English

Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spin$^c$ Structures

Differential Geometry 2021-11-22 v3 Geometric Topology

Abstract

The fact that every compact oriented 4-manifold admits spinc^c structures was proved long ago by Hirzebruch and Hopf. However, the usual proof is neither direct nor transparent. This article gives a new proof using twistor spaces that is simpler and more geometric. After using these ideas to clarify various aspects of four-dimensional geometry, we then explain how related ideas can be used to understand both spin and spinc^c structures in any dimension.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.01739,
  title  = {Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spin$^c$ Structures},
  author = {Claude LeBrun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.01739},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:48:23.642Z