Dimensional reduction of Dirac operator

Abstract

We construct an explicit example of dimensional reduction of the free massless Dirac operator with an internal SU(3) symmetry, defined on a 12-dimensional manifold that is the total space of a principal SU(3)-bundle over a four-dimensional (nonflat) pseudo-Riemannian manifold. Upon dimensional reduction the free 12-dimensional Dirac equation is transformed into a rather nontrivial four-dimensional one: a pair of massive Lorentz spinor SU(3)-octets interacting with an SU(3)-gauge field with a source term depending on the curvature tensor of the gauge field. The SU(3) group is complicated enough to illustrate features of the general case. It should not be confused with the color SU(3) of quantum chromodynamics where the fundamental spinors, the quark fields, are SU(3) triplets rather than octets.