Spinors in Geometry and Physics

Math 425 and Physics 498C

S.B. Bradlow and R.G. Leigh



Syllabus (tentative)

List of Topics:

  1. (P,M) Historical Remarks
  2. (M) Algebraic Preliminaries
    • Orthogonal groups
    • Spin groups
    • low dimensional examples
  3. (P) Simple Quantum Systems
  4. (M) Clifford Algebras and Representation Theory
  5. (P) Representations used in physics:
    • gamma matrices and Dirac operators
  6. (M) Differential Geometry
    • review
    • spin structures on manifolds
    • Stiefel-Whitney classes
    • Dirac operators
  7. (P) Spinors in curved spacetimes
  8. (M) Index Theorems
  9. (P) Anomalies and Index Theorems
  10. (P) Supersymmetry
  11. (P) Applications
    • General Relativity, positive energy theorems
    • spin manifolds in compactifications of string theories
  12. (M) Weitzenbock formula
  13. (M) Seiberg-Witten theory and invariants of 4-manifolds