Curvature of higher direct image sheaves

Abstract

Given a family $(F,h) \to X \times S$ of Hermite-Einstein bundles on a compact Kähler manifold $(X,g)$ we consider the higher direct image sheaves $R^q p_* \mathcal{O}(F)$ on $S$, where $p: X \times S \to S$ is the projection. On the complement of an analytic subset these sheaves are locally free and carry a natural metric, induced by the $L_2$ inner product of harmonic forms on the fibers. We compute the curvature of this metric which has a simpler form for families with fixed determinant and families of endomorphism bundles. Furthermore, we discuss the metric for moduli spaces of stable vector bundles.