Spin structures and spectra of \(\mathbb{Z}_2^k\)-manifolds (Q1762697)

In this paper the authors study the question whether ``one can hear'' whether a Riemannian manifold is spin or pin. More precisely, given a compact Riemannian manifold \(M\), does the spectrum of the Laplace operator acting on functions contain the information whether or not \(M\) has a spin (or pin) structure? The answer turns out to be negative. For any \(n\geq 4\) the authors construct pairs of compact flat \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifolds \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) (so called Bieberbach manifolds) such that the Laplace operators acting on functions and the ones acting on forms (of all degrees) have the same spectrum on \(M_1\) and on \(M_2\) but \(M_1\) admits a pin structure while \(M_2\) does not. For any \(n\geq 6\) the same is done with orientable Bieberbach manifolds such that \(M_1\) admits a spin structure while \(M_2\) does not.