arXiv research

Atiyah-Singer theorem links math fields, predicts topological insights.

Proves a lattice version of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem.

Researchers construct an index map for contact manifolds using K-theory.

Let M be a riemannian manifold. The existence of a spin structure on M, enables to study the topology of M. The obstruction to the existence of the spin structure is given by the second Stiefel-Whitney class. This class is the classifying cocycle of a gerbe. One may expect that the study of this gerbe may have topologi…

Defines knot signature invariant using G-signature theorem.

We survey the Hirzebruch signature theorem as a special case of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. The family version of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem in the form of the Riemann-Roch-Grothendieck-Quillen (RRGQ) formula is then applied to the complexified signature operators varying along the universal family of ellipti…

The Atiyah-Singer index theorem is a topological formula for the index of an elliptic differential operator. The topological index depends on a cohomology class that is constructed from the principal symbol of the operator. On contact manifolds, the important Fredholm operators are not elliptic, but hypoelliptic. Their…

We review the Atiyah-Singer Index theorem and some applications. Only basic knowledge of differential geometry and Lie groups is required.

Introduces generalized products for pseudodifferential operators on manifolds with corners.

In the first part of this paper, given a smooth family of Dirac-type operators on an odd-dimensional closed manifold, we construct an abelian gerbe-with-connection whose curvature is the three-form component of the Atiyah-Singer families index theorem. In the second part of the paper, given a smooth family of Dirac-typ…

We give a short proof of the Morse index theorem for geodesics in semi-Riemannian manifolds by using K-theory. This makes the Morse index theorem reminiscent of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for families of selfadjoint elliptic operators.

In his book (II.5), Connes gives a proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for closed manifolds by using deformation groupoids and appropiate actions of these on R^N. Following these ideas, we prove an index theorem for manifolds with boundary.

We present an index theorem for certain hypoelliptic differential operators on foliated manifolds. Our proof is a development of Alain Connes tangent groupoid proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. The paper is largely self-contained.

This is an expository paper designed to introduce undergraduates to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem 50 years after its announcement. It includes motivation, a statement of the theorem, an outline of the easy part of the heat equation proof. It includes counting lattice points and knot concordance as applications.

A condition for the existence of false gauge field copies in terms of the Lefschetz number of a certain differential operator is presented.

Constructs small bundle gerbes and proves index theorems for manifolds.

The paper explores smooth equivariant rigidity and finds infinitely many exotic smooth structures.

We prove an index theorem for families of linear periodic Hamiltonian systems, which is reminiscent of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for selfadjoint elliptic operators. For the special case of one-parameter families, we compare our theorem with a classical result of Salamon and Zehnder. Finally, we use the index theo…

Local index theorem for chiral geometric operators proved using heat kernel.

In this talk, we review the heat kernel approach to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for Dirac operators on closed manifolds, as well as the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem for Dirac operators on manifolds with boundary. We also discuss the odd dimensional counterparts of the above results. In particular, we describe…

Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian spin manifold. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem yields a lower bound for the dimension of the kernel of the Dirac operator. We prove that this bound can be attained by changing the Riemannian metric g on an arbitrarily small open set.

The purpose of this article is to study Ezra Getzler's approach to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem from the perspective of Alain Connes' tangent groupoid. We shall construct a "rescaled" spinor bundle on the tangent groupoid, define a convolution operation on its smooth, compactly supported sections, and explain how th…

Let M be a compact manifold with a fixed spin structure χ. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem implies that for any metric g on M the dimension of the kernel of the Dirac operator is bounded from below by a topological quantity depending only on M and χ. We show that for generic metrics on M this bound is attained.

Using a K-theory point of view, Bott related the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for elliptic operators on compact homogeneous spaces to the Weyl character formula. This article explains how to prove the local index theorem for compact homogenous spaces using Lie algebra methods. The method follows in outline the proof of …

The use of bundle gerbes and bundle gerbe modules is considered as a replacement for the usual theory of Clifford modules on manifolds that fail to be spin. It is shown that both sides of the Atiyah-Singer index formula for coupled Dirac operators can be given natural interpretations using this language and that the re…

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…

This article surveys the relations among local and nonlocal invariants in Atiyah-Singer index theory. We discuss the local invariants that arise from the heat equation approach to the index theorem for geometric operators, as well as the nonlocal invariants (the eta invariant, the determinant of the Laplacian/analytic …

The paper studies eigenvalues of the Dirac operator on Riemannian manifolds.

Unified treatment of gauge theories and Yang-Mills theory duality.

We construct an analytic multiplicative model of smooth K-theory. We further introduce the notion of a smooth K-orientation of a proper submersion and define the associated push-forward which satisfies functoriality, compatibility with pull-back diagrams, and projection and bordism formulas. We construct a multiplicati…

This is an expository paper which gives a proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for Dirac operators, presenting the theorem as a computation of the K-homology of a point. This paper and its follow up ("K-homology and index theory II: Elliptic Operators") was written to clear up basic points about index theory that a…

Extends Atiyah-Singer Dirac operator study to non-compact spacetimes.

Develops a new index theory for odd Z/kZ K-theory.

The index theorem, discovered by Atiyah and Singer in 1963, is one of most important results in the twentieth century mathematics. It found numerous applications in analysis, geometry and physics. Since it was discovered numerous attempts to generalize it were made, see for example [5, 3, 4, 16, 12] to mention a few; s…

The geometry of nonholonomic bundle gerbes, provided with nonlinear connection structure, and nonholonomic gerbe modules is elaborated as the theory of Clifford modules on nonholonomic manifolds which positively fail to be spin. We explore an approach to such nonholonomic Dirac operators and derive the related Atiyah-S…

A geometric model for twisted $K$-homology is introduced. It is modeled after the Mathai-Melrose-Singer fractional analytic index theorem in the same way as the Baum-Douglas model of $K$-homology was modeled after the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. A natural transformation from twisted geometric $K$-homology to the new g…

We apply the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and tensor products of elliptic complexes to the cohomology of transitive Lie algebroids. We prove that the Euler characteristic of a representation of a transitive Lie algebroid $A$ over a compact manifold $M$ vanishes unless $A=TM$, and prove a general Künneth formula. As appl…

Harish-Chandra's volume formula shows that the volume of a flag manifold $G/T$, where the measure is induced by an invariant inner product on the Lie algebra of $G$, is determined up to a scalar by the algebraic properties of $G$. This article explains how to deduce Harish-Chandra's formula from Weyl's law by utilizing…

In these survey lectures, we investigate the geometric and analytic properties of transverse Dirac operators. In particular, we define a transverse Dirac operator associated to a distribution that is essentially self-adjoint (Prokhorenkov-R result). We describe the Habib-R Theorem showing that the invariance of the spe…

Generalized differential cohomology theories, in particular differential K-theory (often called "smooth K-theory"), are becoming an important tool in differential geometry and in mathematical physics. In this survey, we describe the developments of the recent decades in this area. In particular, we discuss axiomatic ch…

We prove a local index theorem of Atiyah-Singer type for Dirac operators on manifolds with a Lie structure at infinity (Lie manifolds for short). With the help of a renormalized supertrace, defined on a suitable class of regularizing operators, the proof of the index theorem relies on a rescaling technique similar in s…

We give a cohomological formula for the index of a fully elliptic pseudodifferential operator on a manifold with boundary. As in the classic case of Atiyah-Singer, we use an embedding into an euclidean space to express the index as the integral of a cohomology class depending in this case on a noncommutative symbol, th…

This is an expository paper which gives a proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for elliptic operators. Specifcally, we compute the geometric K-cycle that corresponds to the analytic K-cycle determined by the operator. This paper and its companion ("K-homology and index theory II: Dirac Operators") was written to cl…

The paper explores higher fixed point theorems for foliations with applications to rigidity and integrality.

This expository paper contains a detailed introduction to some important works concerning the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem. The study of this theorem has a long history dating back to Gauss's Theorema Egregium (Latin: Remarkable Theorem) and culminated in Chern's groundbreaking work [14] in 1944, which is a deep and wond…

In this paper we propose a general framework to study the quantum geometry of $σ$-models when they are effectively localized to small quantum fluctuations around constant maps. Such effective theories have surprising exact descriptions at all loops in terms of target geometry and can be rigorously formulated. We illust…

We establish the Thom isomorphism in twisted K-theory for any real vector bundle and develop the push-forward map in twisted K-theory for any differentiable proper map $f: X\to Y$ (not necessarily K-oriented). The push-forward map generalizes the push-forward map in ordinary K-theory for any $K$-oriented differentiable…

Paper defines and proves a new analytic index for Fredholm operators.