The Casimir operator of a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion (Q1781415)

This article deals with a Riemannian manifold \((M^n, g, \nabla)\) equipped with a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion \(T\) and the Dirac operator \(D^{1/3}\) whose square corresponds to the connections with torsion form \(T/3\). Using the spinor fields and the Dirac operator over \(M\), an elliptic second order differential operator \(\Omega\) is introduced, which differs from \((D^{1/3})^2\) by a zero-order term related to the torsion \(T\) and the scalar curvature. As the operator \(\Omega\) coincides with the Casimir operator when \(M\) is homogeneous, the operator \(\Omega\) is called as in the title. Since such a triplet \((M^n, g, \nabla)\) appears in the several non-homogeneous spaces, the authors study Sasakian, nearly Kähler, cocalibrated \(G_2\)-structured manifolds, using the operator \(\Omega\). They explicitly compare the kernel of \(\Omega\) and the space of \(\nabla\)-parallel spinors over there.