Killing superalgebras for lorentzian five-manifolds

We calculate the relevant Spencer cohomology of the minimal Poincaré superalgebra in 5 spacetime dimensions and use it to define Killing spinors via a connection on the spinor bundle of a 5-dimensional lorentzian spin manifold. We give a definition of bosonic backgrounds in terms of this data. By imposing constraints on the curvature of the spinor connection, we recover the field equations of minimal (ungauged) 5-dimensional supergravity, but also find a set of field equations for an $$ \mathfrak{sp} $$ sp (1)-valued one-form which we interpret as the bosonic data of a class of rigid supersymmetric theories on curved backgrounds. We define the Killing superalgebra of bosonic backgrounds and show that their existence is implied by the field equations. The maximally supersymmetric backgrounds are characterised and their Killing superalgebras are explicitly described as filtered deformations of the Poincaré superalgebra.

A long neck principle for Riemannian spin manifolds with positive scalar curvature

We develop index theory on compact Riemannian spin manifolds with boundary in the case when the topological information is encoded by bundles which are supported away from the boundary. As a first application, we establish a “long neck principle” for a compact Riemannian spin n-manifold with boundary X, stating that if $${{\,\mathrm{scal}\,}}(X)\ge n(n-1)$$ scal ( X ) ≥ n ( n - 1 ) and there is a nonzero degree map into the sphere $$f:X\rightarrow S^n$$ f : X → S n which is strictly area decreasing, then the distance between the support of $$\text {d}f$$ d f and the boundary of X is at most $$\pi /n$$ π / n . This answers, in the spin setting and for strictly area decreasing maps, a question recently asked by Gromov. As a second application, we consider a Riemannian manifold X obtained by removing k pairwise disjoint embedded n-balls from a closed spin n-manifold Y. We show that if $${{\,\mathrm{scal}\,}}(X)>\sigma >0$$ scal ( X ) > σ > 0 and Y satisfies a certain condition expressed in terms of higher index theory, then the radius of a geodesic collar neighborhood of $$\partial X$$ ∂ X is at most $$\pi \sqrt{(n-1)/(n\sigma )}$$ π ( n - 1 ) / ( n σ ) . Finally, we consider the case of a Riemannian n-manifold V diffeomorphic to $$N\times [-1,1]$$ N × [ - 1 , 1 ] , with N a closed spin manifold with nonvanishing Rosenebrg index. In this case, we show that if $${{\,\mathrm{scal}\,}}(V)\ge \sigma >0$$ scal ( V ) ≥ σ > 0 , then the distance between the boundary components of V is at most $$2\pi \sqrt{(n-1)/(n\sigma )}$$ 2 π ( n - 1 ) / ( n σ ) . This last constant is sharp by an argument due to Gromov.

Generalized linking theorem with applications to nonautonomous Hamiltonian systems and Dirac equations on compact spin manifold

Let [Formula: see text] be a Riemannian manifold with finite volume and [Formula: see text] be a linear topological space. We consider the strongly indefinite superlinear problem [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is a self-adjoint linear operator, [Formula: see text] is a real Hilbert space with the compact embedding [Formula: see text] if [Formula: see text] for some [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]. We obtain the existence of two solutions provided that [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for a certain choice of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]. Moreover, we prove that, if [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] small enough, there exist prescribed number of nontrivial solutions. As applications, the corresponding results hold true for nonautonomous Hamiltonian systems and Dirac equations on compact spin manifold.

On Moduli Spaces of Positive Scalar Curvature Metrics on Highly Connected Manifolds

Let $M$ be a simply connected spin manifold of dimension at least six, which admits a metric of positive scalar curvature. We show that the observer moduli space of positive scalar curvature metrics on $M$ has non-trivial higher homotopy groups. Moreover, denote by $\mathcal{M}_0^+(M)$ the moduli space of positive scalar curvature metrics on $M$ associated to the group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of $M$. We show that if $M$ belongs to a certain class of manifolds that includes $(2n-2)$-connected $(4n-2)$-dimensional manifolds, then the fundamental group of $\mathcal{M}_0^+(M)$ is non-trivial.

S1-Equivariant bordism, invariant metrics of positive scalar curvature, and rigidity of elliptic genera

We construct geometric generators of the effective [Formula: see text]-equivariant Spin- (and oriented) bordism groups with two inverted. We apply this construction to the question of which [Formula: see text]-manifolds admit invariant metrics of positive scalar curvature. It turns out that, up to taking connected sums with several copies of the same manifold, the only obstruction to the existence of such a metric is an [Formula: see text]-genus of orbit spaces. This [Formula: see text]-genus generalizes a previous definition of Lott for orbit spaces of semi-free [Formula: see text]-actions. As a further application of our results, we give a new proof of the vanishing of the [Formula: see text]-genus of a Spin manifold with nontrivial [Formula: see text]-action originally proven by Atiyah and Hirzebruch. Moreover, based on our computations we can give a bordism-theoretic proof for the rigidity of elliptic genera originally proven by Taubes and Bott–Taubes.

Callias-type operators in C∗-algebras and positive scalar curvature on noncompact manifolds

A Dirac-type operator on a complete Riemannian manifold is of Callias-type if its square is a Schrödinger-type operator with a potential uniformly positive outside of a compact set. We develop the theory of Callias-type operators twisted with Hilbert [Formula: see text]-module bundles and prove an index theorem for such operators. As an application, we derive an obstruction to the existence of complete Riemannian metrics of positive scalar curvature on noncompact spin manifolds in terms of closed submanifolds of codimension one. In particular, when [Formula: see text] is a closed spin manifold, we show that if the cylinder [Formula: see text] carries a complete metric of positive scalar curvature, then the (complex) Rosenberg index on [Formula: see text] must vanish.

Boundary Value Problems for the Lorentzian Dirac Operator

On a compact globally hyperbolic Lorentzian spin manifold with smooth space-like Cauchy boundary, the (hyperbolic) Dirac operator is known to be Fredholm when Atiyah–Patodi–Singer boundary conditions are imposed. This chapter explores to what extent these boundary conditions can be replaced by more general ones and how the index then changes. There are some differences to the classical case of the elliptic Dirac operator on a Riemannian manifold with boundary.

Riemannian flows and adiabatic limits

We show the convergence properties of the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator on a spin manifold with a Riemannian flow when the metric is collapsed along the flow.

Existence Results for Solutions to Nonlinear Dirac Systems on Compact Spin Manifolds

In this article, we study the existence of solutions for the Dirac system\left\{\begin{aligned} \displaystyle Du&\displaystyle=\frac{\partial H}{% \partial v}(x,u,v)\quad\text{on }M,\\ \displaystyle Dv&\displaystyle=\frac{\partial H}{\partial u}(x,u,v)\quad\text{% on }M,\end{aligned}\right.whereMis anm-dimensional compact Riemannian spin manifold,{u,v\in C^{\infty}(M,\Sigma M)}are spinors,Dis the Dirac operator onM, and the fiber preserving map{H:\Sigma M\oplus\Sigma M\rightarrow\mathbb{R}}is a real-valued superquadratic function of class{C^{1}}with subcritical growth rates. Two existence results of nontrivial solutions are obtained via Galerkin-type approximations and linking arguments.