Schrödinger operators and index bounds for minimal submanifolds (Q1344002)

Let \(M^ m\) be a complete \(m\)-dimensional manifold, possibly with boundary, that is minimally immersed in a compact \(n\)-manifold \(N^ n\). The authors study the operator \(\Delta+q\) on \(M\), where \(\Delta\) is the Lapalce-Beltrami operator and \(q\) is a real-valued function on \(M\). In this paper, the more general case of an operator \(\nabla^ 2 +Q\) on a Riemannian vector bundle over \(M\) is considered, where \(\nabla^ 2\) denotes the Bochner-Laplacian of the vector bundle and \(Q\) is a symmetric endomorphism. Some very interesting results are obtained for the eigenvalues of these operators involving \(L^{m/2}\)-norms of \(q\) and constants depending only on \(m\) and the ambient manifold \(N\).