On a spin conformal invariant on manifolds with boundary (Q1006372)

A conformal invariant \(\lambda_{\mathrm{min}}\) is defined for compact spin Riemannian manifolds with boundary: \(\lambda_{\mathrm{min}}(M,\partial M,[g]):=\inf_{\overline{g}\in[g]}\lambda_1(\overline{g})\mathrm{Vol}(M,\overline{g})^{\frac{1}{n}}.\) The invariant is the infimum in the conformal class, rescaled with the appropriate power of the volume, of the lowest positive eigenvalue of the Dirac operator endowed with a local boundary condition called chiral bag. This boundary condition is covariant under conformal change in a similar way to the Dirac operator itself. The main result of the paper is an upper bound for the invariant in terms of the value of the invariant \(\lambda_{\mathrm{min}}\) on the round hemisphere. The proof of the similar result in the closed case has been given in [\textit{B.\ Ammann, J.-F.\ Grosjean, E.\ Humbert} and \textit{B.\ Morel}, Math. Z. 260, No.~1, 127--151 (2008; Zbl 1145.53039)]. Here, the same path is followed but with additional technical difficulties due to the boundary. The idea is to construct test spinors supported near a point of the boundary for which a quotient of Rayleigh type is arbitrarily close to the \(\lambda_{\mathrm{min}}\) of the hemisphere. This problem is related to the Yamabe problem. In particular the main result from above refines in the spin case a result of [\textit{J. F. Escobar}, J. Differ. Geom. 35, No.~1, 21--84 (1992; Zbl 0771.53017)] about the first eigenvalue of the conformal Laplacian.