We show that for generic Riemannian metrics on a simply-connected closed spin manifold of dimension at least 5 the dimension of the space of harmonic spinors is no larger than it must be by the index theorem. The same result holds for periodic fundamental groups of odd order.
The proof is based on a surgery theorem for the Dirac spectrum which says that if one performs surgery of codimension at least 3 on a closed Riemannian spin manifold, then the Dirac spectrum changes arbitrarily little provided the metric on the manifold after surgery is chosen properly.
Let X be a closed Riemannian manifold and let H\hookrightarrow X be an embedded hypersurface. Let X=X_+ \cup_H X_- be a decomposition of X into two manifolds with boundary, with X_+ \cap X_- = H. In this expository article, surgery -- or gluing -- formulæfor several geometric and spectral invariants associated to a Dirac-type operator ð_X on X are presented. Considered in detail are: the index of ð_X, the index bundle and the determinant bundle associated to a family of such operators, the eta invariant and the analytic torsion. In each case the precise form of the surgery theorems, as well as…
We review the work of the authors and their collaborators on the decomposition of the zeta-determinant of the Dirac operator into the contribution coming from different parts of a manifold.
We prove that the mass endomorphism associated to the Dirac operator on a Riemannian manifold is non-zero for generic Riemannian metrics. The proof involves a study of the mass endomorphism under surgery, its behavior near metrics with harmonic spinors, and analytic perturbation arguments.
Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group, and $M$ a compact Hamiltonian $G$-space, with moment map $J$. For each $G$-equivariant Hermitian vector bundle $E$ over $M$, one has an associated twisted Spin-C Dirac operator, whose equivariant index is a symplectic invariant of $E$. In the present paper, we study gluing properties of the equivariant index under "symplectic cutting" operations. Our main application is a proof of the Guillemin-Sternberg conjecture, which says that if $E=L$ is a quantizing line bundle and $0$ a regular value of $J$, the multiplicity of the trivial representation in the…
On a compact spin manifold we study the space of Riemannian metrics for which the Dirac operator is invertible. The first main result is a surgery theorem stating that such a metric can be extended over the trace of a surgery of codimension at least three. We then prove that if non-empty the space of metrics with invertible Dirac operators is disconnected in dimensions $n \equiv 0,1,3,7 \mod 8$, $n \geq 5$. As a corollary follows results on the existence of metrics with harmonic spinors by Hitchin and Bär. Finally we use computations of the eta invariant by Botvinnik and Gilkey to find metrics…
We prove that for cobordant closed spin manifolds of dimension $n\geq 3$ the associated spaces of metrics with invertible Dirac operator are homotopy equivalent. This is the spinorial counterpart of a similar result on positive scalar curvature of Chernysh/Walsh and generalizes the surgery result of Ammann-Dahl-Humbert on the existence of metrics with invertible Dirac operator under surgery. We also give a relative statement of this homotopy equivalence.
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.
We investigate the Dolbeault operator on a pair of pants, i.e., an elementary cobordism between a circle and the disjoint union of two circles. This operator induces a canonical selfadjoint Dirac operator $D_t$ on each regular level set $C_t$ of a fixed Morse function defining this cobordism. We show that as we approach the critical level set $C_0$ from above and from below these operators converge in the gap topology to (different) selfadjoint operators $D_\pm$ that we describe explicitly. We also relate the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index of the Dolbeault operator on the cobordism to the spectral…
Let $M$ be a compact manifold with a metric $g$ and with a fixed spin structure $χ$. Let $λ\_1^+(g)$ be the first non-negative eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on $(M,g,χ)$. We set $$τ(M,χ):= \sup \inf λ\_1^+(g)$$ where the infimum runs over all metrics $g$ of volume 1 in a conformal class $[g\_0]$ on $M$ and where the supremum runs over all conformal classes $[g\_0]$ on $M$. Let $(M^#,χ^#)$ be obtained from $(M,χ)$ by 0-dimensional surgery. We prove that $$τ(M^#,χ^#)\geq τ(M,χ).$$ As a corollary we can calculate $τ(M,χ)$ for any Riemann surface $M$.
We associate to a compact spin manifold M a real-valued invariant τ(M) by taking the supremum over all conformal classes over the infimum inside each conformal class of the first positive Dirac eigenvalue, normalized to volume 1. This invariant is a spinorial analogue of Schoen's $σ$-constant, also known as the smooth Yamabe number. We prove that if N is obtained from M by surgery of codimension at least 2, then $τ(N) \geq \min\{τ(M),Λ_n\}$ with $Λ_n>0$. Various topological conclusions can be drawn, in particular that τis a spin-bordism invariant below $Λ_n$. Below $Λ_n$, the values of $τ$ can…
In this article, we prove that on any compact spin manifold of dimension m congruent 0,6,7 mod 8, there exists a metric, for which the associated Dirac operator has at least one eigenvalue of multiplicity at least two. We prove this by catching the desired metric in a subspace of Riemannian metrics with a loop that is not homotopically trivial. We show how this can be done on the sphere with a loop of metrics induced by a family of rotations. Finally, we transport this loop to an arbitrary manifold (of suitable dimension) by extending some known results about surgery theory on spin manifolds.
We study the spectrum of the Laplacian on hyperbolic 3-manifolds with Dehn surgery type singularities and its dependence on the generalized Dehn surgery coefficients.
The main result of this paper is a new and direct proof of the natural transformation from the surgery exact sequence in topology to the analytic K-theory sequence of Higson and Roe. Our approach makes crucial use of analytic properties and new index theorems for the signature operator on Galois coverings with boundary. These are of independent interest and form the second main theme of the paper. The main technical novelty is the use of large scale index theory for Dirac type operators that are perturbed by lower order operators.
In this paper we prove the existence of a natural mapping from the surgery exact sequence for topological manifolds to the analytic surgery exact sequence of N. Higson and J. Roe. This generalizes the fundamental result of Higson and Roe, but in the treatment given by Piazza and Schick, from smooth manifolds to topological manifolds. Crucial to our treatment is the Lipschitz signature operator of Teleman. We also give a generalization to the equivariant setting of the product defined by Siegel in his Ph.D. thesis. Geometric applications are given to stability results for rho classes. We also o…
We establish an upper estimate for the small eigenvalues of the twisted Dirac operator on Kahler submanifolds in Kahler manifolds carrying Kahlerian Killing spinors. We then compute the spectrum of the twisted Dirac operator of the canonical embedding \CP^d \rightarrow \CP^n in order to test the sharpness of the upper bounds
We describe a new family of examples of hypersurfaces in the sphere satisfying the limiting-case in C. Bär's extrinsic upper bound for the smallest eigenvalue of the Dirac operator.
Using Weitzenböck techniques on any compact Riemannian spin manifold we derive a general inequality depending on a real parameter and joining the spectrum of the Dirac operator with terms depending on the Ricci tensor and its first covariant derivatives. The discussion of this inequality yields vanishing theorems for the kernel of the Dirac operator $D$ and new lower bounds for the spectrum of $D^2$ if the Ricci tensor satisfies certain conditions.
In this paper, we prove the invariance of the spectrum of the basic Dirac operator defined on a Riemannian foliation $(M,\mathcal{F})$ with respect to a change of bundle-like metric. We then establish new estimates for its eigenvalues on spin flows in terms of the O'Neill tensor and the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on $M$. We discuss examples and also define a new version of the basic Laplacian whose spectrum does not depend on the choice of bundle-like metric.
It is well-known that the spectrum of a $\text{spin}^{\mathbb{C}}$ Dirac operator on a closed Riemannian $\text{spin}^{\mathbb{C}}$ manifold $M^{2k}$ of dimension $2k$ for $k \in \mathbb{N}$ is symmetric. In this article, we prove that over an odd-dimensional Riemannian product $M_{1}^{2p} \times M_{2}^{2q+1}$ with a product $\text{spin}^{\mathbb{C}}$ structure for $p \geq 1, q \geq 0$, the spectrum of a $\text{spin}^{\mathbb{C}}$ Dirac operator given by a product connection is symmetric if and only if either the $\text{spin}^{\mathbb{C}}$ Dirac spectrum of $M_{2}^{2q+1}$ is symmetric or $(e^{…
This is a survey article on a known generalization of Dirac-type operators to transverse operators called basic Dirac operators on Riemannian foliations, which are smooth foliations that have a transverse geometric structure. Construction of these operators requires the additional structure of what is called a bundle-like metric. We explain the result by Habib-R. that the spectrum of such an operator is independent of the choice of bundle-like metric, provided that the transverse geometric structure is fixed. We discuss consequences, which include defining a new version of the exterior derivat…
This manuscript attempts to present a way in which the classical construction of the Dirac operator can be carried over to the setting of diffeology. A more specific aim is to describe a procedure for gluing together two usual Dirac operators and to explain in what sense the result is again a Dirac operator. Since versions of cut-and-paste (surgery) operations have already appeared in the context of Atiyah-Singer theory, we specify that our gluing procedure is designed to lead to spaces that are not smooth manifolds in any ordinary sense, and since much attention has been paid in recent years …
We show that the Dirac operator on a spin manifold does not admit $L^2$ eigenspinors provided the metric has a certain asymptotic behaviour and is a warped product near infinity. These conditions on the metric are fulfilled in particular if the manifold is complete and carries a non-complete vector field which outside a compact set is gradient conformal and non-vanishing.
Let $M$ be an orientable compact flat Riemannian manifold endowed with a spin structure. In this paper we determine the spectrum of Dirac operators acting on smooth sections of twisted spinor bundles of $M$, and we derive a formula for the corresponding eta series. In the case of manifolds with holonomy group $\Z_2^k$, we give a very simple expression for the multiplicities of eigenvalues that allows to compute explicitly the $η$-series in terms of values of Riemann-Hurwitz zeta functions, and the $η$-invariant. We give the dimension of the space of harmonic spinors and characterize all $\Z_2^…
We show that any two left-invariant metrics on $S^3\cong\operatorname{SU}(2)$ which are isospectral for the associated classical Dirac operator $D$ must be isometric. In the case of left-invariant metrics of positive scalar curvature, we compute and use the smallest eigenvalue of $D^2$. We show analogous results for left-invariant metrics on $\operatorname{SO}(3)=S^3/\{\pm1\}$ for each of its two spin structures.
We study the spectrum of the Dirac operator $D$ on pseudo-Riemannian spin manifolds of signature $(p,q)$, considered as an unbounded operator in the Hilbert space $L^2_ξ(S)$. The definition of $L^2_ξ(S)$ involves the choice of a $p$-dimensional time-like subbundle $ξ\subset TM$. We establish a sufficient criterion for the spectra of $D$ induced by two maximal time-like subbundles $ξ_1,ξ_2\subset TM$ to be equal. If the base manifold $M$ is compact, the spectrum does not depend on $ξ$ at all. We then proceed by explicitely computing the full spectrum of $D$ for $\mathbb R^{p,q}$, the flat torus…
It is a well-known fact that on a bounded spectral interval the Dirac spectrum can be described locally by a non-decreasing sequence of continuous functions of the Riemannian metric. In the present article we extend this result to a global version. We think of the spectrum of a Dirac operator as a function from the integers to the reals and endow the space of all spectra with an arsinh-uniform metric. We prove that the spectrum of the Dirac operator depends continuously on the Riemannian metric. As a corollary, we obtain the existence of a non-decreasing family of functions on the space of all…
We present a spectral rigidity result for the Dirac operator on lens spaces. More specifically, we show that each homogeneous lens space and each three dimensional lens space $L(q;p)$ with $q$ prime is completely characterized by its Dirac spectrum in the class of all lens spaces.
We study the $L^p$-spectrum of the Dirac operator on complete manifolds. One of the main questions in this context is whether this spectrum depends on $p$. As a first example where $p$-independence fails we compute explicitly the $L^p$-spectrum for the hyperbolic space and its product with compact spaces.
We show that for compact Riemannian manifolds of dimension at least $3$ with nonempty boundary, we can modify the manifold by performing surgeries of codimension $2$ or higher, while keeping the Steklov spectrum nearly unchanged. This shows that certain changes in the topology of a domain do not have an effect when considering shape optimization questions for Steklov eigenvalues in dimensions $3$ and higher. Our result generalizes the 1-dimensional surgery in [FS2] to higher dimensional surgeries and to higher eigenvalues. It is proved in [FS2] that the unit ball does not maximize the first no…
In this note, we consider the Dirac operator $D$ on a Riemannian symmetric space $M$ of noncompact type. Using representation theory we show that $D$ has point spectrum iff the $\hat A$-genus of its compact dual does not vanish. In this case, if $M$ is irreducible then $M = U(p,q)/U(p) \times U(q)$ with $p+q$ odd, and $Spec_p(D) = \{0\}$.
We compute the spectrum of the Dirac operator on 3-dimensional Heisenberg manifolds. The behavior under collapse to the 2-torus is studied. Depending on the spin structure either all eigenvalues tend to $\pm\infty$ or there are eigenvalues converging to those of the torus. This is shown to be true in general for collapsing circle bundles with totally geodesic fibers. Using the Hopf fibration we use this fact to compute the Dirac eigenvalues on complex projective space including the multiplicities. Finally, we show that there are 1-parameter families of Riemannian nilmanifolds such that the Lap…
