Let M be a closed oriented 4-manifold, with Riemannian metric g, and a spin^C structure induced by an almost-complex structure ω. Each connection A on the determinant line bundle induces a unique connection \nabla^A, and Dirac operator \D^A on spinor fields. Let σ: W^+ --> Λ^+ be the natural squaring map, taking self-dual (= positive) spinors to self-dual 2-forms.
In this paper, we characterize the self-dual 2-forms that are images of self-dual spinor fields through σ. They are those αfor which (off zeros) c_1(α) = c_1(ω), where c_1(α) is a suitably defined Chern class. We also obtain the formula: || ϕ||^2 D^A ϕ= i (2 d^* σ(ϕ) + < \nabla^A ϕ, i ϕ>)* ϕ.
Using these, we establish a bijective correspondence between: {Kahler forms αcompatible with a metric scalar-multiple of g, and with c_1(α) = c_1(ω)} and {gauge classes of pairs (ϕ, A), with \nabla^A ϕ= 0}, as well as a bijective correspondence between: {Symplectic forms αcompatible with a metric conformal to g, and with c_1(α) = c_1(ω)} and {gauge classes of pairs (ϕ, A), with D^ A ϕ= 0, and < \nabla^A ϕ, i ϕ> = 0, and ϕnowhere-zero}.
In this paper we use the G-spin theorem to show that the Davis hyperbolic 4-manifold admits harmonic spinors. This is the first example of a closed hyperbolic 4-manifold that admits harmonic spinors. We also explicitly describe the Spinor bundle of a spin hyperbolic 2- or 4-manifold and show how to calculated the subtle sign terms in the G-spin theorem for an isometry, with isolated fixed points, of a closed spin hyperbolic 2- or 4-manifold.
The aim of this paper is to calculate the eta invariants and the dimensions of the spaces of harmonic spinors of an infinite family of closed flat manifolds. It consits of some flat manifolds M with cyclic holonomy groups.
We study the Gauss map of minimal surfaces in the Heisenberg group $\mathrm{Nil}_3$ endowed with a left-invariant Riemannian metric. We prove that the Gauss map of a nowhere vertical minimal surface is harmonic into the hyperbolic plane $\mathbb{H}^2$. Conversely, any nowhere antiholomorphic harmonic map into $\mathbb{H}^2$ is the Gauss map of a nowhere vertical minimal surface. Finally, we study the image of the Gauss map of complete nowhere vertical minimal surfaces.
We use the symmetries of the tetrahedron, octahedron and icosahedron to construct local models for a $\mathbb{Z}/2$ harmonic 1-form or spinor in 3-dimensions near a singular point in its zero loci. The local models are $\mathbb{Z}/2$ harmonic 1-forms or spinors on $\mathbb{R}^3$ that are homogeneous with respect to rescaling of $\mathbb{R}^3$ with their zero locus consisting of four or more rays from the origin. The rays point from the origin to the vertices of a centered tetrahedron in one example; and they point from those of a centered octahedron and a centered icosahedron in two others.
This article proves that the zero locus of a $\mathbb{Z}/2$ harmonic spinor on a 4 dimensional manifold is 2-rectifiable and has locally finite Minkowski content.
In this note, using the spinorial description of $SU(3)$ and $G_2$-structures obtained recently by other authors, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for harmonicity of above mentioned structures. We describe obtained results on appropriate homogeneous spaces. Here, harmonicity means harmonicity of the unique section induced by a $G$-structure in consideration.
We prove the existence of singular harmonic ${\bf Z}_2$ spinors on $3$-manifolds with $b_1 > 1$. The proof relies on a wall-crossing formula for solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equation with two spinors. The existence of singular harmonic ${\bf Z}_2$ spinors and the shape of our wall-crossing formula shed new light on recent observations made by Joyce regarding Donaldson and Segal's proposal for counting $G_2$-instantons.
Symmetry operators of twistor spinors and harmonic spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms. Transformation operators relating twistors to harmonic spinors are found in terms of potential forms. These constructions are generalized to gauged twistor spinors and gauged harmonic spinors. The operators that transform gauged twistor spinors to gauged harmonic spinors are found. Symmetry operators of gauged harmonic spinors in terms of conformal Killing-Yano forms are obtained. Algebraic conditions to obtain solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations are discussed.
Supposing that X is a Riemannian manifold, a Z/2 spinor on X is defined by a data set consisting of a closed set in X to be denoted by Z, a real line bundle over X-Z, and a nowhere zero section on X-Z of the tensor product of the real line bundle and a spinor bundle. The set Z and the spinor are jointly constrained by the following requirement: The norm of the spinor must extend across Z as a continuous function vanishing on Z. In particular, the vanishing locus of the norm of the spinor is the complement of the set where the real line bundle is defined, and hence where the spinor is defined. …
We are studying the harmonic and twistor equation on Lorentzian surfaces, that is a two dimensional orientable manifold with a metric of signature $(1,1)$. We will investigate the properties of the solutions of these equations and try to relate the conformal invariant dimension of the space of harmonic and twistor spinors to the natural conformal invariants given by the Lorentzian metric. We will introduce the notion of semi-conformally flat surfaces and establish a complete classification of the possible dimensions for this family.
We show that any closed spin manifold not diffeomorphic to the two-sphere admits a sequence of volume-one-Riemannian metrics for which the smallest non-zero Dirac eigenvalue tends to zero. As an application, we compare the Dirac spectrum with the conformal volume.
In my previous paper, I prove the existence of the Kuranishi structure for the moduli space $\mathfrak{M}$ of zero loci of $\mathbb{Z}/2$-harmonic spinors on a 3-manifold. So a nature question we can ask is to compute the virtual dimension for this moduli space $\mathfrak{M}_{g_0}:=\mathfrak{M}\cap\{g=g_0\}$. In this paper, I will first prove that $v-dim(\mathfrak{M}_{g_0})=0$. Secondly, I will generalize this formula on 4-manifolds by using a special type of index developed by Jochen Bruning, Robert Seeley, and Fangyun Yang.
We prove the existence of harmonic spinor fields in axisymmetric Riemannian 3-manifolds having nonnegative scalar curvature and asymptotic to the usual constant time hypersurface of Melvin's magnetic universe. Such a spinor can be used in the proof of the uniqueness of the magnetized Schwarzschild solution.
The requirement of ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry for M-theory backgrounds of the form of a warped product ${\cal M}\times_{w}X$, where $X$ is an eight-manifold and ${\cal M}$ is three-dimensional Minkowski or AdS space, implies the existence of a nowhere-vanishing Majorana spinor $ξ$ on $X$. $ξ$ lifts to a nowhere-vanishing spinor on the auxiliary nine-manifold $Y:=X\times S^1$, where $S^1$ is a circle of constant radius, implying the reduction of the structure group of $Y$ to $Spin(7)$. In general, however, there is no reduction of the structure group of $X$ itself. This situation can be describ…
Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian spin manifold. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem yields a lower bound for the dimension of the kernel of the Dirac operator. We prove that this bound can be attained by changing the Riemannian metric g on an arbitrarily small open set.
In this paper connections between different gauge-theoretical problems in high and low dimensions are established. In particular it is shown that higher dimensional asd equations on total spaces of spinor bundles over low dimensional manifolds can be interpreted as Taubes-Pidstrygach's generalization of the Seiberg-Witten equations. By collapsing each fibre of the spinor bundle to a point, solutions of the Taubes-Pidstrygach equations are related to generalized harmonic spinors. This approach is also generalized for arbitrary fibrations (without singular fibres) compatible with an appropriate …
We study Kohn-Dirac operators $D_θ$ on strictly pseudoconvex CR manifolds with ${\rm spin}^{\mathbb C}$ structure of weight $\ell\in{\mathbb Z}$. Certain components of $D_θ$ are CR invariants. We also derive CR invariant twistor operators of weight $\ell$. Harmonic spinors correspond to cohomology classes of some twisted Kohn-Rossi complex. Applying a Schrödinger-Lichnerowicz-type formula, we prove vanishing theorems for harmonic spinors and (twisted) Kohn-Rossi groups. We also derive obstructions to positive Webster curvature.
Let M be a compact manifold with a fixed spin structure χ. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem implies that for any metric g on M the dimension of the kernel of the Dirac operator is bounded from below by a topological quantity depending only on M and χ. We show that for generic metrics on M this bound is attained.
This paper studies the Ricci flow on closed manifolds admitting harmonic spinors. It is shown that Perelman's Ricci flow entropy can be expressed in terms of the energy of harmonic spinors in all dimensions, and in four dimensions, in terms of the energy of Seiberg-Witten monopoles. Consequently, Ricci flow is the gradient flow of these energies. The proof relies on a weighted version of the monopole equations, introduced here. Further, a sharp parabolic Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for simply-connected, spin 4-manifolds is proven. From this, it follows that the normalized Ricci flow on any exoti…
Let $M$ be a compact oriented 3-dimensional smooth manifold. In this paper, we construct a moduli space consisting of pairs $(Σ, ψ)$ where $Σ$ is a $C^1$-embedding simple closed curve in $M$, $ψ$ is a $\mathbb{Z}/2$-harmonic spinor vanishing only on $Σ$, and $\|ψ\|_{L^2_1}\neq 0$. We prove that when $Σ$ is $C^2$, a neighborhood of $(Σ, ψ)$ in the moduli space can be parametrized by the space of Riemannian metrics on $M$ locally as the kernel of a Fredholm operator.
Let M be a closed spin manifold of dimension congruent to 3 modulo 4. We give a simple proof of the fact that the space of metrics on M with invertible Dirac operator is either empty or it has infinitely many path components.
The purpose of this paper is to study harmonic spinors defined on a 1-parameter family of Einstein manifolds which includes Taub-NUT, Eguchi-Hanson and $P^2(C)$ with the Fubini-Study metric as particular cases. We discuss the existence of and explicitly solve for spinors harmonic with respect to the Dirac operator twisted by a geometrically preferred connection. The metrics examined are defined, for generic values of the parameter, on a non-compact manifold with the topology of $C^2$ and extend to $P^2(C)$ as edge-cone metrics. As a consequence, the subtle boundary conditions of the Atiyah-Pat…
Let G be a compact, semi-simple Lie group and H a maximal rank reductive subgroup. The irreducible representations of G can be constructed as spaces of harmonic spinors with respect to a Dirac operator on the homogeneous space G/H twisted by bundles associated to the irreducible, possibly projective, representations of H. Here, we give a quick proof of this result, computing the index and kernel of this twisted Dirac operator using a homogeneous version of the Weyl character formula noted by Gross, Kostant, Ramond, and Sternberg, as well as recent work of Kostant regarding an algebraic version…
This paper studies the space of $L ^2 $ harmonic forms and $L ^2 $ harmonic spinors on Taub-bolt, a Ricci-flat Riemannian 4-manifold of ALF type. We prove that the space of harmonic square-integrable 2-forms on Taub-bolt is 2-dimensional and construct a basis. We explicitly find a 2-parameter family of $L ^2 $ zero modes of the Dirac operator twisted by an arbitrary $L ^2 $ harmonic connection. We also show that the number of zero modes found is equal to the index of the Dirac operator. We compare our results with those known in the case of Taub-NUT and Euclidean Schwarzschild as these manifol…
We establish a lower bound for the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator defined on a compact Kähler-Einstein manifold of positive scalar curvature and endowed with particular ${\rm spin}^c$ structures. The limiting case is characterized by the existence of Kählerian Killing ${\rm spin}^c$ spinors in a certain subbundle of the spinor bundle. Moreover, we show that the Clifford multiplication between an effective harmonic form and a Kählerian Killing ${\rm spin}^c$ spinor field vanishes. This extends to the ${\rm spin}^c$ case the result of A. Moroianu stating that, on a compact Kähler-Einstein man…
We consider Dirac operators on odd-dimensional compact spin manifolds which are twisted by a product bundle. We show that the space of connections on the twisting bundle which yield an invertible operator has infinitely many connected components if the untwisted Dirac operator is invertible and the dimension of the twisting bundle is sufficiently large.
We show that harmonic spinors obey a strengthened version of the well-known pointwise Kato inequality for sections of a vector bundle with a connection. We then prove a decay estimate for eigenspinors using this Kato-Yau estimate and resulting differential inequality. We briefly describe some applications to gauge theory---specifically to integral estimates which are used when gluing and ungluing PU(2) monopoles (math.DG/9907107).
We show that for a suitable class of ``Dirac-like'' operators there holds a Gluing Theorem for connected sums. More precisely, if $M_1$ and $M_2$ are closed Riemannian manifolds of dimension $n\ge 3$ together with such operators, then the connected sum $M_1 # M_2$ can be given a Riemannian metric such that the spectrum of its associated operator is close to the disjoint union of the spectra of the two original operators. As an application, we show that in dimension $n\equiv 3$ mod 4 harmonic spinors for the Dirac operator of a spin, $\Spinc$, or $\Spinh$ manifold are not topologically obstruct…
Relating the Dirac operators on the total space and on the base manifold of a horizontally conformal submersion, we characterize Dirac morphisms, i.e. maps which pull back (local) harmonic spinor fields onto (local) harmonic spinor fields.
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.
We construct non-trivial elements of order 2 in the homotopy groups $π_{8j+1+*} Diff(D^6,\partial)$, for * congruent 1 or 2 modulo 8, which are detected by the "assembling homomorphism" (giving rise to the Gromoll filtration), followed by the alpha-invariant in $KO_*=Z/2$. These elements are constructed by means of Morlet's homotopy equivalence between $Diff(D^6,\partial)$ and $Ω^7(PL_6/O_6)$, and Toda brackets in $PL_6/O_6$. We also construct non-trivial elements of order 2 in $π_* PL_m$ for every m greater or equal to 6 and * congruent to 1 or 2 modulo 8, which are detected by the alpha-inva…
We use classical (Penrose) two-component spinors to set up the differential geometry of two parabolic contact structures in five dimensions, namely $G_2$ contact geometry and Legendrean contact geometry. The key players in these two geometries are invariantly defined directional derivatives defined only in the contact directions. We explain how to define them and their usage in constructing basic invariants such as the harmonic curvature, the obstruction to being locally flat from the parabolic viewpoint. As an application, we calculate the invariant torsion of the $G_2$ contact structure on t…
We study the Yamabe invariants of cylindrical manifolds and compact orbifolds with a finite number of singularities, by means of conformal geometry and the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer $L^2$-index theory. For an $n$-orbifold $M$ with singularities $Σ_Γ = \{(\check{p}_1, Γ_1), ..., (\check{p}_s, Γ_s)\}$ (where each group $Γ_j<O(n)$ is of finite order), we define and study the \emph{orbifold Yamabe invariant} $Y^{\orb}(M)$. We prove that $Y^{\orb}(M)$ coincides with the corresponding $h$-$\emph{cylindrical Yamabe invariant}$ $Y^{h\textrm{-}\cyl}(M \setminus \{\check{p}_1, ..., \check{p}_s\})$ defined by…
Harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces arise from a conformally invariant variational problem. Therefore, on one hand, they are intimately connected with moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, and on the other hand, because the conformal group is noncompact, constitute a prototype for the formation of singularities, the so-called bubbles, in geometric analysis. In theoretical physics, they arise from the nonlinear $σ$-model of quantum field theory. That model possesses a supersymmetric extension, coupling a harmonic map like field with a nonlinear spinor field. In the physical model, that spinor fiel…
Let $M$ be a closed connected spin manifold of dimension $2$ or $3$ with a fixed orientation and a fixed spin structure. We prove that for a generic Riemannian metric on $M$ the non-harmonic eigenspinors of the Dirac operator are nowhere zero. The proof is based on a transversality theorem and the unique continuation property of the Dirac operator.
On four-dimensional closed manifolds we introduce a class of canonical Riemannian metrics, that we call weak harmonic Weyl metrics, defined as critical points in the conformal class of a quadratic functional involving the norm of the divergence of the Weyl tensor. This class includes Einstein and, more in general, harmonic Weyl manifolds. We prove that every closed four-manifold admits a weak harmonic Weyl metric, which is the unique (up to dilations) minimizer of the functional in a suitable conformal class. In general the problem is degenerate elliptic due to possible vanishing of the Weyl t…
We introduce a functional that couples the nonlinear sigma model with a spinor field: $L=\int_M[|dϕ|^2+(ψ,\Dψ)]$. In two dimensions, it is conformally invariant. The critical points of this functional are called Dirac-harmonic maps. We study some geometric and analytic aspects of such maps, in particular a removable singularity theorem.
We introduce spin-harmonic structures, a class of geometric structures on Riemannian manifolds of low dimension which are defined by a harmonic unitary spinor. Such structures are related to SU(2) (dim=4,5), SU(3) (dim=6) and G_2 (dim=7) structures; in dimension 8, a spin-harmonic structure is equivalent to a balanced Spin(7) structure. As an application, we obtain examples of compact 8-manifolds endowed with non-integrable Spin(7) structures of balanced type.
We prove that on a compact $n$-dimensional spin manifold admitting a non-trivial harmonic 1-form of constant length, every eigenvalue $λ$ of the Dirac operator satisfies the inequality $λ^2 \geq \frac{n-1}{4(n-2)}\inf_M Scal$. In the limiting case the universal cover of the manifold is isometric to $R\times N$ where $N$ is a manifold admitting Killing spinors.
