scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2084980

Publication date 9 August 2004

loop spaces vanishing theorems Witten genus

Relations with algebraic geometry and topology (11F23) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to (K)-theory (19-02) Index theory (19K56) Characteristic classes and numbers in differential topology (57R20) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to global analysis (58-02) Index theory and related fixed-point theorems on manifolds (58J20) Elliptic genera (58J26)

Review text

This is an overview the intention of which is not to derive new results, but to concentrate on presenting the essential ideas, and provides good references. The first section recalls the vanishing theorems of Atiyah-Hirzebruch and Lawson-Yau. The following section presents Witten's idea to establish similar vanishing theorems on loop spaces. In particular, it explains some motivating results for the following conjecture due to Hoehn and Stolz [see \textit{S. Stolz}, Math. Ann. 304, No.4, 785--800 (1996; Zbl 0856.53033)]: Conjecture. Let \(M\) be a compact spin manifold with positive Ricci curvature and \(p_1(M)=0\). Then the twisted Dirac operator on the loop space of \(M\) has index \(0\). The third section is dedicated to family versions of the vanishing theorems for loop spaces. The results are briefly sketched, and good references to the original articles are included. These results were obtained by K. Liu in collaboration with X. Ma and W. Zhang [Duke Math. J. 102, No. 3, 451--474 (2000; Zbl 0988.58010), C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I, Math. 330, No. 4, 301--305 (2000; Zbl 0951.55008), Asian J. Math. 4, No. 4, 933--960 (2000; Zbl 0995.58015)]. The fourth section summarizes some refined \(K\)-theoretical versions of these vanishing theorems. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0964.00031].

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The finiteness obstruction for loop spaces

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