Prof. Dr. Christian Bär
Deputy Speaker, Member of Programme committee, Project leader
Professor
Universität Potsdam
E-mail: cbaer(at)uni-potsdam.de
Telephone: +49 331 977-1348
Homepage: https://www.math.uni-potsdam.de/baer/
Project
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
Publications within SPP2026
For closed connected Riemannian spin manifolds an upper estimate of the smallest eigenvalue of the Dirac operator in terms of the hyperspherical radius is proved. When combined with known lower Dirac eigenvalue estimates, this has a number of geometric consequences. Some are known and include Llarull's scalar curvature rigidity of the standard metric on the sphere, Geroch's conjecture on the impossibility of positive scalar curvature on tori and a mean curvature estimate for spin fill-ins with nonnegative scalar curvature due to Gromov, including its rigidity statement recently proved by Cecchini, Hirsch and Zeidler. New applications provide a comparison of the hyperspherical radius with the Yamabe constant and improved estimates of the hyperspherical radius for Kähler manifolds, Kähler-Einstein manifolds, quaternionic Kähler manifolds and manifolds with a harmonic 1-form of constant length.
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
We show scalar-mean curvature rigidity of warped products of round spheres of dimension at least 2 over compact intervals equipped with strictly log-concave warping functions. This generalizes earlier results of Cecchini-Zeidler to all dimensions. Moreover, we show scalar curvature rigidity of round spheres of dimension at least $3$ minus two antipodal points, thus resolving a problem in Gromov's ``Four Lectures'' in all dimensions. Our arguments are based on spin geometry.
Journal | Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (SIGMA) |
Volume | 20 |
Pages | article 035, 26 pages |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds52Spaces and Moduli Spaces of Riemannian Metrics with Curvature Bounds on compact and non-compact Manifolds II
We consider first-order elliptic differential operators acting on vector bundles over smooth manifolds with smooth boundary, which is permitted to be noncompact. Under very mild assumptions, we obtain a regularity theory for sections in the maximal domain. Under additional geometric assumptions, and assumptions on an adapted boundary operator, we obtain a trace theorem on the maximal domain. This allows us to systematically study both local and nonlocal boundary conditions. In particular, the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary condition occurs as a special case. Furthermore, we study contexts which induce semi-Fredholm and Fredholm extensions.
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
We extend the K-cowaist inequality to generalized Dirac operators in the sense of Gromov and Lawson and study applications to manifolds with boundary.
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds52Spaces and Moduli Spaces of Riemannian Metrics with Curvature Bounds on compact and non-compact Manifolds II
Based on the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index formula, we construct an obstruction to positive scalar curvature metrics with mean convex boundaries on spin manifolds of infinite K-area. We also characterize the extremal case. Next we show a general deformation principle for boundary conditions of metrics with lower scalar curvature bounds. This implies that the relaxation of boundary conditions often induces weak homotopy equivalences of spaces of such metrics. This can be used to refine the smoothing of codimension-one singularites a la Miao and the deformation of boundary conditions a la Brendle-Marques-Neves, among others. Finally, we construct compact manifolds for which the spaces of positive scalar curvature metrics with mean convex boundaries have nontrivial higher homotopy groups.
Publisher | World Scientific |
Book | M Gromov, B. Lawson (eds): Perspectives in Scalar Curvature |
Volume | 2 |
Pages | 325-377 |
Link to preprint version | |
Link to published version |
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds52Spaces and Moduli Spaces of Riemannian Metrics with Curvature Bounds on compact and non-compact Manifolds II
Non-local boundary conditions, such as the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer (APS) conditions, for Dirac operators on Riemannian manifolds are well under\-stood while not much is known for such operators on spacetimes with timelike boundary. We define a class of Lorentzian boundary conditions that are local in time and non-local in the spatial directions and show that they lead to a well-posed Cauchy problem for the Dirac operator. This applies in particular to the APS conditions imposed on each level set of a given Cauchy temporal function.
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
We show that local deformations, near closed subsets, of solutions to open partial differential relations can be extended to global deformations, provided all but the highest derivatives stay constant along the subset. The applicability of this general result is illustrated by a number of examples, dealing with convex embeddings of hypersurfaces, differential forms, and lapse functions in Lorentzian geometry.
The main application is a general approximation result by sections which have very restrictive local properties an open dense subsets. This shows, for instance, that given any K∈R every manifold of dimension at least two carries a complete C^1,1-metric which, on a dense open subset, is smooth with constant sectional curvature K. Of course this is impossible for C^2-metrics in general.
Journal | Comm. Pure Appl. Mathematics |
Volume | 75 |
Pages | 1377-1415 |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds15Spaces and Moduli Spaces of Riemannian Metrics with Curvature Bounds on compact and non-compact Manifolds
The Rarita-Schwinger operator is the twisted Dirac operator restricted to 3/2-spinors. Rarita-Schwinger fields are solutions of this operator which are in addition divergence-free. This is an overdetermined problem and solutions are rare; it is even more unexpected for there to be large dimensional spaces of solutions.
In this paper we prove the existence of a sequence of compact manifolds in any given dimension greater than or equal to 4 for which the dimension of the space of Rarita-Schwinger fields tends to infinity. These manifolds are either simply connected Kähler-Einstein spin with negative Einstein constant, or products of such spaces with flat tori. Moreover, we construct Calabi-Yau manifolds of even complex dimension with more linearly independent Rarita-Schwinger fields than flat tori of the same dimension.
Journal | Commun. Math. Phys. |
Link to preprint version | |
Link to published version |
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
We adapt the Faddeev-LeVerrier algorithm for the computation of characteristic polynomials to the computation of the Pfaffian of a skew-symmetric matrix. This yields a very simple, easy to implement and parallelize algorithm of computational cost O(n^{β+1}) where n is the size of the matrix and O(n^β) is the cost of multiplying n×n-matrices, β∈[2,2.37286). We compare its performance to that of other algorithms and show how it can be used to compute the Euler form of a Riemannian manifold using computer algebra.
Journal | Linear Algebra and its Applications |
Volume | 630 |
Pages | 39-55 |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
We prove a local version of the index theorem for Lorentzian Dirac-type operators on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with Cauchy boundary. In case the Cauchy hypersurface is compact we do not assume self-adjointness of the Dirac operator on the spacetime or the associated elliptic Dirac operator on the boundary. In this case integration of our local index theorem results in a generalization of previously known index theorems for globally hyperbolic spacetimes that allows for twisting bundles associated with non-compact gauge groups.
Related project(s):
37Boundary value problems and index theory on Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds
We show that the Dirac operator on a compact globally hyperbolic Lorentzian spacetime with spacelike Cauchy boundary is a Fredholm operator if appropriate boundary conditions are imposed. We prove that the index of this operator is given by the same expression as in the index formula of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer for Riemannian manifolds with boundary. The index is also shown to equal that of a certain operator constructed from the evolution operator and a spectral projection on the boundary. In case the metric is of product type near the boundary a Feynman parametrix is constructed.
Journal | Amer. J. Math. |
Publisher | John Hopkins Univ. Press |
Volume | 141 (5) |
Pages | 1421-1455 |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
We study boundary value problems for first-order elliptic differential operators on manifolds with compact boundary. The adapted boundary operator need not be selfadjoint and the boundary condition need not be pseudo-local.
We show the equivalence of various characterisations of elliptic boundary conditions and demonstrate how the boundary conditions traditionally considered in the literature fit in our framework. The regularity of the solutions up to the boundary is proven. We provide examples which are conveniently treated by our methods.
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
On a compact globally hyperbolic Lorentzian spin manifold with smooth spacelike Cauchy boundary the (hyperbolic) Dirac operator is known to be Fredholm when Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary conditions are imposed. In this paper we investigate 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.
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Book | A. Dancer, J.E. Andersen, O. García-Prada (eds.): Geometry and Physics |
Volume | 1 |
Pages | 3-18 |
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Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
We review some recent results on geometric equations on Lorentzian manifolds such as the wave and Dirac equations. This includes well-posedness and stability for various initial value problems, as well as results on the structure of these equations on black-hole spacetimes (in particular, on the Kerr solution), the index theorem for hyperbolic Dirac operators and properties of the class of Green-hyperbolic operators.
Publisher | de Gruyter |
Book | J. Brüning, M. Staudacher (Eds.): Space - Time - Matter |
Pages | 324-348 |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds
We discuss the chiral anomaly for a Weyl field in a curved background and show that a novel index theorem for the Lorentzian Dirac operator can be applied to describe the gravitational chiral anomaly. A formula for the total charge generated by the gravitational and gauge field background is derived in a mathematically rigorous manner. It contains a term identical to the integrand in the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and another term involving the η-invariant of the Cauchy hypersurfaces.
Journal | Commun. Math. Phys. |
Publisher | Springer |
Volume | 347 |
Pages | 703-721 |
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Link to published version |
Related project(s):
5Index theory on Lorentzian manifolds