Nonlinear Dirac equations with critical nonlinearities on compact spin manifolds

We study some basic analytical problems for nonlinear Dirac equations involving critical Sobolev exponents on compact spin manifolds. Their solutions are obtained as critical points of certain strongly indefinite functionals defined on H1/2-spinors with critical growth. We prove the existence of a non-trivial solution for the Brezis–Nirenberg type problem when the dimension m of the manifold is larger than 3. We also prove a global compactness result for the associated Palais–Smale sequences and the regularity of L 2m m−1 - weak solutions. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.