Number operators for Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

The Dirac operator d+delta on the Hodge complex of a Riemannian manifold is regarded as an annihilation operator A. On a weighted space L_mu^2 Omega, [A,A*] acts as multiplication by a positive constant on excited states if and only if the logarithm of the measure density of mu satisfies a pair of equations. The equations are equivalent to the existence of a harmonic distance function on M. Under these conditions N=A*A has spectrum containing the nonnegative integers. Nonflat, nonproduct examples are given. The results are summarized as a quantum version of the Cheeger--Gromoll splitting theorem.