For a compact Kähler manifold, the natural map is an isomorphism. The Kähler Laplacian identity makes the harmonic representative of every Dolbeault cohomology class -closed, giving surjectivity, and the ddbar lemma gives injectivity.
ddc lemma Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
On a compact Kähler manifold, if a differential form is -closed and -exact, then it is -exact: there is a form two degrees lower such that . This real-form statement is equivalent, after decomposing by type, to the ddbar lemma.
On a compact Kähler manifold, the difference of cohomologous Kähler forms is a real, de Rham cohomology exact -form. The ddbar lemma gives . Reality implies , so is real and has the displayed potential equation. The difference of two real potentials is a pluriharmonic function, hence constant on each connected component. On a connected manifold the only ambiguity is one additive constant.
For a -closed pure-type form orthogonal to harmonic forms on a compact Kähler manifold, let be the inverse of the Dolbeault Laplacian on the harmonic complement, zero on the harmonic space. The Kähler Laplacian identity makes it commute with and . Thus and . The mixed anticommutator gives . This is an explicit potential for the ddbar lemma, with one lower degree of each type; using the inverse of the Hodge Laplacian instead multiplies the displayed expression by four.
Harmonic orthogonality criterion for ddbar exactness Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
If is a -closed -form on a compact Kähler manifold, then is ddbar lemma exact if and only if it is orthogonal to every harmonic differential form of type . The forward implication follows by integration by parts. For the reverse implication, Dolbeault Hodge decomposition first makes -exact, and the ddbar lemma then makes it -exact.
Use both Kähler identities from the preceding parts, so that and . For odd operators , write . Direct expansion gives
Since , we obtain
Together with part (b), this proves the full Kähler Laplacian identity
Now take the exact form . Being -exact, it is orthogonal to the harmonic space, so , and it is also -closed. Choose for the Dolbeault Green operator of the Dolbeault Laplacian. Commutation gives . Therefore
Suppose also , and put , . The mixed identities and give
Thus is harmonic for the Dolbeault Laplacian. By the Kähler Laplacian identity it is also -harmonic and hence . But it is -exact, so
Consequently : the form is -closed.
For every harmonic form of the same bidegree as , . Harmonic spaces for the two Dolbeault Laplacians coincide, so has no -harmonic component. Apply the version of the Dolbeault Hodge decomposition. Since is -closed, it has no -coexact component either. Thus , with . We conclude the requested ddbar lemma:
For example is a choice, since the same Green operator serves . If or , the relevant negative-bidegree space is zero and the argument forces . Compactness, the absence of boundary and the Kähler condition are essential to this global harmonic argument.
For each of the operators , define its nonnegative Laplacian by using the formal adjoint. In particular, , , , and . Use the d c operator convention
This normalization, without an extra factor of one-half, is the one for which the requested equality with holds.
The Lefschetz operator of a Kähler manifold is , and the adjoint Lefschetz operator is its pointwise metric adjoint . It lowers type by and is a real operator because and the metric are real. Write and , use , and use for the anticommutators of the odd-degree operators. The allowed relation among the Kähler identities and its complex conjugate give
These identities alone suffice for the calculation. Since ,
Replacing by in the same calculation gives . Thus both mixed terms vanish when expanding the Hodge Laplacian of :
The anticommutation now proves equality of the two summands. Indeed,
which are the same expression. Finally, , so its Laplacian expands as
This proves the Kähler Laplacian identity, with its real-operator version included:
The action of the almost complex structure on forms is . It multiplies a form of type by . Since preserves each bidegree, it commutes with this action of . Thus ; the invertibility of gives
This argument applies to arbitrary sums of types, not only to pure-type forms.
The ddbar lemma for a compact Kähler manifold states that a -closed form of pure type is -exact if it is -exact, -exact, or -exact. Conversely, a -exact form is -closed and exact for all three operators. In particular a -exact, -closed -form equals for a form of type .
The difference of the two Kähler forms is a real -form, is -closed, and is -exact by equality of their de Rham cohomology classes. The ddbar lemma therefore gives a smooth complex-valued function with . Reality and anticommutation imply
Set , which is real. It follows directly that , giving the global potential for cohomologous Kähler forms
If are two real potentials, satisfies , so it is a pluriharmonic function. The allowed relation among the Kähler identities gives , because by degree. The Kähler Laplacian identity then gives . Integration by parts on compact gives
so is constant on each connected component. Consequently the potential is unique up to one additive constant when is connected; on a disconnected , one constant per component is the exact conclusion. Without the usual connectedness convention the printed uniqueness assertion needs this qualification: distinct constants on the components of a disjoint union leave the same pair of Kähler forms unchanged.
Let be the real Riemannian metric underlying the Hermitian metric, and let be the complex structure. The fundamental form of a Hermitian manifold is
The identity implies , so this is an alternating real two-form. Moreover . A two-form with this invariance has type : on two vectors of type , applying to both multiplies its value by , forcing that value to vanish; the same argument applies to type . Hence is a real -form.
Use the complex-linear convention for the complex Hodge star operator, extending the real star. The complex orientation and metric define , and
Here the Hermitian inner product is linear in the first argument. With this convention, on the even-dimensional underlying real manifold the formal adjoints are , and . A conjugate-linear star is another convention, but then the adjoint formulas must change accordingly.
The Hodge Laplacian and Dolbeault Laplacian are
Also write . They are nonnegative, since for example
The requested Dolbeault Hodge decomposition on a compact Hermitian manifold is a compactness statement: on a compact Hermitian manifold without boundary,
The harmonic space is finite-dimensional, and taking the harmonic representative induces an isomorphism . Compactness is essential to this formulation; it is not asserted on an arbitrary noncompact Hermitian manifold.
Now suppose is compact and Kähler, so . The permitted Kähler Laplacian identity is , making the three harmonic spaces identical in each bidegree. A -closed pure-type form has , since these two terms have different types. We will construct a Green operator potential for ddbar exactness, rather than invoking the ddbar lemma as the conclusion to be proved.
Let be the inverse of on the orthogonal complement of its harmonic forms, zero on the harmonic space. It is twice the Green operator of the Hodge Laplacian. The Hodge decomposition theorem and elliptic inversion give , with harmonic projection. It preserves bidegrees. The operators and commute with : the first follows from and , and the second directly from . They and their formal adjoints annihilate harmonic forms, so they preserve the orthogonal complement of the harmonic space. Consequently they commute with , by uniqueness of the inverse on the harmonic complement. Thus and are killed by both differential operators.
The assumed orthogonality makes . Applying the two Laplacians gives
We also need the mixed anticommutator, which follows from the permitted Laplacian identity rather than an extra unproved lemma. Expand using and . Since , its mixed terms sum to zero. Their two bidegrees and are distinct, so each vanishes separately, in particular . Hence
We have obtained the explicit answer
The positive assumptions on ensure these degrees are available. Conversely such a form is orthogonal to harmonic forms by integration by parts, so the same proof also explains the harmonic orthogonality criterion for ddbar exactness.
For injectivity of the Lefschetz operator on a Hermitian manifold on real one-forms, work at one point in a metric-orthonormal coframe with . If , a unitary change of coframe makes , . Then
since the displayed basis three-forms are linearly independent. Therefore has zero kernel. Injectivity on complex one-forms follows by taking real and imaginary parts, since is real. This pointwise proof of injectivity of powers of the Lefschetz operator for degree one does not require the hard Lefschetz theorem.
Closedness of gives . Using the permitted Kähler identities, specifically , gives
Multiplying by two proves . In particular the Lefschetz operator preserves harmonic forms and the injective map on one-forms restricts to an injection . The de Rham Hodge theorem identifies these real harmonic spaces with the corresponding real cohomology groups. Taking dimensions yields
The specified bidegree is the conjugate-linear Hodge star, not the complex-linear extension of the real star. If the pointwise Hermitian inner product is linear in its first argument, it is defined by
It is the real Hodge star operator extended complex-linearly and composed with complex conjugation; . On a compact Hermitian manifold,
is a positive definite Hermitian inner product on smooth forms. The formal adjoint is in this convention; the final star in this identity is present in the PDF but is corrupted in the TeX aid.
State the relevant Hodge theorem as follows. On a compact manifold without boundary, the Dolbeault Laplacian is elliptic, self-adjoint and nonnegative. Its harmonic kernel is finite-dimensional, and smooth forms split orthogonally as this kernel plus the image of . There are the orthogonal projection and a smooth Green operator with
For any form , expand the Laplacian term to obtain
Harmonic forms are both closed and coclosed, since . They are orthogonal to both other terms; the two images are orthogonal because . This proves the Dolbeault Hodge decomposition
The closed forms are exactly the first two summands: if , then is orthogonal to the adjoint image, and conversely the first two summands are closed. It follows that every Dolbeault cohomology class has a unique harmonic representative. Negative or out-of-range bidegrees mean zero spaces. Compactness and the absence of boundary are necessary for this stated global decomposition.
Now assume a Kähler metric. Set and . The permitted Kähler identities, stated with signs, are
with ordinary commutators because has even degree. Thus , and
by . The companion identity gives in the same way.
Define and . Expanding and makes the two mixed anticommutators vanish, so . To prove equality of the latter two, substitute the same commutator formulas and use :
The displayed operators are identical. Therefore the Kähler Laplacian identity is
Let be a -exact form. It is closed and orthogonal to harmonic forms. The Dolbeault Hodge decomposition, or the Green identity with , therefore gives
For the Green construction, follows since commutes with ; equivalently the coexact component of a closed form vanishes. This yields exactly the stated factorization.
If also , put and . The identities already proved give
Thus is harmonic for and hence for . But it is -exact, so it is orthogonal to the harmonic summand in the Hodge decomposition theorem. Consequently , proving that is -closed.
Furthermore is orthogonal to the common harmonic space, since . Its -Hodge decomposition then has neither a harmonic term nor a coexact term: closedness kills the coexact term. Therefore for a form . It follows that
This proves the requested ddbar lemma, including the intermediate harmonicity and orthogonality steps. The hypotheses ensure that the potential has a valid bidegree.
Finally is a real closed form and is -exact. Integration by parts makes it orthogonal to every -harmonic form. By the Kähler Laplacian identity it is also orthogonal to the Dolbeault harmonic space; because it is -closed, the Dolbeault Hodge decomposition makes it -exact. Apply the proved ddbar lemma to get for a smooth complex-valued function. Reality gives , so averaging yields
With ,
The potential is defined up to a real constant on each connected component. This is a statement about cohomologous Kähler forms, not about an arbitrary pair of such forms.
The natural map between Bott-Chern cohomology and Dolbeault cohomology is
It is well-defined: a -closed pure-type form is -closed, and is -exact.
For surjectivity, choose the unique harmonic differential form representing a Dolbeault cohomology class using Dolbeault Hodge decomposition. The Kähler Laplacian identity makes a harmonic differential form for , hence -closed. Sending the Dolbeault class to consequently gives a right inverse.
For injectivity, the ddbar lemma says directly that a -closed, -exact pure-type form is -exact. One can also exhibit its primitive. Let be the Green operator of the Hodge Laplacian, and put . If is -closed and -exact, its harmonic projection vanishes and the Kähler identities give
Here because the Green operator commutes with these differentials, and . Thus represents zero in Bott-Chern cohomology. We have constructed the canonical isomorphism and its harmonic inverse:
The Dolbeault theorem identifies with . It vanishes by hypothesis, and complex conjugation in the Hodge decomposition theorem for compact Kähler manifolds makes vanish too. Thus every real degree-two cohomology class has type .
Let be a Kähler form. Choose a rational cohomology class sufficiently close to . More concretely, using harmonic differential forms as representatives for a fixed Kähler metric, the harmonic form representing is close to in every smooth norm: harmonic differential forms constitute a finite-dimensional vector space. It is a real closed form, and is positive if sufficiently close to , by compactness. This is the openness of the Kähler cone. Multiplying by a positive integer gives an integral Kähler class .
The holomorphic exponential sequence contains the cohomology segment
Choose an integral lift of . Exactness gives a holomorphic line bundle having that First Chern class. We must ensure that it has a positive metric, rather than merely a positive representative of its class.
Choose any Hermitian metric and let be its normalized curvature form of a Hermitian holomorphic line bundle. If is the positive form representing , then is an exact real form. The ddbar lemma gives a real smooth function with
Replace by . Its normalized curvature is , so is a positive holomorphic line bundle. The Kodaira embedding theorem now applies: sufficiently many sections of a sufficiently high tensor power define the desired embedding. Therefore
The Kähler manifold structure gives a Riemannian metric, its volume form, the complex orientation, and a Hermitian inner product on complex differential forms. The complex Hodge star operator is the complex-linear map characterized by
On -forms in real dimension , the codifferential is
equivalently the formal adjoint of for the inner product. Similarly is the formal adjoint of . Define the Hodge Laplacian and Dolbeault Laplacian by
Expanding , the Kähler identities make the mixed anticommutators vanish and imply . Hence the Kähler Laplacian identity is
Let be the Lefschetz operator of a Kähler manifold. The Kähler identities also imply
Thus, if , then
This is the fact that the Lefschetz operator preserves harmonic forms.
The Dolbeault Hodge decomposition on a compact Hermitian manifold states that
an orthogonal direct sum, where .
Suppose has type . Apply this decomposition to . The harmonic and -exact pieces disappear after applying , so for some ,
Put . If also , then
The Kähler anticommutation identity and give
Therefore is -harmonic. By it is also -harmonic, but it is -exact; orthogonality of harmonic and exact forms forces
This proves both requested claims: is harmonic, and is -closed.
Finally, is orthogonal to , and hence to every -harmonic form. Since the - and -harmonic spaces agree on a compact Kähler manifold, the -closed form has zero harmonic component in its -Hodge decomposition. It follows that for some . Hence
which is the ddbar lemma in this case.