A remark on the space of metrics having nontrivial harmonic spinors (Q360537)

Let \(M\) be a closed spin manifold of dimension \(n\), let \(R(M)\) be the space of Riemannian metrics on \(M\) with the \(C^1\) topology, and let \(R^{\text{inv}}(M)\subset R(M)\) be the subspace of metrics with invertible Dirac operator (there are no non-trivial harmonic spinors). It is known that \(R^{\text{inv}}(S^2)=\emptyset\), and it was conjectured that \(R^{\text{inv}}(M)\neq\emptyset\) if \(n\geq3\). This conjecture was proved by \textit{N. J. Hitchin} if \(n\equiv0,\pm1\mod8\) [Adv. Math. 14, 1--55 (1974; Zbl 0284.58016)], and by \textit{C. Bär} if \(n\equiv3\mod4\) [Geom. Funct. Anal. 6, No. 6, 899--942 (1996; Zbl 0867.53037)]. More generally, \textit{M. Dahl} [Comment. Math. Helv. 83, No. 1, 451--469 (2008; Zbl 1144.53060) and \textit{M. Dahl} and \textit{N. Große}, ``Invertible Dirac operators and handle attachments on manifolds with boundary'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1203.3637v1}], studied the connectivity properties of \(R^{\text{inv}}(M)\) analyzing extensions of the metrics to surgeries or attached handles. In particular, they have shown that \(R^{\text{inv}}(M)\), if non-empty, has infinitely many path components when \(n\equiv3\mod4\). The paper under review gives a simple proof of this property using the spectral flow, the indicated result of Bär, and elementary homotopy techniques.