The Quillen-Bismut-Freed construction associates a determinant line bundle with connection to an infinite dimensional super vector bundle with a family of Dirac-type operators. We define the regularized first Chern form of the infinite dimensional bundle, and relate it to the curvature of the Bismut-Freed connection on the determinant bundle. In finite dimensions, these forms agree (up to sign), but in infinite dimensions there is a correction term, which we express in terms of Wodzicki residues. We illustrate these results with a string theory computation. There is a natural super vector bundle over the manifold of smooth almost complex structures on a Riemannian surface. The Bismut-Freed superconnection is identified with classical Teichmuller theory connections, and its curvature and regularized first Chern form are computed.
We develop the theory of Chern-Simons bundle 2-gerbes and multiplicative bundle gerbes associated to any principal $G$-bundle with connection and a class in $H^4(BG, \ZZ)$ for a compact semi-simple Lie group $G$. The Chern-Simons bundle 2-gerbe realises differential geometrically the Cheeger-Simons invariant. We apply these notions to refine the Dijkgraaf-Witten correspondence between three dimensional Chern-Simons functionals and Wess-Zumino-Witten models associated to the group $G$. We do this by introducing a lifting to the level of bundle gerbes of the natural map from $H^4(BG, \ZZ)$ to $H…
The theory of principal $G$-bundles over a Lie groupoid is an important one, unifying the various types of principal $G$-bundles, including those over manifolds, those over orbifolds, as well as equivariant principal $G$-bundles. In this paper, we study the differential geometry of these objects, including connections and holonomy maps. We also introduce a Chern-Weil map for these principal bundles and prove that the characteristic classes obtained coincide with the universal characteristic classes. As an application, we recover the equivariant Chern-Weil map of Bott-Tu. We also obtain an expl…
A strong from of invariance under a group G is manifested in a family over the classifying space BG. We advocate a differential-geometric avatar of BG when G is a Lie group. Applied to G-equivariant connections on smooth principal or vector bundles, the equivariance-->families principle converts the G-equivariant extensions of curvature and Chern-Weil forms to the standard nonequivariant versions. An application of this technique yields the moment map of the determinant line of a G-equivariant Dirac operator, which in turn sheds light on some anomaly formulas in quantum field theory.
Given a smooth family of massless free fermions parametrized by a base manifold $B$, we show that the (mathematically rigorous) Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization of the observables of this family gives rise to the determinant line bundle for the corresponding family of Dirac operators.
We construct Chern-Weil classes on infinite dimensional vector bundles with structure group contained in the algebra $\cl[\leq 0](M, E)$ of non-positive order classical pseudo-differential operators acting on a finite rank vector bundle $E$ over a closed manifold $M$. Mimicking the finite dimensional Chern-Weil construction, we replace the ordinary trace on matrices by linear functionals on $\cl[\leq 0] (M, E)$ built from the leading symbols of the operators. The corresponding Chern classes vanish for loop groups, but a weighted trace construction yields a non-zero class perviously constructed…
For a Riemann surface $X$ and the moduli of regularly stable $G$-bundles $M$, there is a naturally occuring "$adjoint$" vector bundle over $X \times M$. One can take the determinant of this vector bundle with respect to the projection map onto $M$. Our aim here is to study the curvature of the determinant bundle as the conformal structure on $X$ varies over the Teichmüller space.
In their study of the representation theory of loop groups, Pressley and Segal introduced a determinant line bundle over an infinite dimensional Grassmann manifold. Mickelsson and Rajeev subsequently generalized the work of Pressley and Segal and in the process introduced for any p >=1 another infinite dimensional Grassmann manifold and a determinant line bundle defined over it. The construction of this determinant line bundle required the notion of a regularized determinant for bounded operators. In this note we specialize to the case p =2 and construct explicitly a connection on the correspo…
In \cite{BR1}, \cite{BR2}, a parabolic determinant line bundle on a moduli space of stable parabolic bundles was constructed, along with a Hermitian structure on it. The construction of the Hermitian structure was indirect: The parabolic determinant line bundle was identified with the pullback of the determinant line bundle on a moduli space of usual vector bundles over a covering curve. The Hermitian structure on the parabolic determinant bundle was taken to be the pullback of the Quillen metric on the determinant line bundle on the moduli space of usual vector bundles. Here a direct construc…
We introduce the notions of Chern-Dirac bundles and Chern-Dirac operators on Hermitian manifolds. They are analogues of classical Dirac bundles and Dirac operators, with Levi-Civita connection replaced by Chern connection. We then show that the tensor product of canonical and the anticanonical spinor bundles, called V-spinor bundle, is a bigraded Chern-Dirac bundle with spaces of harmonic spinors isomorphic to the full Dolbeault cohomology class. A similar construction establishes isomorphisms between other types of harmonic spinors and Bott-Chern, Aeppli and twisted cohomology.
The aim of this paper is to construct horizontal Chern forms of a holomorphic vector bundle using complex Finsler structures. Also, some properties of these forms are studied.
We present two formulas for Chern classes of the tensor product of two vector bundles. In the first formula we consider a matrix containing Chern classes of the first bundle and we take a polynomial of this matrix with Chern classes of the second bundle as coefficients. The determinant of this expression equals the Chern polynomial of the tensor product. In the second formula we express the total Chern class of the tensor product as resultant of two explicit polynomials with coefficient involving Chern classes of each vector bundles. This approach leads to determinantal formulas for the total …
In this paper, we give a simple proof of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem for a real oriented Finsler vector bundle with rank equal to the dimension of the base manifold. As an application, a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for any metric-compatible connection is established on Finsler manifolds.
A simple algebraic characterization of the Fano manifolds in the class of homogeneous toric bundles over a flag manifold $G^C/P$ is provided in terms of symplectic data.
We show that any compact Kahler manifold with integral Kahler form, parametrizes a natural holomorphic family of Cauchy-Riemann operators on the Riemann sphere such that the Quillen determinant line bundle of this family is isomorphic to a sufficiently high tensor power of the holomorphic line bundle determined by the integral Kahler form. We also establish a symplectic version of the result. We conjecture that an equivariant version of our result is true.
In this note we specialize and illustrate the ideas developed in the paper math.DG/0201112 of the first author ("Index theory, eta forms, and Deligne cohomology ") in the case of the determinant line bundle. We discuss the surgery formula in the adiabatic limit using the adiabatic decomposition formula of the zeta regularized determinant of the Dirac Laplacian obtained by the second author and K. Wojciechowski.
A refined expression for the Faddeev-Popov determinant is derived for gauge theories quantised around a reducible classical solution. We apply this result to Chern-Simons perturbation theory on compact spacetime 3-manifolds with quantisation around an arbitrary flat gauge field isolated up to gauge transformations, pointing out that previous results on the finiteness and formal metric-independence of perturbative expansions of the partition function continue to hold.
We provide a thorough construction of a system of compatible determinant line bundles over spaces of Fredholm operators, fully verify that this system satisfies a number of important properties, and include explicit formulas for all relevant isomorphisms between these line bundles. We also completely describe all possible systems of compatible determinant line bundles and compare the conventions and approaches used elsewhere in the literature.
We explain the bundle structures of the {\it Determinant line bundle} and the {\it Quillen determinant line bundle} considered on the connected component of the space of Fredholm operators including the identity operator in an intrinsic way. Then we show that these two are isomorphic and that they are non-trivial line bundles and trivial on some subspaces. Also we remark a relation of the {\it Quillen determinant line bundle} and the {\it Maslov line bundle}.
We study the geometry of determinant line bundles associated to Dirac operators on compact odd dimensional manifolds. Physically, these arise as (local) vacuum line bundles in quantum gauge theory. We give a simplified derivation of the commutator anomaly formula using a construction based on noncyclic trace extensions and associated multiplicative renormalized determinants.
It is shown that the determinant line bundle associated to a family of Dirac operators over a closed partitioned manifold has a canonical Hermitian metric with compatible connection whose curvature satisfies an additivity formula with contributions from the families of Dirac operators over the two halves. This curvature form is the natural differential representative which satisifies the same splitting principle as the Chern class of the determinant line bundle.
A cocycle $Ω: P \times G \to H$ taking values in a Lie group $H$ for a free right action of $G$ on $P$ defines a principal bundle $Q$ with the structure group $H$ over $P/G.$ The Chern character of a vector bundle associated to $Q$ defines then characteristic classes on $X.$ This observation becomes useful in the case of infinite dimensional groups. It typically happens that a representation of $G$ is not given by linear operators which differ from the indentity by a trace-class operator. For this reason the Chern character of a vector bundle associated to the principal fibration $P \to P/G$ i…
We show in this article that if a holomorphic vector bundle has a nonnegative Hermitian metric in the sense of Bott and Chern, which always exists on globally generated holomorphic vector bundles, then some special linear combinations of Chern forms are strongly nonnegative. This particularly implies that all the Chern numbers of such a holomorphic vector bundle are nonnegative and can be bounded below and above respectively by two special Chern numbers. As applications, we obtain a family of new results on compact connected complex manifolds which are homogeneous or can be holomorphically imm…
Let $X \rightarrow S$ be a smooth projective surjective morphism, where $X$ and $S$ are integral schemes over complex numbers. Let L_0, L_1, .... L_{n-1}, L_{n} be line bundles over $X$. There is a natural isomorphism of the Deligne pairing $<L_{0},...,L_{n}>$ with the determinant line bundle ${\rm Det}(\otimes_{i=0}^{n} (L_i- {\mathcal O}_{X}))$.
Let $M$ be an irreducible smooth complex projective variety equipped with an action of a compact Lie group $G$, and let $({\mathcal L},h)$ be a $G$-equivariant holomorphic Hermitian line bundle on $M$. Given a compact connected Riemann surface $X$, we construct a $G$-equivariant holomorphic Hermitian line bundle $(L\,,H)$ on $X\times M$ (the action of $G$ on $X$ is trivial), such that the corresponding Quillen determinant line bundle $({\mathcal Q}, h_Q)$, which is a $G$--equivariant holomorphic Hermitian line bundle on $M$, is isomorphic to the given $G$--equivariant holomorphic Hermitian lin…
We prove a case of the conjecture of Douglas, Reinbacher and Yau about the existence of stable vector bundles with prescribed Chern classes on a Calabi-Yau threefold. For this purpose we prove the existence of certain stable vector bundle extensions over elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds.
We compute the curvature of the determinant line bundle on a family of Dirac operators for a noncommutative two torus. Following Quillen's original construction for Riemann surfaces and using zeta regularized determinant of Laplacians, one can endow the determinant line bundle with a natural Hermitian metric. By using an analogue of Kontsevich-Vishik canonical trace, defined on Connes' algebra of classical pseudodifferential symbols for the noncommutative two torus, we compute the curvature form of the determinant line bundle by computing the second variation $δ_{w}δ_{\bar{w}}\log\det(Δ)$.
The $\bar{\partial}_{_{J}}$ operator over an almost complex manifold induces canonical connections of type $(0,1)$ over the bundles of $(p,0)$-forms. If the almost complex structure is integrable then the previous connections induce the canonical holomorphic structures of the bundles of $(p,0)$-forms. For $p=1$ we can extend the corresponding connection to all Schur powers of the bundle of $(1,0)$-forms. Moreover using the canonical $\C$-linear isomorphism betwen the bundle of $(1,0)$-forms and the complex cotangent bundle $T^*_{X,J}$ we deduce canonical connections of type $(0,1)$ over the Sc…
We show that a flat principal bundle with compact connected structure group and its adjoint bundles of Lie groups have the same cohomology as the trivial bundle, which is done by proving they satisfy the condition for the Leray-Hirsch theorem. This information has been used to construct a cohomology class of the adjoint bundle of a flat bundle whose restriction to each fiber is the class of the Maurer-Cartan 3-form. Then we use this result to define an invariant of a gauge transformation of a flat bundle which describes the effect of the gauge transformation on a Chern-Simons functional.
Cobordism invariance shows that the index, in K-theory, of a family of pseudodifferential operators on the boundary of a fibration vanishes if the symbol family extends to be elliptic across the whole fibration. For Dirac operators with spectral boundary condition, Dai and Freed \cite{dai-freed1} gave an explicit version of this at the level of the determinant bundle. Their result, that the eta invariant of the interior family trivializes the determinant bundle of the boundary family, is extended here to the wider context of pseudodifferential families of cusp type.
Let $E$ be a principle bundle over a compact manifold $M$ with compact structural group $G$. For any $G$-invariant polynomial $P$, The transgressive forms $TP(ω)$ defined by Chern and Simons are shown to extend to forms $ΦP(ω)$ on associated bundles $B$ with fiber a quotient $F=G/H$ of the group. These forms satisfy a heterotic formula $$dΦP(ω)=P(Ω)-P(Ψ),$$ relating the characteristic form $P(Ω)$ to a fiber-curvature characteristic form. For certain natural bundles $B$, $P(Ψ)=0$, giving a true transgressive form on the associated bundle, which leads to the standard obstruction properties of ch…
Using properties of the determinant line bundle for a family of elliptic boundary value problems, we explain how the Fock space functor defines an axiomatic quantum field theory which formally models the Fermionic path integral. The 'sewing axiom' of the theory arises as an algebraic pasting law for the determinant of the Dirac operator. We show how representations of the boundary gauge group fit into this description and that this leads to a Fock functor description of certain gauge anomalies.
The infinite matrix `Schwartz' group $G^{-\infty}$ is a classifying group for odd K-theory and carries Chern classes in each odd dimension, generating the cohomology. These classes are closely related to the Fredholm determinant on $G^{-\infty}.$ We show that while the higher (even, Schwartz) loop groups of $G^{-\infty},$ again classifying for odd K-theory, do \emph{not} carry multiplicative determinants generating the first Chern class, `dressed' extensions, corresponding to a star product, do carry such functions. We use these to discuss Bott periodicity for the determinant bundle and the et…
This article is concerned with Chern class and Chern number inequalities on polarized manifolds and nef vector bundles. For a polarized pair $(M,L)$ with $L$ very ample, our first main result is a family of sharp Chern class inequalities. Among them the first one is a variant of a classical result and the equality case of the second one is a characterization of hypersurfaces. The second main result is a Chern number inequality on it, which includes a reverse Miyaoka-Yau type inequality. The third main result is that the Chern numbers of a nef vector bundle over a compact Kähler manifold are bo…
This article is an expanded version of the talk given by Ch. O. at the Second Latin Congress on "Symmetries in Geometry and Physics" in Curitiba, Brazil in December 2010. In this version we explain the topological and gauge-theoretical aspects of our paper "Abelian Yang-Mills theory on Real tori and Theta divisors of Klein surfaces".
We prove a result of Chern-Weil type for canonically metrized line bundles on one-parameter families of smooth complex curves. Our result generalizes a result due to J.I. Burgos Gil, J. Kramer and U. Kühn that deals with a line bundle of Jacobi forms on the universal elliptic curve over the modular curve with full level structure, equipped with the Petersson metric. Our main tool, as in the work by Burgos Gil, Kramer and Kühn, is the notion of a b-divisor.
We show that Chern-Weil theory for tensor bundles over manifolds is a consequence of the existence of natural closed differential forms on total spaces of torsion free connections on frame bundles.
We show a relationship between Chern-Simons 1- and 3-forms and harmonic forms on a principal bundle. Doing so requires one to consider an adiabatic limit. For the 3-form case, assume that G is simple and the corresponding Chern-Weil 4-form is exact. Then, the Chern-Simons 3-form on the princpal bundle G-bundle, minus a canonical term from the base, is harmonic in the adiabatic limit.
This is a note for the conference proceedings Topological and Geometrical Problems related to Quantum Field Theory. We summarize our joint work with Dai about eta invariants on manifolds with boundary. Then we apply these results to prove the curvature and holonomy formulas for the natural connection on the determinant line bundle of a family of Dirac operators. These were originally proved by Bismut and the author--the proofs here are much simpler.
For two complex vector bundles admitting a homomorphism, whose singularity locates in the disjoint union of some odd--dimensional spheres, we give a formula to compute the relative Chern characteristic number of these two complex vector bundles. In particular, for a spin manifold admitting some sphere bundle structure, we give a formula to express the index of a special twisted Dirac operator.
We show a Chern-Weil type statement and a Hilbert-Samuel formula for a large class of singular plurisubharmonic metrics on a line bundle over a smooth projective complex variety. For this we use the theory of b-divisors and the so-called multiplier ideal volume function. We apply our results to the line bundle of Siegel-Jacobi forms over the universal abelian variety endowed with its canonical invariant metric. This generalizes a result of the second author for the universal family of elliptic curves to higher degrees.
We use Chern-Weil theory for Hermitian holomorphic vector bundles with canonical connections for explicit computation of the Chern forms of trivial bundles with special non-diagonal Hermitian metrics. We prove that every del-dellbar exact real form of the type (k,k) on an n-dimensional complex manifold X arises as a difference of the Chern character forms of trivial Hermitian vector bundles with canonical connections, and that (modulo the image of del and delbar) every real form of type (k,k), k<n, arises as a Bott-Chern form for two Hermitian metrics on some trivial vector bundle over X. The …
It has been argued by Witten and others that in the presence of a nontrivial B-field, D-brane charges in type IIB string theories are measured by twisted K-theory. In joint work with Bouwknegt, Carey and Murray it was proved that twisted K-theory is canonically isomorphic to bundle gerbe K-theory, whose elements are ordinary vector bundles on a principal projective unitary bundle, with an action of the bundle gerbe determined by the principal projective unitary bundle. The principal projective unitary bundle is in turn determined by the twist. In this paper, we study in more detail the Chern-W…
We prove explicit formulas for Chern classes of tensor products of vector bundles, with coefficients given by certain universal polynomials in the ranks of the two bundles.
Complex Chern-Simons bundles are line bundles with connection, originating in the study of quantization of moduli spaces of flat connections with complex gauge groups. In this paper we introduce and study these bundles in the families setting. The central object is a functorial direct image of characteristic classes of vector bundles with connections, for which we develop a formalism. Our strategy elaborates on Deligne-Elkik's intersection bundles, and a refined Chern-Simons theory which parallels the use of Bott-Chern classes in Arakelov geometry. In the context of moduli spaces, we are confr…
We define the notion of spectral network on manifolds of dimension $\le 3$. For a manifold $X$ equipped with a spectral network, we construct equivalences between Chern-Simons invariants of flat ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{\mathbb C})$-bundles over $X$ and Chern-Simons invariants of flat ${\mathbb C}^\times$-bundles over ramified double covers $\widetilde X$. Applications include a new viewpoint on dilogarithmic formulas for Chern-Simons invariants of flat ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{\mathbb C})$-bundles over triangulated 3-manifolds, and an explicit description of Chern-Simons lines of flat ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{…
For elliptic principal bundles $π:X\ra B$ over Kähler manifolds it was shown by Blanchard that $X$ has a Kähler metric if and only both Chern classes (with real coefficients) of $π$ vanish. For some elliptic principal bundles, when the span of these Chern classes is 1-dimensional, it was shown by Vaisman that $X$ carry locally conformally Kähler (LCK, for short) metrics. We show that in the case when the Chern classes are linearly independent, $X$ carries no LCK metric.
In the first part of this paper, given a smooth family of Dirac-type operators on an odd-dimensional closed manifold, we construct an abelian gerbe-with-connection whose curvature is the three-form component of the Atiyah-Singer families index theorem. In the second part of the paper, given a smooth family of Dirac-type operators whose index lies in the i-th filtration of the reduced K-theory of the parametrizing space, we construct a set of Deligne cohomology class of degree i whose curvatures are the i-form component of the Atiyah-Singer families index theorem.
In this paper, we present two kinds of total Chern forms $c(E,G)$ and $\mathcal{C}(E,G)$ as well as a total Segre form $s(E,G)$ of a holomorphic Finsler vector bundle $π:(E,G)\to M$ expressed by the Finsler metric $G$, which answers a question of J. Faran (\cite{Faran}) to some extent. As some applications, we show that the signed Segre forms $(-1)^ks_k(E,G)$ are positive $(k,k)$-forms on $M$ when $G$ is of positive Kobayashi curvature; we prove, under an extra assumption, that a Finsler-Einstein vector bundle in the sense of Kobayashi is semi-stable; we introduce a new definition of a flat Fi…
We study the homotopy aspects of the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules. Using Sullivan's rational homotopy theory, we realize the twisted Chern classes at the level of classifying spaces. The construction suggests a notion, which we call fractional U-structure serving as a universal framework to study the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules from the perspective of classifying spaces. Based on this, we introduce and study higher fractional structures on torsion bundle gerbe modules parallel to the higher structures on ordinary vector bundles.
We formulate and prove a formula for transgressing characteristic forms in general associated bundles following a method of Chern. As applications, we derive D. Johnson's explicit formula for such general transgression and Chern's first transgression formula for the Euler class.
The set of Clifford bundles of bounded geometry over open manifolds can be endowed with a metrizable uniform structure. For one fixed bundle $E$ we define the generalized component $\gencomp (E)$ as the set of Clifford bundles $E'$ which have finite distance to $E$. If $D$, $D'$ are the associated generalized Dirac operators, we prove for the pair $(D,D')$ relative index theorems, define relative $ζ$-- and $η$--functions, relative determinants and in the case of $D=Δ$ relative analytic torsion. To define relative $ζ$-- and $η$--functions, we assume additionally that the essential spectrum of $…
It is shown that the singular set for the Yang-Mills flow on unstable holomorphic vector bundles over compact Kaehler manifolds is completely determined by the Harder-Narasimhan-Seshadri filtration of the initial holomorphic bundle. We assign a multiplicity to irreducible top dimensional components of the singular set of a holomorphic bundle with a filtration by saturated subsheaves. We derive a singular Bott-Chern formula relating the second Chern form of a smooth metric on the bundle to the Chern current of an admissible metric on the associated graded sheaf. This is used to show that the mu…
We study the ring generated by the Chern classes of tautological line bundles on the moduli space of parabolic bundles of arbitrary rank on a Riemann surface. We show the Poincaré duals to these Chern classes have simple geometric representatives. We use this construction to show that the ring generated by these Chern classes vanishes below the dimension of the moduli space, in analogy with the Newstead-Ramanan conjecture for stable bundles.
We prove sharp inequalities for determinants of Toeplitz operators and twisted Laplace operators on the two-sphere, generalizing the Moser-Trudinger-Onofri inequality. In particular a sharp version of conjectures of Gillet-Soule and Fang motivated by Arakelov geometry is obtained; applications to SU(2)-invariant determinantal random point processes on the two-sphere are also discussed. The inequalities are obtained as corollaries of a general theorem about the maximizers of a certain non-local functional defined on the space of all positively curved Hermitian metrics on an ample line bundle ov…
