Singular Hermitian metrics on holomorphic vector bundles (Q496816)

The article introduces and studies the notions of singular hermitian metrics on holomorphic vector bundles. Let \(E \rightarrow X\) be a holomorphic vector bundle over a complex manifold \(X\). A possible singular hermitian metric \(h\) on \(E\) is by definition, a measurable map from \(X\) to the space of non-negative hermitian forms on the fibres [\textit{B. Berndtsson} and \textit{M. Păun}, Duke Math. J. 145, No. 2, 341--378 (2008; Zbl 1181.32025)]. The main results of the article is a study of the connections and curvatures of \((E,h)\) when \((E,h)\) is negatively (or positively) curved in the sense of Griffiths. The author defines first the notion of a positively (or negatively) curved metric as follows. Let \(E\) be a holomorphic vector bundle with a possibly singular hermitian metric \(h\). We say that \((E,h)\) is negatively curved in the sense of Griffiths if \(\|u\|_h ^2\) is plurisubharmonic for any local holomorphic section \(u\). We say that \((E ,h)\) is positively curved, if the dual metric is negatively curved. The author shows that this definition is equivalent to the definition of [loc. cit.]. Note that, when \(h\) is a smooth hermitian metric, then \((E ,h)\) is positively curved if and only if \(\Theta_h (E)\) is Griffiths semipositive. The main part of the article is devoted to studying the connection matrix and the curvatures of \(h\) when \((E,h)\) is negatively curved. One of the powerful results of the article reads as follows: Let \(E\) be a holomorphic vector bundle with a possible singular metric \(h\). If \((E,h)\) is negatively curved and \(\det h > \epsilon\) for some \(\epsilon >0\), then the curvature matrix \(\Theta_h (E)\) is well defined (with measure coefficients). The article is well written and has many nice applications in complex geometry (cf. for example [\textit{M. Păun} and \textit{S. Takayama}, ``Positivity of twisted relative pluricanonical bundles and their direct images'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1409.5504}]).