Spinors of real type as polyforms and the generalized Killing equation (Q2664641)

The authors consider the following question: suppose that \(\mathcal D \colon \Gamma(S) \to \Omega^1(M,S)\) is a connection on a irreducble real Clifford module bundle \(S\) over a pseudo-Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\). Can the generalised Killing equation \[\mathcal D \epsilon = 0,\] possibly supplemented with a linear constraint equation \(\mathcal Q \epsilon = 0\), be understood \textit{equivalently} as a system of algebraic and partial differential equation on the (not necessarily homogeneous) differential form \(\alpha\) obtained by squaring \(\epsilon\)? The authors solve this problem if \((M,g)\) is strongly spin and \(g\) has signature \((p,q)\) and \(p-q = 0,2 \mod 8\) (Theorems 1.1 and 4.26). The authors discuss applications to spin Lorentzian \(4\)-manifolds and Killing spinors (Theorems 1.2, 1.3, 1.4) thereon among others.