On the Spinor Representation of Surfaces in Euclidean 3-Space

The aim of the present paper is to clarify the relationship between immersions of surfaces and solutions of the inhomogeneous Dirac equation. The main idea leading to the description of a surface M^2 by a spinor field is the observation that the restriction to M^2 of any parallel spinor phi on R^3 is (with respect to the inner geometry of M^2) a non-trivial spinor field on M^2 of constant length which is a solution of the inhomogeneous Dirac equation and vice versa.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX2.0

Spin(9)-structures and connections with totally skew-symmetric torsion

We study Spin(9)-structures on 16-dimensional Riemannian manifolds and characterize the geometric types admitting a connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion.Comment: Latex2e, 8 page

Eigenvalue estimates for the Dirac operator depending on the Weyl curvature tensor

We prove new lower bounds for the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on compact manifolds whose Weyl tensor or curvature tensor, respectively, is divergence free. In the special case of Einstein manifolds, we obtain estimates depending on the Weyl tensor.Comment: Latex2.09, 9 page

The Casimir operator of a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion

For any triple $(M^n, g, \nabla)$ consisting of a Riemannian manifold and a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion we introduce an elliptic, second order operator $\Omega$ acting on spinor fields. In case of a reductive space and its canonical connection our construction yields the Casimir operator of the isometry group. Several non-homogeneous geometries (Sasakian, nearly K\"ahler, cocalibrated $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures) admit unique connections with skew-symmetric torsion. We study the corresponding Casimir operator and compare its kernel with the space of $\nabla$-parallel spinors.Comment: Latex2e, 15 page