Clifford Algebras and Spinor Structures

This text introduces mathematicians and physicists to a crossing point of algebra, physics, differential geometry and complex analysis. It follows the French tradition of Cartan, Chevalley and Crumeyrolle and summarizes Crumeyrolle's own work on exterior algebra and spinor structures. The depth and breadth of Crumeyrolle's research interests and influence in the field is investigated in a number of articles. Of interest to physicists is the modern presentation of Crumeyrolle's approach to Weyl spinors and to his spinoriality groups, which are formulated with spinor operators of Kustaanheimo and Hestenes. The Dirac equation and Dirac operator are studied both from the complex analytic and differential geometric points of view, in the modern sense of Ryan and Trautman. This book is intended for mathematicians and mathematical physicists whose research involves algebra, quantum mechanics and differential geometry.