Connections and the Dirac operator on spinor bundles (Q2476133)

Let \(M\) be a finite dimensional, orientable, smooth manifold, \(g\) a metric tensor field on \(M\) that is non-degenerate, but not necessarily definite, and \(\mathcal{C} l(g):=\bigcup_{x\in M}\mathcal{C} l(g_x)\) the Clifford bundle over \(M\), where \(\mathcal{C} l(g_x)\) is the Clifford algebra associated to the quadratic space \((T_xM:=\) the tangent vector space to \(M\) at \(x,g_x)\). There are two approaches to spinor fields on \((M,g)\): the first one corresponds to the use of a spin structure defined in terms of a ``reduction'' of the bundle of orthonormal frames to the spin group; the second one is based on the concept of spinor bundle for \((M,g)\), that is a complex vector bundle \(\Sigma\to M\) with a morphism \(\tau:\mathcal{C} l(g)\to \text{End}(\Sigma)\) of bundles of algebras over \(M\), where \(\text{End}(\Sigma)\) is the bundle of endomorphisms of \(\Sigma\), such that the fiber restriction \(\tau_x:\mathcal{C} l(g_x)\to \text{End}(\Sigma_x)\) of \(\tau\) is a spinor representation for every \(x\in M\), spinor fields being sections of \(\Sigma\to M\). In both approaches there are topological obstructions to the global existence of the structures required to describe spinors on manifolds. The author assumes that the topological conditions, necessary for the existence of the structures under consideration are satisfied. This paper extends a previous one by \textit{Th. Friedrich} and the author [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 18, 221--240 (2000; Zbl 0964.15033)] concerning the relation between the two approaches to spinors on manifolds by presenting a detailed description of connections on spinor bundles. The Hermitian (resp. complex) conjugate \(\tau_x^\dag:\mathcal{C} l(g_x)\to \text{End}(\overline{\Sigma}_x^*)\) [resp. \(\overline{\tau}_x:\mathcal{C} l(g_x)\to \text{End}(\overline{\Sigma}_x)\)] of the spinor representation \(\tau_x\), \(x\in M\), where \(\overline{\Sigma}_x\) (resp. \(\overline{\Sigma}_x^*\)) is the complex conjugate of \(\Sigma_x\) (resp. the dual of \(\overline{\Sigma}_x\)), leads to a morphism \(\tau^\dag:\mathcal{C} l(g)\to \text{End}(\overline{\Sigma}^*)\) [resp. \(\overline{\tau}:\mathcal{C} l(g)\to \text{End}(\overline{\Sigma})\)]. These data define a real line bundle \(\mathfrak{a}(\tau)\subset \Sigma^*\otimes\overline{\Sigma}^*\) and the bundle of circles \(\mathfrak{c}(\tau)\subset \Sigma^*\otimes\overline{\Sigma}\) of intertwiners of \(\tau\) with \(\tau^\dag\) and \(\overline{\tau}\) respectively. If there exist sections of \(\mathfrak{a}(\tau)\to M\) and of \(\mathfrak{c}(\tau)\to M\), the author shows that any metric linear connection (eventually with torsion) on \((M,g)\) defines a unique connection \(\nabla\) on \(\Sigma\) with respect to which both these sections are covariantly constant, and the Dirac operator defined by \(\nabla\), acting on sections of \(\Sigma\to M\), is globally defined. In particular, the trivial spinor bundle on an oriented hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^m\), endowed with a positive-definite metric tensor field, and the corresponding Dirac operator are described in detail. The paper also includes an interesting historical aside concerning spinor fields and their relations to geometry.