Real automorphisms of a bundle and Cauchy-Riemann operators (Q379191)

Motivated by applications in real Gromov-Witten theory, this article investigates certain issues of orientation related to complex vector bundles over Riemann surfaces with a real structure. Let \(\Sigma_g\) be a compact oriented real surface of genus \(g\) without boundary, let \(c_\Sigma:\Sigma_g\to\Sigma_g\) be an orientation reversing involution, and let \(N\to\Sigma_g\) be a complex vector bundle equipped with a compatible real structure (a semi-linear involution \(c_N\) of \(N\) above \(c_\Sigma\)). Let \(\bar\partial\) be a real Cauchy-Riemann operator on \(N\). This notion depends on the choice of a complex structure \(J\) on \(\Sigma_g\) that is compatible with orientation and involution, and the \((0,1)\) part of a connection on \(N\) that is equivariant with respect to \(c_N\). Denote by \(\text{Det}(\bar\partial)\) the determinant of the trivial complex \(\{(H^*_{\bar\partial}(\Sigma_g,N)_{+1},\bar\partial)\}\) of \(c_N\)-invariant cohomoloy groups. As \(\bar\partial\) varies over the space \({\mathbb R}{\mathcal C}(N)\) of real Cauchy-Riemann operators on \(N\), the determinants \(\text{Det}(\bar\partial)\) fit together to the determinant bundle \(\mathrm{Det}(N)\). This real line bundle is orientable over the contractible space \({\mathbb R}{\mathcal C}(N)\), but the orientation might not be preserved by automorphisms of \(N\) not connected to the identity. In the applications to real Gromov-Witten theory, \(N\) arises as the normal bundle to a \(J\)-holomorphic curve in a symplectic manifold, equipped with an anti-symplectic involution and a compatible almost complex structure, and one is interested in orienting the moduli space of such maps that are real. The deformation theory is controlled by the invariant cohomology \(H^*_{\bar\partial}(\Sigma_g,N)_{+1}\), and so the moduli space will be orientable if the orientation of \(\text{Det}(N)\) is preserved by all automorphisms of \(N\). This article is concerned with the action on \(\text{Det}(N)\) of the subgroup \({\mathbb R}\mathrm{GL}(N)\) of automorphisms that lift the identity on \(\Sigma_g\). It is shown that the sign of the action of an automorphism \(f\in {\mathbb R}\mathrm{GL}(N)\) on \(\text{Det}(N)\) can be expressed in terms of (i) the signature of the permutation induced by \(f\) of \(\mathit{Pin}^{\pm}\)-structures on the real part of \(N\), and (ii) the action induced by \(f\) on the bordism classes of real \(\mathit{Spin}\) structures on \((\Sigma_g,c_\Sigma)\). (The final formula depends a bit on the parity of the number of components of \({\mathbb R}N\), and will not be reproduced here.) This article gives a precise answer to a subtle question in the theory of Riemann surfaces with anti-holomorphic involutions that is valuable for further progress in real Gromov-Witten theory. Similar results had been obtained previously by J.~Solomon, MIT Thesis (2006), and more recently by \textit{P. Georgieva} [Geom. Topol. 17, No. 4, 2485--2512 (2013; Zbl 1278.53088)], and P.~Georgieva and A.~Zinger (several recent preprints).