Spin Geometry: Lecture 8

Shuhan Jiang

/ that squares
Definition 3.6. A Dirac operator on a E is a first-order differential operator D
to a generalized Laplacian on E.

By definition, we have

/
σ1 (D)(x, / )(x, ξ) = −gx−1 (ξ, ξ).
ξ)2 = σ2 (D
2

Let’s consider the linear map:

γx : Tx∗ M → End(Ex )
ξ 7→ σ1 (D)(x,
/ ξ).

By Proposition 1.1, γx extends to an algebra homomorphism:

γx : Cl(Tx∗ M, gx−1 ) → End(Ex ).

Since γx depends smoothly on x, we obtain a bundle morphism:

γ : Cl(M ) → End(E),
⨿
where Cl(M ) := x∈M Cl(Tx∗ M, gx−1 ) is a vector bundle isomorphic to ΛT ∗ M . Cl(M ) is
called the Clifford bundle over M .

Definition 3.7. A vector bundle π : A → M is an algebra bundle if for all x ∈ M ,

• Ax = π −1 (x) is an algebra over K;

• there exists an open neighborhood U of x and a local trivialization ϕ : A|U → U × Km ,

where Km is endowed with a K-algebra structure, and ϕ|Ay is an algebra isomorphism
for all y ∈ U .

A morphism between algebra bundles is a vector bundle morphism which preserves the algebra
structures fiberwise.

Let {Uα , ϕα } be a bundle atlas of an algebra bundle A. Let gβα = ϕβ ◦ ϕ−1

α be the corre-
sponding gluing maps. Then gβα must take values in the automorphism group of Ax ∼= Km ,
which is a subgroup of GL(m, K).

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Example 3.4. 1. Due to the existence of a local orthonormal frame of M , Cl(M ) is an
algebra bundle with fiber isomorphic to Cl(n).

2. Let E be a vector bundle of rank m. End(E) is an algebra bundle with fiber isomorphic
to End(Km ). If E admits a Dirac operator D,
/ D / induces an algebra bundle morphism
γ : Cl(M ) → End(E).

3. The exterior bundle ΛT ∗ M is an algebra bundle with fiber isomorphic to ΛRn . The
linear isomorphism λx : ΛTx∗ M → Cl(Tx∗ M, gx−1 ) that we defined in Example ?? extends
to a global vector bundle isomorphism λ : ΛT ∗ M → Cl(M ), which is not an algebra
bundle isomorphism.
Remark 3.2. The set ⨿
Spin(M ) := Spin(Tx∗ M, gx−1 ).
x∈M

can be given a “Lie group bundle" structure. That is, a triple (P, M, π) where π : P → M is
a surjective submersion such that for all x ∈ M ,

1. Px = π −1 (x) is isomorphic to a Lie group G;

2. there exists an open neighborhood U of x and a local trivialization ϕ : P |U → U × G,

and ϕ|Py is a group isomorphism for all y ∈ U .

Likewise, given a Lie group bundle P , we can also define the notion of a P -module. One
may attempt to define a spinor bundle on M as a Spin(M )-module. This is not correct, as
ΛT ∗ M is a Spin(M )-module, but its sections are differential forms.

The Riemannian metric and the Levi-Civita connection of M induce a bundle metric and a
corresponding metric connection ∇ on Cl(M ) under the vector bundle isomorphism ΛT ∗ M ∼
=
Cl(M ).
Lemma 3.1. ∇(αβ) = ∇(α)β + α∇(β) for all α, β ∈ Γ(Cl(M )).

Proof. Without loss of generality, we assume that α is a 1-form. Recall that the contraction
ια is defined by ια β = g(α, β) when β is a 1-form and and extends to p-forms β (for p > 1)
via Leibniz’s rule. We have

∇X (αβ) = ∇X (α ∧ β − ια β)
= ∇X (α) ∧ β + α ∧ ∇X (β) − (ι∇X (α) β + ια ∇X (β))
= ∇X (α)β + α∇X (β),

where we use the metric connection property of ∇ to pass to the second line.
Lemma 3.2. ∇(volg ) = 0, where volg is the volume form on M , which we view as a section
of Cl(M ).

Proof. This follows from the definition of ∇.

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Definition 3.8. Let A be an algebra bundle over M . A (left) A-module E is a vector bundle
over M together with an action of A on E, i.e., an algebra bundle morphism γ : A → End(E).

In particular, a Cl(M )-module S is called a Clifford module over M .

Example 3.5. ΛT ∗ M is a Clifford module over M .

/ if and only if it is
Proposition 3.3. A vector bundle S over M admits a Dirac operator D
a Clifford module over M .

Proof. We have already proved the only if direction. For the if direction, let γ : Cl(M ) →
End(S) denote the corresponding algebra bundle morphism. We define D / as the first order
differential operators obtained by the taking the composition of the following maps
∇
→ Γ(T ∗ M ⊗ S) ,→ Γ(Cl(M ) ⊗ S) −
cl
Γ(S) − → Γ(S),

where ∇ is a connection on S and cl(α ⊗ s)(x) = γx (α(x))s(x). Locally, we can write

/ = γ µ ∇µ ,
D
2
where γ µ = γ(dxµ ). It follows that σ1 (D)
/ = γ µ ξµ , and σ2 (D / 2 = γ µ γ ν ξµ ξν =
/ ) = σ1 (D)
−g −1 ⊗ 1.

Definition 3.9. 1. A super vector bundle S is a vector bundle together with a bundle
endomorphism  ∈ Γ(End(S)), 2 = 1.

2. A super vector bundle (A, ) is a superalgebra bundle if  : A → A is an algebra bundle

morphism.

3. Let (A, A ) be a superalgebra bundle. An A-module (S, S ) is a super A-module if

S ◦ γ = γ ◦ A ,

where γ : A → End(S) is the A-module structure of S.

Remark 3.3. By definition, every super vector bundle S can be decomposed as a Whitney
sum S = S0 ⊕ S1 . Its space of sections Γ(S) is a super vector space Γ(S) = Γ(S0 ) ⊕ Γ(S1 ).

Cl(M ) is a superalgebra bundle. We have

Cl(M )0 ∼
= Λeven T ∗ M, Cl(M )1 ∼
= Λodd T ∗ M.

If M is even dimensional and S is a complex Clifford module over M , we define the chirality
operator on S as the zeroth order differential operator

Γ = in/2 γ(volg ) ∈ Γ(End(S)).

Exercise 3.2. Let the dimension of M be even.

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 1. Show that every complex Cl(M )-module S, equipped with its chirality operator Γ is a
super Cl(M )-module.1

2. Let D/ be a Dirac operator on a complex Cl(M )-module S. Show that D

/ is an odd
/ sends a section of S± to a section of S∓ .
operator, i.e., D

We are mostly interested in the cases where S is a metric bundle and ∇ is a metric connection.

Definition 3.10. We call a Clifford module S a Dirac bundle if it can be equipped with a
bundle metric h·, ·i and a metric connection ∇ such that

1. for all x ∈ M ,
hγx (e)sx , γx (e)s′x i = hsx , s′x i (3.4)
where sx , s′x ∈ Sx , and e ∈ Tx M is a unit covector, i.e., gx−1 (e, e) = 1;

2. for all α ∈ Γ(Cl(M )) and s ∈ Γ(S),

∇(γ(α)s) = γ(∇(α))s + γ(α)∇(s). (3.5)

That is, ∇(γ(α)) = γ(∇(α)).

Proposition 3.4. Let M be compact. The ∫ Dirac operator D / on a Dirac bundle S is self-
adjoint with respect to the inner product M volg h·, ·i on Γ(S).

Proof. Let {eµ } be a local orthonormal frame of T ∗ M around x ∈ M such that ∇eµ (eν )(x) =
0. We can write D / = γ(eµ )∇eµ . It follows that

hD(s
/ 1 ), s2 i(x) = hγ(eµ )∇eµ (s1 ), s2 i(x)
= −h∇eµ (s1 ), γ(eµ )s2 i(x)
= −(eµ hs1 , eµ s2 i)(x) + hs1 , D(s
/ 2 )i(x).

Let V be the vector field over M defined by

V = hs1 , eµ s2 ieµ

We have

div(V )(x) = g(eµ , ∇eµ V )(x) = (eµ g(eµ , V ))(x) = (eµ hs1 , eµ s2 i)(x).

It follows that
∫ ∫ ∫
( )
volg hD(s
/ 1 ), s2 ix = volg − div V + hs1 , D(s
/ 2 )i = volg hs1 , D(s
/ 2 )i.
M M M

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We use S± to denote the even and odd subbundles of S, instead of S0 and S1 .