Non-self-dual Yang-Mills connections with quadrupole symmetry (Q1193091): Difference between revisions

As announced in an earlier paper [\textit{J. E. Avron}, \textit{L. Sadun}, \textit{J. Segert} and \textit{B. Simon}, Commun. Math. Phys. 124, No. 4, 595-627 (1989)] the authors prove the existence of non-self-dual (i.e. neither self-dual nor anti-self-dual) Yang-Mills connections of all \(SU(2)\) bundles over the four-sphere whose second Chern number \(C_ 2\neq\pm 1\). For \(C_ 2=0\) this is a known result, for \(C_ 2=\pm1\) the problem is still open. If \(C_ 2=k\neq\pm1\), the number of distinct non-self-dual Yang-Mills connections thus obtained is equal to the number of distinct odd positive factors of \(k\) (minus one, if \(k=\pm n(n+1)\) for some \(n=1,2,3,\dots\)). Here \(SU(2)=Sp(1)\) is the unit sphere in the quaternions, and its action on \(S^ 4\) is that induced from its unique irreducible representation on \(\mathbb{R}^ 5\). The inequivariant lifts of this action to \(SU(2)\) bundles over \(S^ 4\) are naturally classified by a pair of odd positive integers \((n_ +,n_ -)\). These bundles are denoted by \(P_{(n_ +,n_ -)}\to S^ 4\), referred to as quadrupole bundles, and were introduced in the quoted paper. The central theorem --- from which the main result follows --- states that on each such quadrupole bundle with \(n_ +\neq 1\) and \(n_ -\neq 1\) there exists a smooth non-self-dual \(SU(2)\) Yang-Mills connection, and that all these connections are distinct.