Witten deformation and the equivariant index

DOI10.1007/S10455-008-9113-0MaRDI QIDQ1014882zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Igor Prokhorenkov, Ken Richardson

Publication date 29 April 2009

Published in Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0610160

equivariant index Killing vector field localization singularities transversally elliptic operator Witten deformation

Index theory and related fixed-point theorems on manifolds (58J20) Perturbations of PDEs on manifolds; asymptotics (58J37) Spectral problems; spectral geometry; scattering theory on manifolds (58J50)

Abstract: Let

M

be a compact Riemannian manifold endowed with an isometric action of a compact Lie group. The method of the Witten deformation is used to compute the virtual representation-valued equivariant index of a transversally elliptic, first order differential operator on

M

. The multiplicities of irreducible representations in the index are expressed in terms of local quantities associated to the isolated singular points of an equivariant bundle map that is locally Clifford multiplication by a Killing vector field near these points.

Review text

Let \(G\) be a compact Lie group acting isometrically on a closed Riemannian manifold \(M\) and let \(E\) be a \(G\)-equivariant \(\mathbb Z/2\)-graded Hermitian vector bundle on \(M\). Transversally elliptic \(G\)-equivariant differential operators acting on the space of sections \(\Gamma(M,E)\) were introduced by \textit{M. F. Atiyah} [Elliptic operators and compact groups. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 401. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1974; Zbl 0297.58009)]. If such an operator \(D\) is odd, the formal sum \[ \text{ind}^G(D^+)=\sum_{\rho} (a^+_{\rho}-a^-_{\rho}) [\rho], \] which is taken over all irreducible representations, is well-defined. Here, \(a^{\pm}_{\rho}\) is the multiplicity of the representation \(\rho\) in \(\text{Ker}(D^{\pm})\). Let \(Z\) be an equivariant selfadjoint odd bundle endomorphism on \(E\) with a finite number of singular points. Near these, \(D\) is assumed to be a Dirac operator and \(Z\) a Clifford multiplication by \(iV\), where \(V\) is an element in the Lie algebra of the maximal torus \(T\) of \(G\) such that \(\{\exp(tV)\mid t \in {\mathbb R}\}\) is dense in \(T\). The authors use Witten deformation in order to express the indices \(\text{ind}^{\rho}(D^+):=a^+_{\rho}-a^-_{\rho}\) in terms of local data associated to \(D\) and \(Z\) near the singular points: By adapting a localization technique due to \textit{M. A. Shubin} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 6, 370--409 (1996; Zbl 0861.58039)], they show that for \(s \to \infty\) the spectrum of the operator \(\frac 1s(D+sZ)^2\) restricted to the isotypical component of type \(\rho\) in \(\Gamma(M,E^{\pm})\) concentrates to the spectrum of a model operator defined in terms of data near the singular points. For a torus action, the spectrum (with multiplicities) of the model operator can be explicitely determined -- in particular the dimension of the kernel. By using that \(\text{ind}^{\rho}(D^+)=\text{ind}^{\rho}(D^++sZ^+)\) and by considering the action of the maximal torus of \(G\), the authors obtain a formula for \(\text{ind}^{\rho}(D^+)\). They apply it to the signature operator and the de Rham operator.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(5)

This page was built for publication: Witten deformation and the equivariant index

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1014882)