Moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics (Q501100)

The interplay between analysis, geometry, and topology is clearly laid out in this book; analytic invariants are constructed to elucidate the structure of geometric moduli spaces. The book is an elegant and concise introduction to the field that puts a number of discrete papers into a coherent focus. The book begins in \S1 by discussing the topology of the space \(\mathcal{R}(M)\) of complete Riemannian metrics on a smooth manifold \(M\) and the associated moduli space \(\mathcal{M}(M)\). There are many possible topologies -- the \(C^k\) topology is modeled on a Banach space and the \(C^\infty\) topology is modeled on a Frechet space. In \S2, standard material is presented concerning Clifford algebras, the spin and half-spin representations, and the spinor group that will be used subsequently. Spin structures are introduced as well as the spin bundles. In \S3, the necessary machinery of elliptic operators is introduced. The Dirac operators and spin connections are defined and the \(\hat A\) genus is presented to describe the index of the Dirac operator. The Lichnerowicz vanishing formula is presented and the vanishing of the \(\hat A\) genus in the presence of positive scalar curvature is given. This leads in \S4 to results of Hitchin and Carr on the space of positive scalar curvature metrics. In \S5, the Kreck-Stolz \(s\)-invariant is defined; this arises from the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem and involves the eta-invariant. Then, \S6 deals with various applications of this invariant and it is shown that the moduli space of positive scalar curvature metrics on \(S^{4n-1}\) for \(n\geq 2\) has infinitely many components. Applications to positive Ricci curvature moduli spaces and to sectional curvature moduli spaces are also given. In \S7, observer moduli spaces are treated. In \S8, other results are presented -- for example work of Botvinnik et al. on the moduli space of metrics of positive scalar curvature for odd-dimensional spin manifolds with certain finite fundamental groups is given. In \S9, moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with negative sectional curvature are discussed and in \S10, the corresponding moduli spaces of non-negative sectional curvature on open manifolds are treated. The final section (\S11) deals with the Klingenberg-Sakai conjecture and the space of positively pinched metrics. There are two appendices. In Appendix A, \(K\)-theory and the \(\alpha\) invariant are discussed. An overview of the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem for manifolds with boundary is given in Appendix B. A useful bibliography of the subject appears at the end.