Boundary value problems for Yang-Mills fields (Q1184375)

This paper is concerned with boundary value problems for Hermitian Yang- Mills (HYM) equations over complex manifolds, the main conclusion being the unique solubility of the Dirichlet problem for the HYM equations. The following is a more precise formulation of the remarkable result. Let \(E\) denote a holomorphic vector bundle over a complex manifold \(Z\), the fibres of \(E\) being endowed with a Hermitian metric \(H\). Under these circumstances a preferred unitary connection is induced on \(E\), with curvature \(F_ H\). It is supposed, that the base manifold \(Z\) has a fixed Kähler metric with Kähler form \(\omega\) and that \(\Lambda: \Omega_ Z^{1,1}\to\Omega_ Z^{0,0}\) is the contraction \(\Lambda(\theta)=(\omega,\theta)\). The HYP equation for the metric \(H\) is the condition \(i \Lambda F_ H=0\). In the context of this paper it is assumed, that \(Z\) is the interior of a compact manifold \(\overline Z\) with non-empty boundary \(\partial Z\) and that \(\omega\) is smooth and nondegenerate on \(\partial Z\). Also, the holomorphic bundle \(E\) is supposed to extend to \(\partial Z\), in which case \(E\) is said to be a holomorphic bundle over \(\overline Z\). The main result of the paper can now be stated as: Theorem: Let \(E\) be a holomorphic vector bundle over the compact Kähler manifold \(\overline Z\) with non-empty boundary \(\partial Z\). For any Hermitian metric \(f\) on the restriction of \(E\) to \(\partial Z\) there is a unique metric \(H\) on \(E\) such that (i) \(H=f\) over \(\partial Z\), and (ii) \(i\Lambda F_ H=0\) in \(Z\). A substantial part of the paper is devoted to various ramifications of the theorem, such as the geometry of loop groups, surfaces of constant mean curvature in hyperbolic space, and a von Neumann problem for the HYM equations.