Parabolic bundles on algebraic surfaces I- the Donaldson--Uhlenbeck compactification

The aim of this paper is to construct the parabolic version of the Donaldson--Uhlenbeck compactification for the moduli space of parabolic stable bundles on an algenraic surface with parabolic structures along a divisor with normal crossing singularities. We prove the non--emptiness of the moduli space of parabolic stable bundles of rank 2 and also prove the existence of components with smooth points.