Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 18 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Chern connection of a Hermitian metric on a holomorphic vector bundle is the unique connection on a vector bundle compatible with that metric and whose part is the bundle's Dolbeault operator . Fix a holomorphic local frame and column coefficients for sections. Write the metric as , conjugate-linear in the first argument, and write the connection as . The condition forces to have type . Metric compatibility requireswhere the dagger conjugates the differential-form coefficients as well as transposing the matrix. Taking the part gives . Its conjugate-transpose supplies the metric equation because is Hermitian. This proves uniqueness and local existence.
Under a holomorphic change of frame , the metric matrix becomes . The local formula for the Chern connection on a vector bundle then givesThis is precisely the transformation rule for a connection on a vector bundle, so the local connections glue and establish global existence. No Kähler hypothesis is needed for this part.
Extend to vector-bundle-valued differential forms by the graded Leibniz rule. The curvature form of a connection is the tensorial square , acting by exterior multiplication. In the chosen frame,Indeed by differentiating . It follows that has type ; the gauge change is . Thus it is a global smooth two-form with values in , namely an element of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 18 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Chern connection decomposes on vector-bundle-valued differential forms as , where raises holomorphic degree and raises antiholomorphic degree. In a holomorphic local frame, and . The type of the curvature form of a connection givesThe Kähler metric and the Hermitian metric define the inner product and the formal adjoints . The Dolbeault Laplacians areLet be the Lefschetz operator of a Kähler manifold and its adjoint Lefschetz operator. With the ordinary commutator convention , the printed Kähler identities giveSubstitution into the two Dolbeault Laplacians, followed by expansion, yieldsThe middle line follows by cancelling the terms with and ; the remaining terms collect the anticommutator of the two differentials. Hence , where denotes its wedge action. This is the Bochner-Kodaira-Nakano identity with the paper's sign convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 18 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Kähler form and the Hermitian metric give the inner product on vector-bundle-valued differential forms, using volume . Define the formal adjoint and the elliptic, self-adjoint, nonnegative Dolbeault LaplacianIts harmonic space isThe equality follows from . On compact , the bundle-valued Dolbeault Hodge decomposition states that this space is finite dimensional and thatThe sum is orthogonal for the inner product and all summands here consist of smooth forms. Every Dolbeault cohomology class has a unique harmonic representative, giving and, by the Dolbeault theorem, the corresponding sheaf cohomology isomorphism. This is a decomposition for , whose square is zero; it does not require the full Chern connection to be flat.