On the existence of harmonic \(\mathbf{Z}_2\) spinors (Q2039748)

Harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinors appear naturally as limiting objects in compactifications of moduli spaces arising in gauge theory. The notion was introduced by Taubes in his work on the compactness problem for flat \(\operatorname{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})\)-connections on 3-manifolds [\textit{C. H. Taubes}, Camb. J. Math. 1, No. 2, 239--397 (2013; Zbl 1296.53051); Camb. J. Math. 3, No. 4, 619--631 (2015; Zbl 1402.53020)]. Most relevant to the paper under review, harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinors also arise as limits of solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equations with two spinors on 3-manifolds [\textit{A. Haydys} and \textit{T. Walpuski}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 25, No. 6, 1799--1821 (2015; Zbl 1334.53039)]. A harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinor on a Riemannian manifold \(M\) endowed with a Dirac bundle \(\mathbf{S}\) is a harmonic spinor \(\Psi\) with values in \(\mathbf{S}\otimes\mathfrak{l}\), where \(\mathfrak{l}\) is a real orthogonal line bundle defined outside a closed subset \(Z\subset M\) such that \(|\Psi|\) extends continuouly on \(M\) with \(Z=|\Psi|^{-1}(0)\). The \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinor is said to be singular if the bundle \(\mathfrak{l}\) does not extend over \(Z\) (if it does, then \(\Psi\) is a harmonic \(\mathbf{S}\otimes \mathfrak{l}\)-valued spinor on \(M\) in the usual sense). Although they play such an important role in the failure of compactness of important gauge theoretic problems, it has been unknown whether singular harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinors exist besides situations where existence can be reduced to complex geometry by dimensional reduction. The main result of the paper under review is a general existence result, for the particular choice of Dirac bundle \(\mathbf{S}\) arising from the compactness problem for the Seiberg-Witten equations with two spinors, of harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinors on any closed oriented \(3\)-manifold \(M\) with \(b_1(M)>1\). The proof of the existence result is indirect. Assuming there are no harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinors, for generic choices of parameters (Riemannian metric, etc.) the moduli space of solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equations with two spinors is a compact 0-dimensional oriented manifold. Since the space of parameters for which this is true is not connected, however, the oriented count of these moduli spaces is not constant in parameter space. The authors prove a general wall-crossing formula for the oriented count of solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equations with two spinors: the formula is interpreted as a topological intersection number of a generic path in parameter space with the codimension-1 co-oriented submanifold of parameters admitting a nowhere vanishing harmonic spinor. The authors then exhibit a loop in parameter space with non-trivial topological intersection number: the failure of the wall-crossing formula then implies the existence of a (necessarily singular) harmonic \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) spinor.