Markovian connection, curvature and Weitzenböck formula on Riemannian path spaces (Q5933458)

Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold and let \(P_{m_0}(M)\) be the path space of all continuous paths in \(M\) starting from \(m_0\in M\). On a compact Riemannian manifold \(M\), the classical Bochner-Weitzenböck formula takes the form \([\Delta,\nabla]f = \text{Ric} ^M(\nabla f)\). The purpose of this paper is to establish a formula of this type on the Riemannian path space \(P_{m_0}(M)\). Although the Levi-Civita connection can be defined on \(P_{m_0}(M)\), it does not preserve the \(H\)-vector fields, nor the Ito filtration, and has a divergent Ricci curvature. \textit{A.~Cruzeiro} and \textit{P.~Malliavin} [J. Funct. Anal. 139, 119-181 (1996; Zbl 0869.60060)] introduced a connection \(\nabla\) with a nonzero torsion on \(P_{m_0}(M)\), called the Markovian connection, the intrinsic gradient \(D\), and its associated Laplacian \(\Delta^P\). The author defines a pairing \(\langle z , \xi \rangle\) between a simple vector field \(z\) on \(P(M)\) and a tangent process \(\xi\) by taking the Stratonovich integral of \(z\) with respect to \(\xi\). Then, the author proves that there exist a tangent process \(\widehat{\text{Ric}}^P k\) for all \(k\) in the Cameron-Martin space \(H\) and an \(H\)-valued integrable random variable \(D^1(\nabla F)\), such that the Weitzenböck type formula \[ \langle \nabla \Delta^P F,k\rangle_H = \langle (\Delta^P + D^1)(\nabla F),k\rangle_H - \langle\widehat {\text{Ric}}^P k,\nabla F\rangle \] holds for a cylindrical functional \(F\) on \(P_{m_0}(M)\) and \(k\in H\). The term \(D^1(\nabla F)\) vanishes when the torsion of \(M\) is skew symmetric.