Heat Kernels and Dirac Operators

ISBN-13: 9783540200628 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 363 str.

Nicole Berline

Opis

The first edition of this book presented simple proofs of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem for Dirac operators on compact Riemannian manifolds and its generalizations (due to the authors and J.-M. Bismut), using an explicit geometric construction of the heat kernel of a generalized Dirac operator; the new edition makes this popular book available to students and researchers in an attractive softcover. The first four chapters could be used as the text for a graduate course on the applications of linear elliptic operators in differential geometry and the only prerequisites are a familiarity with basic differential geometry. The next four chapters discuss the equivariant index theorem, and include a useful introduction to equivariant differential forms. The last two chapters give a proof, in the spirit of the book, of Bismut's Local Family Index Theorem for Dirac operators.

Recenzje

Aus den Rezensionen:

"... Das vorliegende Buch ist die zweite korrigierte und erweiterte Ausgabe eines Werkes aus dem Jahre 1992. ... Ausgehend von einer Grundausbildung in klassischer Differentialgeometrie stellt das Buch alle zum Verständnis des Beweises notwendigen Voraussetzungen zur Verfügung. Dadurch eignet es sich einerseits zum Selbststudium für Studierende mit entsprechender Vorbildung ... andererseits als Grundlage einer Vorlesung über dieses ergiebige Thema."

(P. Grabner, in: IMN - Internationale Mathematische Nachrichten, 2006, Issue 202, S. 45)

 

Spis treści

1 Background on Differential Geometry.- 1.1 Fibre Bundles and Connections.- 1.2 Riemannian Manifolds.- 1.3 Superspaces.- 1.4 Superconnections.- 1.5 Characteristic Classes.- 1.6 The Euler and Thorn Classes.- 2 Asymptotic Expansion of the Heat Kernel.- 2.1 Differential Operators.- 2.2 The Heat Kernel on Euclidean Space.- 2.3 Heat Kernels.- 2.4 Construction of the Heat Kernel.- 2.5 The Formal Solution.- 2.6 The Trace of the Heat Kernel.- 2.7 Heat Kernels Depending on a Parameter.- 3 Clifford Modules and Dirac Operators.- 3.1 The Clifford Algebra.- 3.2 Spinors.- 3.3 Dirac Operators.- 3.4 Index of Dirac Operators.- 3.5 The Lichnerowicz Formula.- 3.6 Some Examples of Clifford Modules.- 4 Index Density of Dirac Operators.- 4.1 The Local Index Theorem.- 4.2 Mehler’s Formula.- 4.3 Calculation of the Index Density.- 5 The Exponential Map and the Index Density.- 5.1 Jacobian of the Exponential Map on Principal Bundles.- 5.2 The Heat Kernel of a Principal Bundle.- 5.3 Calculus with Grassmann and Clifford Variables.- 5.4 The Index of Dirac Operators.- 6 The Equivariant Index Theorem.- 6.1 The Equivariant Index of Dirac Operators.- 6.2 The Atiyah-Bott Fixed Point Formula.- 6.3 Asymptotic Expansion of the Equivariant Heat Kernel.- 6.4 The Local Equivariant Index Theorem.- 6.5 Geodesic Distance on a Principal Bundle.- 6.6 The heat kernel of an equivariant vector bundle.- 6.7 Proof of Proposition 6.13.- 7 Equivariant Differential Forms.- 7.1 Equivariant Characteristic Classes.- 7.2 The Localization Formula.- 7.3 Bott’s Formulas for Characteristic Numbers.- 7.4 Exact Stationary Phase Approximation.- 7.5 The Fourier Transform of Coadjoint Orbits.- 7.6 Equivariant Cohomology and Families.- 7.7 The Bott Class.- 8 The Kirillov Formula for the Equivariant Index.- 8.1 The Kirillov Formula.- 8.2 The Weyl and Kirillov Character Formulas.- 8.3 The Heat Kernel Proof of the Kirillov Formula.- 9 The Index Bundle.- 9.1 The Index Bundle in Finite Dimensions.- 9.2 The Index Bundle of a Family of Dirac Operators.- 9.3 The Chern Character of the Index Bundle.- 9.4 The Equivariant Index and the Index Bundle.- 9.5 The Case of Varying Dimension.- 9.6 The Zeta-Function of a Laplacian.- 9.7 The Determinant Line Bundle.- 10 The Family Index Theorem.- 10.1 Riemannian Fibre Bundles.- 10.2 Clifford Modules on Fibre Bundles.- 10.3 The Bismut Superconnection.- 10.4 The Family Index Density.- 10.5 The Transgression Formula.- 10.6 The Curvature of the Determinant Line Bundle.- 10.7 The Kirillov Formula and Bismut’s Index Theorem.- References.- List of Notation.

Blurb

In the first edition of this book, simple proofs of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem for Dirac operators on compact Riemannian manifolds and its generalizations (due to the authors and J.-M. Bismut) were presented, using an explicit geometric construction of the heat kernel of a generalized Dirac operator; the new edition makes this popular book available to students and researchers in an attractive paperback. The first four chapters could be used as the text for a graduate course on the applications of linear elliptic operators in differential geometry and the only prerequisites are a familiarity with basic differential geometry. The next four chapters discuss the equivariant index theorem, and include a useful introduction to equivariant differential forms. The last two chapters give a proof, in the spirit of the book, of Bismut's Local Family Index Theorem for Dirac operators. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in differential geometry, Arakelov geometry, group representation theory and mathematical physics.