Positivity of direct image bundles and convexity on the space of Kähler metrics (Q1014736)

The present paper continues the work in [``Positivity properties of direct image bundles,'' \url{arXiv:math/0511255}] for the special case of trivial fibrations over a one-dimensional base. In the general situation, the trivial bundle \(E\) over a complex domain \(U\) with fibre the space of global holomorphic \(\hat L\)-valued \((n,0)\)-forms on \(Z\) (where \(Z\) is a compact complex \(n\)-dimensional manifold, and \(\hat L\) a positive line bundle over it) has a naturally defined nontrivial metric \(H_\phi\) which is defined in terms of \(\phi,\) a Hermitian metric on the pullback bundle of \(\hat L\) under the projection \(U\times Z\rightarrow Z\). Thus, \(E\) is an Hermitian vector bundle with an Hermitian metric \(H_\phi\) and it makes sense to study its curvature \(\Theta^E\). The author studies properties of the curvature \(\Theta^E\) for the one-dimensional base situation, which leads to simplified expressions and, in particular, gives conditions on the metric \(\phi\) that characterize the presence of null-vectors for the curvature \(\Theta^E\), for the case when \(\phi\) is semi-positive. For a trivial vector bundle \(F\) with fibre \(H^0(Z,L)\) (instead of the fibre \(H^0(Z,L\otimes K_Z)\) used to define \(E\)) with an appropriate \(L^2\)-norm, an estimate (from above) for the curvature \(\Theta^F\) is given. This implies \(\omega^{n+1}=0\) on \(U\times Z\) and \(\Theta^F\) is semi-negative. For the particular case of Hermitian bundles \(E(p)\) (by replacing \(L\) by \(L^p\) for some positive integer \(p\)) the author addresses the question of the asymptotic behavior of \(\Theta^p\) as \(p\) tends to infinity. An asymptotic formula for the average of the eigenvalues of the curvature, \(\tau(p)\) is given and its relation to degeneracy is examined. In the last sections, the relation between the vector bundles \(E(p)\) and the Mabuchi functional from Kähler geometry is discussed. This is used to study variations of Kähler metrics on \(Z\) through the analysis of the induced norms \(H_\phi\).