Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures

The fact that every compact oriented 4-manifold admits spinᶜ 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 v...

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Published in:Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Date:2021
Main Author: LeBrun, Claude
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Інститут математики НАН України 2021
Online Access:https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/211425
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Journal Title:Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Cite this:Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures. Claude LeBrun. SIGMA 17 (2021), 102, 11 pages

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Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
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author LeBrun, Claude
author_facet LeBrun, Claude
citation_txt Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures. Claude LeBrun. SIGMA 17 (2021), 102, 11 pages
collection DSpace DC
container_title Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
description The fact that every compact oriented 4-manifold admits spinᶜ 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 structures in any dimension.
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institution Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
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last_indexed 2026-03-14T12:56:54Z
publishDate 2021
publisher Інститут математики НАН України
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spelling LeBrun, Claude
2026-01-02T08:30:16Z
2021
Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures. Claude LeBrun. SIGMA 17 (2021), 102, 11 pages
1815-0659
2020 Mathematics Subject Classification: 53C27; 53C28; 57R15
arXiv:2108.01739
https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/211425
https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2021.102
The fact that every compact oriented 4-manifold admits spinᶜ 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 structures in any dimension.
This article is dedicated to my friend and teacher, Sir Roger Penrose, in celebration of his ninetieth birthday and recent Nobel Prize in Physics. It is a pleasure to thank Dennis Sullivan for his advice and encouragement, and Jiahao Hu for some very illuminating conversations. This research was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-1906267.
en
Інститут математики НАН України
Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
Article
published earlier
spellingShingle Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
LeBrun, Claude
title Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
title_full Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
title_fullStr Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
title_full_unstemmed Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
title_short Twistors, Self-Duality, and Spinᶜ Structures
title_sort twistors, self-duality, and spinᶜ structures
url https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/211425
work_keys_str_mv AT lebrunclaude twistorsselfdualityandspincstructures