English

Q-Curvature, Spectral Invariants, and Representation Theory

Differential Geometry 2008-04-24 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We give an introductory account of functional determinants of elliptic operators on manifolds and Polyakov-type formulas for their infinitesimal and finite conformal variations. We relate this to extremal problems and to the Q-curvature on even-dimensional conformal manifolds. The exposition is self-contained, in the sense of giving references sufficient to allow the reader to work through all details.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0709.2471,
  title  = {Q-Curvature, Spectral Invariants, and Representation Theory},
  author = {Thomas P. Branson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.2471},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

This is a contribution to the Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Geometry Conference in honor of Thomas P. Branson, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/