Spacetime topology. I: Chirality and the third Stiefel-Whitney class

DOI10.1023/A:1014067520822MaRDI QIDQ5959213zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Frank Antonsen, Malene Steen Nielsen Flagga

Publication date 26 March 2002

Published in International Journal of Theoretical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014067520822

zbMATH Keywords

chiralityspacetime topologyStiefel Whitney class

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Steenrod algebra (55S10) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05)

Review text

The authors present a physical interpretation of the third Stiefel Whitney class of a space time model. Namely, they show that this class is related to chirality. First they present some facts about the relationship of the space time orientability and the triviality of the first Stiefel Whitney class and the existence of the spinor structure and the triviality of the second Stiefel Whitney class. Next they consider the chiral (Weyl) spinors and show that the chirality is globally defined if and only if \(w_3\) is trivial.

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