In
differential geometry
Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...
, given a
spin structure In differential geometry, a spin structure on an orientable Riemannian manifold allows one to define associated spinor bundles, giving rise to the notion of a spinor in differential geometry.
Spin structures have wide applications to mathematical ...
on an
-dimensional orientable
Riemannian manifold
In differential geometry, a Riemannian manifold or Riemannian space , so called after the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, is a real manifold, real, smooth manifold ''M'' equipped with a positive-definite Inner product space, inner product ...
one defines the spinor bundle to be the
complex vector bundle In mathematics, a complex vector bundle is a vector bundle whose fibers are complex vector spaces.
Any complex vector bundle can be viewed as a real vector bundle through the restriction of scalars. Conversely, any real vector bundle ''E'' can be ...
associated to the corresponding
principal bundle
In mathematics, a principal bundle is a mathematical object that formalizes some of the essential features of the Cartesian product X \times G of a space X with a group G. In the same way as with the Cartesian product, a principal bundle P is equip ...
of spin frames over
and the
spin representation
In mathematics, the spin representations are particular projective representations of the orthogonal group, orthogonal or special orthogonal groups in arbitrary dimension and metric signature, signature (i.e., including indefinite orthogonal groups ...
of its
structure group
In mathematics, and particularly topology, a fiber bundle (or, in Commonwealth English: fibre bundle) is a space that is a product space, but may have a different topological structure. Specifically, the similarity between a space E and a ...
on the space of
spinor
In geometry and physics, spinors are elements of a complex vector space that can be associated with Euclidean space. Like geometric vectors and more general tensors, spinors transform linearly when the Euclidean space is subjected to a slight ...
s
.
A section of the spinor bundle
is called a spinor field.
Formal definition
Let
be a
spin structure In differential geometry, a spin structure on an orientable Riemannian manifold allows one to define associated spinor bundles, giving rise to the notion of a spinor in differential geometry.
Spin structures have wide applications to mathematical ...
on a
Riemannian manifold
In differential geometry, a Riemannian manifold or Riemannian space , so called after the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, is a real manifold, real, smooth manifold ''M'' equipped with a positive-definite Inner product space, inner product ...
that is, an
equivariant
In mathematics, equivariance is a form of symmetry for functions from one space with symmetry to another (such as symmetric spaces). A function is said to be an equivariant map when its domain and codomain are acted on by the same symmetry group, ...
lift of the oriented
orthonormal frame bundle
In mathematics, a frame bundle is a principal fiber bundle F(''E'') associated to any vector bundle ''E''. The fiber of F(''E'') over a point ''x'' is the set of all ordered bases, or ''frames'', for ''E'x''. The general linear group acts nat ...
with respect to the double covering
of the
special orthogonal group
In mathematics, the orthogonal group in dimension , denoted , is the group of distance-preserving transformations of a Euclidean space of dimension that preserve a fixed point, where the group operation is given by composing transformations. T ...
by the
spin group
In mathematics the spin group Spin(''n'') page 15 is the double cover of the special orthogonal group , such that there exists a short exact sequence of Lie groups (when )
:1 \to \mathrm_2 \to \operatorname(n) \to \operatorname(n) \to 1.
As a L ...
.
The spinor bundle
is defined to be the
complex vector bundle In mathematics, a complex vector bundle is a vector bundle whose fibers are complex vector spaces.
Any complex vector bundle can be viewed as a real vector bundle through the restriction of scalars. Conversely, any real vector bundle ''E'' can be ...
associated to the
spin structure In differential geometry, a spin structure on an orientable Riemannian manifold allows one to define associated spinor bundles, giving rise to the notion of a spinor in differential geometry.
Spin structures have wide applications to mathematical ...
via the
spin representation
In mathematics, the spin representations are particular projective representations of the orthogonal group, orthogonal or special orthogonal groups in arbitrary dimension and metric signature, signature (i.e., including indefinite orthogonal groups ...
where
denotes the
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
of
unitary operator
In functional analysis, a unitary operator is a surjective bounded operator on a Hilbert space that preserves the inner product. Unitary operators are usually taken as operating ''on'' a Hilbert space, but the same notion serves to define the con ...
s acting on a
Hilbert space
In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow generalizing the methods of linear algebra and calculus from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise natural ...
It is worth noting that the spin representation
is a faithful and
unitary representation In mathematics, a unitary representation of a group ''G'' is a linear representation π of ''G'' on a complex Hilbert space ''V'' such that π(''g'') is a unitary operator for every ''g'' ∈ ''G''. The general theory is well-developed in case ''G'' ...
of the group
[ pages 20 and 24]
See also
*
Clifford bundle In mathematics, a Clifford bundle is an algebra bundle whose fibers have the structure of a Clifford algebra and whose local trivializations respect the algebra structure. There is a natural Clifford bundle associated to any (pseudo) Riemannian ...
*
Clifford module bundle In differential geometry, a Clifford module bundle, a bundle of Clifford modules or just Clifford module is a vector bundle whose fibers are Clifford modules, the representations of Clifford algebras. The canonical example is a spinor bundle. In fac ...
*
Orthonormal frame bundle
In mathematics, a frame bundle is a principal fiber bundle F(''E'') associated to any vector bundle ''E''. The fiber of F(''E'') over a point ''x'' is the set of all ordered bases, or ''frames'', for ''E'x''. The general linear group acts nat ...
*
Spin geometry
In mathematics, spin geometry is the area of differential geometry and topology where objects like spin manifolds and Dirac operators, and the various associated index theorems have come to play a fundamental role both in mathematics and in math ...
*
Spinor
In geometry and physics, spinors are elements of a complex vector space that can be associated with Euclidean space. Like geometric vectors and more general tensors, spinors transform linearly when the Euclidean space is subjected to a slight ...
*
Spinor representation
In mathematics, the spin representations are particular projective representations of the orthogonal group, orthogonal or special orthogonal groups in arbitrary dimension and metric signature, signature (i.e., including indefinite orthogonal groups ...
Notes
Further reading
*
*
,
Algebraic topology
Riemannian geometry
Structures on manifolds
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