Reconstruction of Betti numbers of manifolds for anisotropic Maxwell and Dirac systems (Q641534)

The authors consider an invariant formulation of Maxwell's equations for a general anisotropic medium on a compact orientable Riemannian three-manifold \((M,g)\) with nonempty boundary. Usually, the Betti numbers of a manifold are defined as sums of dimensions of harmonic forms. The new result is that the Betti numbers can be recovered from the dynamical response operator for the Dirac system given on a part of the boundary. The proof uses \textit{A. S. Blagovestchenskij}'s result from [Semin. Math., V. A. Steklov Math. Inst., Leningrad 15 (1969), 45--48 (1971); translation from Zap. Nauchn. Semin. Leningr. Otd. Mat. Inst. Steklova 15, 85--90 (1969; Zbl 0223.35058)] and Stokes formulas. A comparison with electromagnetic field theory is made.