold which is due to Martens and Thaddeus. In higher dimensions, we point out a close relationship between the extension problem and castling equivalence of prehomogeneous vector spaces. In particular, we show that the twisted fundamental groupoids of castling equivalent linear free divisors are birationally’ Morita equivalent and we use this to generate examples of non-extendable flat connections.