A universal lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on quaternionic Kaehler manifolds

Abstract

A universal lower bound for the first positive eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on a compact quaternionic Kaehler manifold M of positive scalar curvature is calculated. It is shown that it is equal to the first positive eigenvalue on the quaternionic projective space. For this, the horizontal tangent bundle on the canonical SO(3)-bundle over M is equipped with a hyperkaehlerian structure and the corresponding splitting of the horizontal spinor bundle is considered. The desired estimate is obtained by looking at hyperkaehlerian twistor operators on horizontal spinors.