Spin Geometry: Lecture 6

Shuhan Jiang

By definition, every covariant derivative ∇ on E defines a linear map Ω0 (E) → Ω1 (E). It

can be extended to a linear map d∇ : Ωp (E) → Ωp+1 (E) by setting

d∇ (ω ⊗ s) = dω ⊗ s + (−1)p ω ∧ ∇(s).

d∇ is referred to as an exterior covariant derivative on E. By construction,

d∇ |Ω0 (E) = ∇.

Exercise 2.11. Show that d∇ can be locally written as

d∇ = dxµ ∧ ∇µ .

Example 2.9. The exterior derivative d is an exterior covariant derivative on R.

d∇ should not be confused as a covariant derivative on the vector bundle ΛT ∗ M ⊗ E.

Proposition 2.5. A covariant derivative ∇ on E induces covariant derivatives

1. on the endomorphism bundle End(E), which we denote by ∇ with a slight abuse of

notation, and is defined by:

∇(H)(s) := ∇(H(s)) − H(∇(s))

for any H ∈ Γ(End(E)) and s ∈ Γ(E);

2. on the dual bundle E ∨ , which we again denote by ∇ with a slight abuse of notation,
and is defined by:

∇(α)(s) := d(α(s)) − α(∇(s))

for any α ∈ Γ(E ∨ ) and s ∈ Γ(E);

Covariant derivatives ∇i on vector bundles Ei over the same base manifold, i = 1, 2, induces
a covariant derivative ∇ on the tensor product bundle E1 ⊗ E2 by

∇(s1 ⊗ s2 ) = ∇1 (s1 ) ⊗ s2 + s1 ⊗ ∇2 (s2 ).

The proof is left as an exercise:

1
Exercise 2.12. Check that

1. the above connections are well-defined;

2. the induced connections on End(E) and E ⊗ E ∨ are equivalent under the natural iso-
morphism End(E) ∼ = E ⊗ E ∨.

Show that a connection ∇ on E also induces connections on T (E), Λ(E), and Sym(E).
Proposition 2.6. There exists a 2-form F with values in End(E) such that F = d∇ ◦ d∇ .
F is called the curvature of ∇. F satisfies the so-called second Bianchi identity
d∇ F = 0.

Proof. Let’s first show that F = d∇ ◦ d∇ is C ∞ (M )-linear:

F (f s) = d∇ (df ⊗ s + f ∇s) = d2 f ⊗ s − df ⊗ ∇s + df ⊗ ∇s + f d∇ (∇s) = f (F s).
The second Bianchi identity can also be proved by the following one line computation:
d∇ (F )(s) = d∇ (F (s)) − F (d∇ s) = d∇ (d∇ ◦ d∇ (s)) − (d∇ ◦ d∇ )(d∇ s) = 0.

Locally, we have
F (s) = (d + A)2 (s) = d2 (s) + d(A(s)) + A(d(s)) + (A ∧ A)(s) = (dA + A ∧ A)(s).
Therefore,
F = dA + A ∧ A. (2.7)
Component-wise, we have
∂ ∂ ∂Aν ∂Aµ
Fµν = F ( µ
, ν) = µ
− + [Aµ , Aν ]. (2.8)
∂x ∂x ∂x ∂xν
Remark 2.2. The formulas (2.7) and (2.8) probably need some explanation. In general, let
A = p!1 Aµ1 ...µp dxµ1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxµp and B = q!1 Bν1 ...νq dxν1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxνq be two matrix-valued p-form
and q-form, where the matrix valued coefficients Aµ1 ,...,µp are skew symmetric with respect to
the indices. The wedge product between A and B is defined as
1
A ∧ B := Aµ1 ...µp Bν1 ...νq dxµ1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxµp ∧ dxν1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxνq
p!q!
X X
= Aµ1 ...µp Bν1 ...νq dxµ1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxµp ∧ dxν1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxνq
µ1 <···<µp ν1 <···<νq
X X
= (−1)|σ| Aσ(ρ1 )...σ(ρp ) Bσ(ρp+1 )...σ(ρp+q ) dxρ1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxρp+q
ρ1 <···<ρp+q (p,q)-shuffles σ
1 X
= (−1)|σ| Aσ(ρ1 )...σ(ρp ) Bσ(ρp+1 )...σ(ρp+q ) dxρ1 ∧ · · · ∧ dxρp+q .
(p + q)!
(p,q)-shuffles σ

2
where Aµ1 ,...,µp Bν1 ,...,νq is the matrix product of Aµ1 ,...,µp and Bν1 ,...,νq . Component-wise, we
have X
(A ∧ B)ρ1 ...ρp+q = (−1)|σ| Aσ(ρ1 )...σ(ρp ) Bσ(ρp+1 )...σ(ρp+q ) .
(p,q)-shuffles σ

In particular, letting A be a matrix valued 1-form, we have

X
(A ∧ A)µν = (−1)|σ| Aσ(µ) Bσ(ν) = Aµ Aν − Aν Aµ = [Aµ , Aν ].
(1,1)-shuffles σ

Replacing the matrix product with the Lie product in the above definition, we obtain the wedge
product of Lie algebra valued forms, which is usually denoted as

[A ∧ B], or A[∧]B, or simply [A, B].

By definition,
[A, B] = A ∧ B − (−1)pq B ∧ A.
For matrix valued 1-forms, we have

[A, A] = 2A ∧ A.

Thus, the curvature F can also be expressed as

1
F = dA + [A, A].
2
Remark 2.3. Another way to derive the formula (2.8) is by noticing that
1
d2∇ = dxµ ∧ dxν ∇µ ∇ν = dxµ ∧ dxν [∇µ , ∇ν ].
2
Hence,
∂ ∂ ∂Aν ∂Aµ
Fµν = [∇µ , ∇ν ] = [ µ
+ Aµ , ν + Aν ] = µ
− + [Aµ , Aν ].
∂x ∂x ∂x ∂xν
Example 2.10. Let E = T M . Let ∇ = d + A be an affine connection of M . Under the
identification End(T M ) ∼
= T ∗ M ⊗ T M , we can write
∂
A = Γρµν dxµ ⊗ dxν ⊗ .
∂xρ
If ∇ is the Levi-Civita connection of M , then Γρµν are the Christoffel symbols, and the cur-
vature 2-form F of ∇ is exactly the Riemannian curvature tensor of M .

Example 2.11. The curvature F of the covariant derivative on O(−1) defined by (2.6) is

X
n
dck ∧ dck X n
ck cl dcl ∧ dck
F = dA + A ∧ A = ∂A = − .
k=1
1 + |c|2 k,l=1
(1 + |c|2 )2

3
In particular, for n = 1, we have only one coordinate function which we denote by c.
1 2i
F = dc ∧ dc = rdr ∧ dϕ.
(1 + |c| )
2 2 (1 + r2 )2
Since dimR CP1 = 2, we can integrate the 2-form 2πi F
over CP1 . The result is:
Z Z Z 2π Z ∞ ∞
F 1 ∞ 1 1 1
= dr dϕ r = d(r 2
) = − = 1.
CP1 2πi π 0 0 (1 + r2 )2 0 (1 + r2 )2 1 + r2 0

A connection with vanishing curvature is called a flat connection.

Exercise 2.13. Show that the connection defined in Example 2.5 is a flat connection.
Hint 2.10. Use Exercise 2.7.

4 Bochner Laplacians
Let (E, ⟨·, ·⟩) be a metric vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g). Let ∇
be a metric connection on E. Let ∇∗ denote the formal adjoint of ∇, i.e., ∇∗ is a R-linear
map ∇∗ : Γ(T ∗ M ⊗ E) → Γ(E) such that
Z Z
⟨s, ∇(t)⟩ volg = ⟨∇∗ (s), t⟩ volg
M M

for all s ∈ Ω1 (E) and t ∈ Ω0 (E).

Definition 2.9. The Bochner Laplacian on E is defines as
∆B = ∇∗ ∇.

Let’s consider the vector bundle ΛT ∗ M and the Levi-Civita connection ∇ on ΛT ∗ M . Let
∇∗ be the formal adjoint of ∇ with respect to the bundle metric on ΛT ∗ M induced by the
Riemannian metric g on M .
Proposition 2.7. Let ω be a differential k-form on M . We have
(∆B − ∆H )(ω) = Ric(ω), (2.9)
where ∆H = dd∗ + d∗ d is the Hodge Laplacian of M . Ric ∈ End(Λk T ∗ M ) is the so-called
Weitzenböck operator, which is defined by
X
n X
k
Ric(ω)(X1 , · · · , Xk ) = (R(ei , Xj )ω)(X1 , · · · , ei , · · · , Xk ), (2.10)
i=1 j=1

where R is the Riemannian curvature tensor and {ei }ni=1 is a local orthonormal frame.1

P·)n of the vector field X, we have Ric(X )(Y ) =

1 ♯ ♯
Pn Applying (2.10) to the
Pn metric dual X = g(X,
i=1 g(R(ei , Y )X, ei ) = − i=1 g(R(ei , Y )ei , X) = Ric(X, Y ), where Ric(·, ·) is
♯
i=1 (R(ei , Y )X )(ei ) =
the Ricci curvature tensor of g, hence the notation.

4
More generally, let’s consider the tensor product bundle ΛT ∗ M ⊗ E, where E is a metric
vector bundle bundle, equipped with the connection

∇ = ∇LC ⊗ 1 + 1 ⊗ ∇E ,

where ∇LC is the Levi-Civita connection of M and ∇E is a metric connection on E. ΛT ∗ M ⊗

E has an induced bundle metric, with respect to which ∇ is a metric connection.

Proposition 2.8. Let ω be a E-valued k-form on M . We have

(∆B − ∆H )(ω) = Ric(ω) + FE (ω), (2.11)

where ∆H := d∇E d∗∇E + d∗∇E d∇E and FE ∈ Ωk (End(E)) is defined by

n X
X k
FE (ω)(X1 , · · · , Xk ) = FE (ei , Xj )(ω(X1 , · · · , ei , · · · , Xk )),
i=1 j=1

where FE is the curvature of ∇E .

The proofs are postponed to the next section.