BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY OF

PROJECTIVE BUNDLES OVER K

AHLER
MANIFOLDS
REZA SEYYEDALI
Abstract
In 1980, I. Morrison proved that the slope stability of a vector bundle of rank 2
over a compact Riemann surface implies Chow stability of the projectivization of the
bundle with respect to certain polarizations. Using the notion of balanced metrics
and recent work of Donaldson, Zhang, Wang, and Phong-Sturm, we show that the
statement holds for higher-rank vector bundles over compact algebraic manifolds of
arbitrary dimension that admit constant scalar curvature metric and have discrete
automorphism group.
1. Introduction
Acentral notion in geometric invariant theory (GIT) is the concept of stability. Stability
plays a signicant role in forming quotient spaces of projective varieties for which
geometric invariant theory was invented. One can dene Mumford-Takemoto slope
stability for holomorphic vector bundles, and also there is a notion of Gieseker stability
which is more in the realm of geometric invariant theory. It is well known that over
algebraic curves, all of these different notions coincide. It was known fromthe work of
Narasimhan and Seshadri that a holomorphic vector bundle over a compact Riemann
surface is polystable if and only if the bundle admits a projectively at connection. The
picture became complete with the later work of Donaldson and of Uhlenbeck and Yau
([D1], [D2], [UY]). They proved that over a compact K ahler manifold, a holomorphic
vector bundle is polystable if and only if it admits a Hermitian-Einstein metric. This is
known as the Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence. By a conjecture of Yau, one would
also expect such a correspondence for polarized algebraic manifolds. Following a
suggestion of Yau, both Tian [T] and Donaldson [D4] have given a precise conjecture
relating the existence of constant scalar curvature K ahler metrics to stability. In [Zh],
Zhang introduced the concept of balanced embedding and proved that the existence
of balanced embedding of a polarized algebraic variety is equivalent to stability of the
Chow point of the variety. Zhangs result has again been proved by Luo in [L] and by
DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL
Vol. 153, No. 3, c 2010 DOI 10.1215/00127094-2010-032
Received 5 January 2009. Revision received 9 November 2009.
2000 Mathematics Subject Classication. Primary 32Q15; Secondary 53C07.
573
574 REZA SEYYEDALI
Phong and Sturm in [PS1]. The same correspondence was proved for vector bundles
by Wang in [W1]. Later, in [D3], Donaldson proved that the existence of constant
scalar curvature K ahler metrics implies the existence of balanced metrics and hence
asymptotic Chow stability.
Earlier, in [M], Morrison proved that for the projectivization of a rank 2 holo-
morphic vector bundle over a compact Riemann surface, Chow stability is equivalent
to the stability of the bundle. Using ideas from the recent research discussed above,
in this article we generalize one direction of Morrisons result for higher-rank vector
bundles over compact algebraic manifolds of arbitrary dimension that admit constant
scalar curvature metric and have discrete automorphism group.
To state the precise result, let X be a compact complex manifold of dimension
m, and let : E X be a holomorphic vector bundle of rank r with dual bundle
E

. This gives a holomorphic ber bundle PE

over X with ber P

r1
. One can pull
back the vector bundle E to PE

. We denote the tautological line bundle on PE

by
O
PE
(1), and we denote its dual by O
PE
(1). Let L X be an ample line bundle
on X, and let 2c
1
(L) be a K ahler form. Since L is ample, there is an integer k
0
so that for any k k
0
, O
PE

k
(1) is very ample over PE

k
, where E
k
= E L
k
. Note
that there is a canonical isomorphism PE

= PE

and O
PE

k
(1)

= O
PE
(1)

L
k
.
The theorem we prove is the following.
THEOREM 1.1
Suppose that Aut(X) is discrete and that X admits a constant scalar curvature K ahler
metric in the class of 2c
1
(L). If E is Mumford-stable, then there exists a k
0
such that
_
PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
_
is Chow stable for k k
0
.
One of the earliest results in this spirit is the work of Burns and De Bartolomeis in
[BD]. They constructed a ruled surface which does not admit any extremal metric
in a certain cohomology class. In [H1], Hong proved that there are constant scalar
curvature K ahler metrics on the projectivization of stable bundles over curves. In [H2]
and [H3], he generalized this result to higher dimensions with some extra assumptions.
Combining Hongs results with Donaldsons, we see that (PE

, O
PE
(d)

L
dk
)
is Chow stable for d, k 0 when the bundle E is stable. Note that it differs from
our result, since it implies the Chow stability of (PE

, O
PE
(d)

L
dk
) for d, k big
enough.
In [RT], Ross and Thomas developed the notion of slope stability for polarized
algebraic manifolds. As one of the applications of their theory, they proved that if
(PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
) is slope-semistable for k 0, then E is a slope-semistable
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 575
bundle and (X, L) is a slope-semistable manifold. Again note that they look at stability
of PE

with respect to polarization O

PE
(d)

L
dk
for d, k big enough. For the
case of a 1-dimensional base, however, they showed stronger results. In this case they
proved that if (PE

, O
PE
(1)

L) is slope- (semi-, poly-) stable for any ample line

bundle L, then E is a slope- (semi-, poly-) stable bundle.
In order to prove Theorem 1.1 we use the concept of balanced metrics (see
Denition 2.1). Combining the results of Luo, Phong, Sturm, and Zhang on the
relation between balanced metrics and stability, it sufces to prove the following.
THEOREM 1.2
Let X be a compact complex manifold, and let L X be an ample line bundle.
Suppose that X admits a constant scalar curvature K ahler metric in the class of
2c
1
(L) and that Aut(X) is discrete. Let E X be a holomorphic vector bundle on
X. If E is Mumford-stable, then O
PE
(1)

L
k
admits balanced metrics for k 0.
The balanced condition may be formulated in terms of Bergman kernels. First, we show
that there exists an asymptotic expansion for the Bergman kernel of (PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
). Fix a positive Hermitian metric on L such that i

log = . For any

Hermitian metric g on O
PE
(1) whose curvature
g
= i

log g is positive along the

bers, we dene the sequence of volume forms d
g,k
on PE

for k 0 as follows:
d
g,k
= k
m
(
g
k

)
mr1
(mr 1)!
=
m

j=0
k
jm

mr1j
g
(mr j)!

j
j!
.
Let
k
(g, ) be the Bergman kernel of H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
) with respect
to the L
2
-inner product L
2
(g
k
, d
k,g
). We prove the following.
THEOREM 1.3
For any Hermitian metric h on E and K ahler form 2c
1
(L), there exist smooth
endomorphisms

B
k
(h, ) such that

k
(g, )([v]) = C
1
r
tr
_
(v, h)

B
k
(h, )
_
,
where g is the Fubini-Study metric on O
PE
(1) induced by the Hermitian metric h,
C
r
is a constant dened by (5.1), and (v, h) is an endomorphism of E dened in
Denition 5.2. Moreover, we have the following.
(1) There exist smooth endomorphisms A
i
(h, ) (X, End(E)) such that the
following asymptotic expansion holds as k ,

B
k
(h, ) k
m
A
1
(h, )k
m1
.
576 REZA SEYYEDALI
(2) In particular,
A
1
(h, ) =
r
r 1
_
i
2
F
(E,h)

i
2r
tr(F
(E,h)
)I
E

(r 1)
2r
S()I
E
_
,
where is the trace operator acting on (1, 1)-forms with respect to the K ahler
form , F
(E,h)
is the curvature of (E, h), and S() is the scalar curvature of .
(3) The asymptotic expansion holds in C

. More precisely, for any positive integers

a and p, there exists a positive constant K
a,p,,h
such that
_
_
B
k
(h, )
_
k
m
A
p
(h, )k
mp
__
_
C
a
K
a,p,,h
k
mp1
.
Moreover the expansion is uniform in the sense that there exists a positive
integer s such that if h and run in a bounded family in C
s
topology and
is bounded from below, then the constants K
a,p,,h
are bounded by a constant
depending only on a and p.
Finding balanced metrics on O
PE
(1)

L
k
is basically the same as nding solutions
to the equations
k
(g, ) = Constant. Therefore in order to prove Theorem 1.2, we
need to solve the equations
k
(g, ) = Constant for k 0. Now if has constant
scalar curvature and h satises the Hermitian-Einstein equation

F
(E,h)
= I
E
,
then A
1
(h, ) is constant. Notice that in order to make A
1
constant, existence of a
Hermitian-Einstein metric is not enough. We need the existence of a constant scalar
curvature K ahler metric as well. Next, the crucial fact is that the linearization of A
1
at (h, ) is surjective. This enables us to construct formal solutions as power series in
k
1
for the equation
k
(g, ) = Constant. Therefore, for any positive integer q, we
can construct a sequence of metrics g
k
on O
PE
(1)

L
k
and bases s
(k)
1
, . . . , s
(k)
N
for
H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)) such that

[s
(k)
i
[
2
g
k
= 1 and
_
s
(k)
i
, s
(k)
j
)
g
k
dvol
g
k
= D
k
I M
k
,
where D
k
C
r
as k (see (5.1) for the denition of C
r
), and M
k
is a trace-free
Hermitian matrix such that [[M
k
[[
op
= o(k
q1
) as k .
The next step is to perturb these almost-balanced metrics to get balanced metrics.
As pointed out by Donaldson, the problem of nding a balanced metric can be viewed
also as a nite-dimensional moment map problem solving the equation M
k
= 0.
Indeed, Donaldson shows that M
k
is the value of a moment map
D
on the space of
ordered bases with the obvious action of SU(N). Now, the problem is to show that if
for some ordered basis s, the value of the moment map is very small, then we can nd
a basis at which the moment map is zero. The standard technique is owing down s
under the gradient ow of [
D
[
2
to reach a zero of
D
. We need a Lojasiewicz-type
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 577
inequality to guarantee that the ow converges to a zero of the moment map. We do
this in Section 3 by adapting the Phong-Sturm proof to our situation.
This article covers the following. In Section 2, we review Donaldsons moment
map setup. We follow Phong and Sturms treatment from [PS2]. In Section 3, we
obtain a lower bound for the derivative of the moment map by adapting the argument
in [PS2] to our setting. In Section 4, we show how to perturb almost balanced metrics
to obtain balanced metrics in the general setting of Section 3. In order to do that,
we use the estimate obtained in Theorem 3.2 to apply Donaldsons version of the
inverse function theorem (Proposition 2.2). In Section 5, we prove the existence of
an asymptotic expansion for the Bergman kernel of O
PE
(1)

L
k
using results of
Catlin and Zelditch. Section 6 is devoted to constructing almost balanced metrics on
O
PE
(1)

L
k
using the asymptotic expansion obtained in Section 5.
2. Moment map setup
In this section, we review Donaldsons moment map setup. We follow the notation of
[PS2]. Let (Y,
0
) be a compact K ahler manifold of dimension n, and let O(1)
Y be a very ample line bundle on Y equipped with a Hermitian metric g
0
such
that i

log g
0
=
0
. Since O(1) is very ample, using global sections of O(1), we
can embed Y into P(H
0
(Y, O(1))

). A choice of ordered basis s = (s

1
, . . . , s
N
) of
H
0
(Y, O(1)) gives an isomorphism between P
_
H
0
(Y, O(1))

_
and P
N1
. Hence for
any such s, we have an embedding
s
: Y P
N1
such that

s
O
P
N (1) = O(1). Using

s
, we can pull back the Fubini-Study metric and the K ahler form of the projective
space to O(1) and Y, respectively.
Denition 2.1
An embedding
s
is called balanced if
_
Y
s
i
, s
j
)

s
h
FS

n
FS
n!
=
V
N

ij
,
where V =
_
Y

n
0
/n!. A Hermitian metric (resp., a K ahler form) is called balanced if
it is the pullback

s
h
FS
(resp.,

FS
) where
s
is a balanced embedding.
There is an action of SL(N) on the space of ordered bases of H
0
(Y, O(1)). Donaldson
denes a symplectic form on the space of ordered bases of H
0
(Y, O(1)) which is
invariant under the action of SU(N). So there exists an equivariant moment map on
this space such that its zeros are exactly balanced bases.
More precisely we dene

Z =
_
s = (s
1
, . . . , s
N
)[s
1
, . . . , s
N
a basis of H
0
(Y, O(1))
_
/C

578 REZA SEYYEDALI

and Z =

Z/PAut(Y, O(1)). Donaldson denes a symplectic form

D
on Z. There is
a natural action of SU(N) on (Z,
D
) which preserves the symplectic form
D
. The
moment map for this action is given by
D
(s) = i[s

, s

)
h
s
(V/N)
,
], where
h
s
is the L
2
-inner product with respect to the pullback of Fubini-Study metric and
Fubini-Study K ahler form via the embedding
s
. Also we identify su(N)

with su(N)
using the invariant inner product on su(N), where su(N) is the Lie algebra of the group
SU(N) and su(N)

is its dual (for construction of

D
and more details, see [D3] and
[PS2]).
Using Delignes pairing, Phong and Sturm construct another symplectic form on
Z as follows.
Let

Y = {(x, s)[x P
N1
, s = (s
1
, . . . , s
N
), x
s
(Y)], and let Y =

Y/PAut(Y, O(1)). One obtains a holomorphic bration Y Z where every ber is

isomorphic to Y. Let p : Y P
N1
be the projection on the rst factor. Then dene
a Hermitian line bundle Mon Z by
M = p

O
P
N1 (1), . . . , p

O
P
N1 (1))
_
Y
Z
_
which is the Delignes pairing of (n 1) copies of p

O
P
N1 (1). Denote the curvature
of this Hermitian line bundle by
M
. It follows from properties of Delignes pairing
that

M
=
_
Y/Z

n1
FS
. (2.1)
Since SU(N) is semisimple, there is a unique equivariant moment map
M
:
Z su(N) for the action of SU(N) on (Z,
M
).
THEOREM 2.1 ([PS2, Theorem 1])
We have
M
=
D
and
M
=
D
.
Let be an element of the Lie algebra su(N). Since SU(N) acts on Z, the innitesimal
action of denes a vector eld
Z
() on Z. Fixing a point z Z, we have a linear
map
z
: su(N) T
z
Z. Let

z
be its adjoint with respect to the metric on T Zand the
invariant metric on su(N). Then we get the operator Q
z
=

z

z
: su(N) su(N).
Dene
1
z
as the smallest eigenvalue of Q
z
. In [D3], Donaldson proves the following.
PROPOSITION 2.2 ([D3, Proposition 17])
Suppose that one is given z
0
Z and real numbers , such that for all z = e
i
z
0
with [[ and su(N),
z
. Suppose that [(z
0
)[ ; then there exists
w = e
i
with (w) = 0, where [[ [(z
0
)[.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 579
3. Eigenvalue estimates
In this section, we obtain a lower bound for the derivative of the moment map
D
.
This is equivalent to an upper bound for the quantity
z
introduced in the previous
section. In order to do this, we adapt the argument of Phong and Sturm to our setting.
The main result is Theorem 3.2.
Let (Y,
0
) and O(1) Y be as in the previous section. Let (L, h

) be a
Hermitian line bundle over Y such that

= i

log h

is a semipositive (1, 1)-

form on Y. Dene
0
=
0
k

. For the rest of this section and the next section,

let m be the smallest integer such that
m1

= 0. Also assume that

nm
0

m

is a
volume form, and assume that there exist positive constants n
1
and n
2
such that
N
k
= dimH
0
_
Y, O(1) L
k
_
= n
1
k
m
O(k
m1
), (3.1)
V
k
=
_
Y
(
0
k

)
n
= n
2
k
m
O(k
m1
). (3.2)
Notice that (3.2) follows from the fact that
nm
0

m

is a volume form and that

article
m1

= 0.
The case that is important for this article is the following.
Example 3.1
Let (X,

) be a compact K ahler manifold of dimension m, and let Lbe a very ample

holomorphic line bundle on X such that

2c
1
(L). Let E be a holomorphic
vector bundle on X of rank r such that the line bundle O
PE
(1) Y = PE

is an
ample line bundle. We denote the pullback of

to PE

by

. Then
m1

= 0,
and by the Riemann-Roch formula, we have
dimH
0
_
Y, O(1) L
k
_
= dimH
0
(X, E L
k
) =
r
m!
_
X
c
1
(L)
m
k
m
O(k
m1
).
The following lemma is clear.
LEMMA 3.1
Let h
k
be a sequence of Hermitian metrics on O(1) L
k
, and let s
(k)
= (s
(k)
1
, . . . , s
(k)
N
)
be a sequence of ordered bases for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
). Suppose that for any k, we
have

[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k
= 1, and
_
Y
s
(k)
i
, s
(k)
j
)
h
k
dvol
h
k
= D
(k)

ij
M
(k)
ij
,
where D
(k)
is a scalar and M
(k)
is a trace-free Hermitian matrix. Then
D
(k)
=
V
k
N
k

n
2
n
1
as k ,
where the constants n
1
and n
2
are dened by (3.1) and (3.2).
580 REZA SEYYEDALI
We start with the notion of R-boundedness that is a generalization of Donaldsons
notion of R-boundedness introduced originally in [D3].
Denition 3.2
Let R be a real number with R > 1, let a 4 be a xed integer, and let s =
(s
1
, . . . , s
N
) be an ordered basis for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
). We say that s has R-bounded
geometry if the K ahler form =

FS
satises the following conditions:
[[
0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
R, where
0
=
0
k

;

1
R

0
.
We also say that the K ahler form has R-bounded geometry.
Recall the denition of
z
from Section 2. The main result of this section is the
following.
THEOREM 3.2
Assume that Y does not have any nonzero holomorphic vector elds. For any R > 1,
there are positive constants C and n
2
/10n
1
such that, for any k, if the basis s =
(s
1
, . . . , s
N
) of H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
) has R-bounded geometry, and if [[
D
(s)[[
op
,
then
s
Ck
3
.
The rest of this section is devoted to the proof of Theorem 3.2. Notice that the estimate

z
Ck
3
is equivalent to the estimate [
Z
()[
2
ck
3
[[[[
2
. On the other hand,
(2.1) and Theorem 2.1 imply that
[
Z
()[
2
=
_
Y

,Y

n1
FS
. (3.3)
Hence, in order to establish Theorem3.2, we need to estimate the quantity
_
Y

Y

,Y

n1
FS
from below.
For the rest of this section, x an ordered basis s
(k)
= (s
1
, . . . , s
N
) of H
0
(Y,
O(1) L
k
) and let M
(k)
= i
D
(s
(k)
). It gives an embedding =
s
(k) : Y P
N1
,
where N = N
k
= dimH
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
). For any su(N), we have a vector eld
Y

on P
N1
generated by the innitesimal action of .
We have the following exact sequence of vector bundles over Y: 0 T Y

T P
N1
Q 0. Let N

T P
N1
be the orthogonal complement of T Y. Then
as smooth vector bundles, we have

T P
N1
= T Y N. We denote the projections
onto the rst and second component by
T
and
N
, respectively. The following is
straightforward.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 581
PROPOSITION 3.3
For any su(N), we have [[
N
Y

[[
2
L
2
(Y,T Y)
=
_
Y

,Y

n1
FS
.
Therefore, the estimate in Theorem 3.2 follows from
[[[[
2
c
R
k[[Y

[[
2
, (3.4)
c
/
R
[[
T
Y

[[
2
k
2
[[
N
Y

[[
2
, (3.5)
[[Y

[[
2
= [[
T
Y

[[
2
[[
N
Y

[[
2
. (3.6)
The estimate (3.4) follows from Lemma 3.5 and the argument given in
([PS2, pp. 704 705]). We prove (3.5) in Proposition 3.7. Assuming (3.4), (3.5),
and (3.6), we give a proof of Theorem 3.2.
Proof of Theorem 3.2.
By (3.3), we have [
Z
()[
2
=
_
Y

Y

,Y

n1
FS
. Applying Proposition 3.3, we get
[
Z
()[
2
= [[
N
Y

[[
2
. Thus, in order to prove Theorem 3.2, we need to show that
[[
N
Y

[[
2
c
R
k
3
[[[[
2
. By (3.4), we have [[[[
2
c
R
k[[Y

[[
2
= c
R
k[[
N
Y

[[
2

c
R
k[[
T
Y

[[
2
. Hence (3.5) implies that [[[[
2
c
R
k[[
N
Y

[[
2
c
R
c
/
R
k
3
[[
N
Y

[[
2

c
//
R
k
3
[[
N
Y

[[
2
.
LEMMA 3.4
There exists a positive constant c independent of k such that for any f C

(Y), we
have
c
_
Y
f
2

n
0
k
_
Y
f f
n1
0
k
m
_
_
Y
f
n
0
_
2
.
Proof
By the Poincar e inequality, we have
_
Y
f
2

n
0

1

1
(
0
)
_
Y
f f
n1
0

1
V
k
_
_
Y
f
n
0
_
2
,
where
1
(
0
) is the rst nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplacian on functions using the
metric
0
. There exist nonnegative continuous functions f
0
, . . . , f
m
such that

n
0
= (
0
k

)
n
=
m

i=0
k
i

ni
0

i

=
m

i=0
k
i
f
i

n
0
= k
m
(f
m
f
0
k
m
)
n
0
.
582 REZA SEYYEDALI
Therefore there exists a positive constant c such that (1/c)k
m

n
0

n
0
ck
m

n
0
since
the manifold Y is compact. Hence the same argument as in [F, Lemma 6.5] implies
that
1
(
0
) = O(k
1
). On the other hand, V
k
= O(k
m
), and therefore the proof is
complete.
LEMMA 3.5
There exists a positive constant c
R
independent of k such that for any K ahler form
c
1
(O(1) L
k
) having R-bounded geometry and for any f C

(Y), we have
c
R
_
Y
f
2

n
k
_
Y
f f
n1
k
m
_
_
Y
f
n
_
2
.
Proof
The metric c
1
(O(1) L
k
) has R-bounded geometry, and therefore
1
() =
O(k
1
) and Vol() = O(k
m
) uniformly in k. Hence the lemma follows by the
Poincar e inequality.
PROPOSITION 3.6
For any holomorphic vector eld V on P
N
k
1
, we have [
N
V[
2
C
R
[(
T
V)[
2
.
Proof
For k 0, we have S(
0
k

) = O(1), where S is the scalar curvature (cf.

[H1] and [H2]). Therefore the argument given in [PS2, pp. 705 708] concludes the
proof.
The only thing we need in addition is the following.
PROPOSITION 3.7 ([F, Lemma 6.6])
Assume that there are no nonzero holomorphic vector elds on Y. Then there exists a
constant c
/
R
such that for any su(N
k
), we have c
/
R
[[
T
Y

[[
2
k
2
[[
N
Y

[[
2
.
Proof
Since there are no holomorphic vector elds on Y, for any smooth vector eld W
on Y, we have c[[W[[
2
L
2
(
0
)
[[W[[
2
L
2
(
0
)
. The manifold Y is compact. Therefore
there exists a positive constant c
R
independent of k such that c
R
k
0
, and
(k
m
/c
R
)
n
0

n
c
R
k
m

n
0
, for any metric c
1
(O(1) L
k
) having R-bounded
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 583
geometry . Therefore,
c[[W[[
2
L
2
()
= c
_
[W[
2

n
cc
2
R
k
m1
_
[W[
2

n
0
c
2
R
k
m1
_
[W[
2

n
0
c
4
R
k
2
_
[W[
2

n
= c
4
R
k
2
[[W[[
2
L
2
()
.
Now, putting W =
T
Y

, we get
c[[
T
Y

[[
2
L
2
()
c
4
R
k
2
[[(
T
Y

)[[
2
L
2
()
.
Therefore Proposition 3.6 concludes the proof.
4. Perturbing to a balanced metric
We continue with the notation of Section 3. The goal of this section is to prove Theorem
4.6, which gives a condition for when an almost balanced metric can be perturbed to
a balanced one. In order to do this, rst we need to establish Theorem 4.5. We need
the following estimate.
PROPOSITION 4.1
There exist positive real numbers K
j
(depending only on h
0
, g

) and j such that for

any s H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
), we have
[
j
s[
2
C
0
(
0
)
K
j
k
nj
_
Y
[s[
2

n
0
n!
.
In order to prove Proposition 4.1, we start with some complex analysis. Let be
a strictly plurisubharmonic function, and let be a plurisubharmonic function on
B = B(2) C
n
such that (0) = (0) = 0. We can nd a coordinate on B(2) such
that (z) = A[z[
2
O([z[
2
) and (z) =

i
[z
i
[
2
O([z[
2
), where A > 0 and

i
0. For any function u : B C, we dene u
(k)
(z) = u(z/

k).
THEOREM 4.2 (Cauchy estimate, cf. [Ho, Theorem 2.2.3])
There exist positive real numbers C
j
such that for any holomorphic function u : B
C, we have
[
j
u[
2
(0) C
j
_
[z[1
[u(z)[
2
dz dz.
584 REZA SEYYEDALI
THEOREM 4.3
There exist positive real numbers c
j
depending only on j, , , and d such that for
any holomorphic function u : B C, we have
[
j
u[
2
(0) c
j
k
nj
_
B(1)
[u[
2
e
k
d,
where d is a xed volume form on B.
Proof
Applying the Cauchy estimate to u
(k)
, we get
k
j
[
j
u[
2
(0) C
j
_
[z[1
[u
(k)
(z)[
2
dz dz C
_
[z[1
[u
(k)
(z)[
2
e

(
i
A)[z
i
[
2
dz dz,
since e

(
i
A)[z
i
[
2
is bounded from below by a positive constant on the unit ball.
Using the change of variable w = z/

k we get
k
j
[
j
u[
2
(0) Ck
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e
k

(
i
A)[w
i
[
2
dw dw
Ck
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e

(k
i
A)[w
i
[
2
dw dw.
On the other hand, we have (z) k(z) =

(k
i
A)[z
i
[
2
(z) k(z), where
lim
z0
(z)/[z[
2
= lim
z0
(z)/[z[
2
= 0. Let [w[ k
1/2
; then we have [k(w)(w)[
c(k[w[
2
[w[
2
) 2c for some constant c depending only on and . Hence
k
j
[
j
u[
2
(0) Ck
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e

(k
i
A)[w
i
[
2
dw dw
= Ce
2c
k
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e

(k
i
A)[w
i
[
2
2c
dw dw
C
/
k
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e

(k
i
A)[w
i
[
2
((w)k(w))
dw dw
= C
/
k
n
_
[w[k
1/2
[u(w)[
2
e
((w)k(w))
dw dw
C
/
k
n
_
B(1)
[u[
2
e
k
dz dz.
Thus, [
j
u[
2
(0) c
j
k
nj
_
B(1)
[u[
2
e
k
d.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 585
Proof of Proposition 4.1
Fix a point p in Y and a geodesic ball B Y with respect to the metric
0
centered
at p. Let e
L
be a holomorphic frame for L on B, and let e be a holomorphic frame for
O(1) such that [[e
L
[[(p) = [[e[[(p) = 1. Any s H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
) can be written
as s = ue e
k
L
for some holomorphic function u : B C. We have

j
s =

_
j
i
_

i
u
ji
(e e
k
L
).
Therefore,
[
j
s[
2
(p) C
_

[
i
u[
2
(p)[[
ji
(e e
k
L
)[[
2
(p)
_
.
On the other hand, we have
[[

(e e
k
L
)[[
2
(p)

i=0
_
[[
i
e[[
2
(p) k
i
[[
i
e
L
[[
2
(p)
_
C

(p)k

.
The constant C

(p) depends continuously on the point p, and since the manifold Y

is compact, the constant C

= sup
pY
C

(p) is nite and works for every point p.

Hence [
j
s[
2
(p) C
/
_
[
i
u[
2
(p)k
ji
_
for some positive constant C
/
. Applying
Theorem 4.3 concludes the proof.
For the rest of this section, we x a positive integer q. We continue with the notation
(Y,

,
0
,
0
) of Section 3. In the rest of this section, we x the reference metric
0
on Y and recall Denition 3.2.
Denition 4.1
The sequence of Hermitian metrics h
k
on O(1) L
k
and ordered bases s
(k)
=
(s
(k)
1
, . . . , s
(k)
N
) for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
) is called almost balanced of order q if for
any k

[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k
= 1
and
_
Y
s
(k)
i
, s
(k)
j
)
h
k
dvol
h
k
= D
(k)

ij
M
(k)
ij
,
where D
(k)
is a scalar so that D
(k)
n
2
/n
1
as k (see (3.1) and (3.2)), and M
(k)
is a trace-free Hermitian matrix such that [[M
(k)
[[
op
= O(k
q1
).
We state the following lemma without proof. The proof is a straightforward calculation.
586 REZA SEYYEDALI
LEMMA 4.4
Let h
k
be a sequence of Hermitian metrics on O(1) L
k
. Suppose that
[[
k

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
= O(k
1
), (4.1)
where
k
= i

log h
k
. Then for any > 0 there exists a positive integer k
0
such that

k
(1 )
0
, for k k
0
.
Assume that there exists a sequence of almost balanced metrics h
k
of order q and
bases s
k
= (s
(k)
1
, . . . , s
(k)
N
) for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
). Also suppose that
k
= i

log h
k
satises (4.1). Then Lemma 4.4 implies that for k 0,
k
has R-bounded geometry.
Fix k and let B isu(N
k
). Without loss of generality, we can assume that
B is the diagonal matrix diag(
i
), where
i
R and

i
= 0. There exists a
unique Hermitian metric h
B
on O
PE
(1) L
k
such that

e
2
i
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
B
= 1. Let

B
= i

log h
B
. In the next theorem, we prove that there exist a constant c and open
balls U
k
isu(N
k
) around the origin of radius ck
(na2)
so that if B U
k
, then
B
is R-bounded. More precisely, we prove the following theorem.
THEOREM 4.5
Let the sequence of Hermitian metrics h
k
on O(1) L
k
and ordered bases s
(k)
=
(s
(k)
1
, . . . , s
(k)
N
) for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
) be almost balanced of order q. Suppose that
[[ log h
k
log(h
0
g
k

)[[
C
a2
(
0
)
= O(1) (4.2)
and [[
k

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
= O(k
1
), where
k
= i

log h
k
. Then
there exist c > 0 and k
0
> 0 such that if k k
0
and B isu(N
k
) satises
[[B[[
op
ck
(na2)
R, then the metric
B
is R-bounded; and
there exists c > 0 such that if B isu(N
k
) satises [[B[[
op
k
(na3)
, then
[[M
B
[[
op
ck
1
, where the matrix M
B
= (M
B
ij
) is dened by
M
B
ij
= e

j
_
Y
s
(k)
i
, s
(k)
j
)
h
B

n
B
n!

V
k
N
k

ij
.
Proof
Let h
B
= e

B
h
k
. So, we have
1 =

e
2
i
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
B
= e

e
2
i
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k
.
Hence

B
= log

e
2
i
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k
= log
_
1

(e
2
i
1)[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k
_
.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 587
If [[B[[
op
is small enough, there exists C > 0 so that
[[
B
[[
C
a2
(
0
)
C[[B[[
op
N
k

i=1
[
a2
s
(k)
i
[
2
C
0
(
0
)
.
Note that [[B[[
p
op
[[B[[
op
for p 1 since [[B[[
op
is small. Therefore (4.2) and
Proposition 4.1 imply that
[[
B
[[
C
a2
(
0
)
C[[B[[
op
k
na2
N
k

i=1
_
Y
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k

n
0
n!
= C[[B[[
op
k
na2
_
Y
N
k

i=1
[s
(k)
i
[
2
h
k

n
0
n!
= C[[B[[
op
k
na2
_
Y

n
0
n!
= c
1
[[B[[
op
k
na2
for some positive constant c
1
. Now if [[B[[
op
c
1
1
((R 1)/2R)k
(na2)
, then
[[
B
[[
C
a2
(
0
)

R 1
2R
. (4.3)
Therefore, [[i
B
[[
C
0
(
0
)
(R 1)/2R, which implies that
i
B

R 1
2R

0
. (4.4)
In order to show that
B
is R-bounded, we need to prove the following:
[[
B

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
R, (4.5)

B

1
R

0
. (4.6)
To prove (4.5), we see that (4.1) and (4.3) imply that for k 0,
[[
B

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
B

k
[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
k

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
B
[[
C
a2
(
0
)
k
1

R 1
2R
k
1
R.
To prove (4.6), applying Lemma 4.4 with = (R 1)/2R gives
k
(R
1)
0
/2R, and therefore (4.4) implies that

B

1
R

0
=
k
i
B

1
R

0

k

R 1
2R

0
0,
for k 0.
588 REZA SEYYEDALI
In order to prove the second part, by a unitary change of basis, we may assume
without loss of generality that the matrix M
B
is diagonal. By denition,
M
B
ij
= e

j
_
Y
Fs
i
, s
j
)
h
k

n
k
n!

V
k
N
k

ij
,
where F = e

n
B
/
n
k
. We have
M
B
ii
= e
2
i
_
Y
F[s
i
[
2
h
k

n
k
n!

V
k
N
k

ij
= e
2
i
_
Y
F[s
i
[
2
h
k

n
k
n!

_
Y
[s
i
[
2
h
k

n
k
n!
(M
(k)
)
ii
=
_
Y
(e
2
i
F 1)[s
i
[
2
h
k

n
k
n!
(M
(k)
)
ii
.
Therefore,
[M
B
ii
[ [[e
2
i
F 1[[

_
_
Y
[s
i
[
2
h
k

n
k
n!
_
[(M
(k)
)
ii
[ C([[e
2
i
F 1[[

k
q1
).
Dene f =
n
B
/
n
k
. If [[B[[
op
k
(na3)
, then [[
B

0
[[
C
0
(
0
)
= [[
B
[[
C
2
(
0
)
=
O(k
1
). Hence
[f 1[ =

n
B

n
k

n
k

n
0

n
k

n
B

n
k

n
0

n
0

n
k

n
B

n
0

n
0

n
0

n
k

n
0

_
= O(k
1
).
Notice that (4.1) implies that [(
n
0
/
n
k
) 1[ = O(k
1
) and [(
n
0

n
k
)/
n
0
[ =
O(k
1
). On the other hand [[B[[
op
k
(na3)
implies that [(e
2
i

B
1)[ = O(k
1
).
Therefore,
[[e
2
i
F 1[[ = [[e
2
i

n
B

n
k
1[[ = [[e
2
i

B
f 1[[
[[(e
2
i

B
1)(f 1)[[ [[(f 1)[[ [[(e
2
i

B
1)[[
= O(k
1
),
which implies that [[M
B
[[
op
= O(k
1
).
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 589
THEOREM 4.6
Suppose that the sequence of metrics h
k
on O(1) L
k
and bases s
k
= (s
k
1
, . . . , s
k
N
)
for H
0
(Y, O(1) L
k
) is almost balanced of order q. Suppose that
[[ log h
k
log(h
0
g
k

)[[
C
a2
(
0
)
= O(1) and [[
k

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
= O(k
1
),
where
k
= i

log h
k
. If q > (m/2) n a 6, then (Y, O(1) L
k
) admits a
balanced metric for k 0.
Proof
Let R > 1, and let k be a xed large positive integer. Let isu(N), where N =
N
k
= dimH
0
(Y, O(1)L
k
). If [[[[
op
(c/2)k
(na3)
R, then Theorem4.5 implies
that e

s has R-bounded geometry and that [[M

[[
op
for k 0, where is the
constant in the statement of Theorem 3.2. Thus, Theorem 3.2 implies that (e

s
(k)
)
Ck
3
= . With the notation of Proposition 2.2, we have (z
0
) = M
(k)
. Therefore
[(z
0
)[ = [M
(k)
[

N
k
[[M
(k)
[[
op
C
/
k
(m/2)q
. Letting = (c/2)k
(na3)
R,
we have [(z
0
)[ < if q > (m/2) n a 6 and k 0. Therefore if q >
(m/2) n a 6 and k 0, we can apply Proposition 2.2 to get balanced metrics
for k 0.
Remark 4.7
By Proposition 2.2, there exists
0
such that e

0
s is balanced and [
0
[
(Ck
3
)(C
/
k
(m/2)q
) = C
//
k
(m/2)3q
. Since [[

0
[[
C
a2 c
1
k
na2
[[
0
[[
op

c
1
k
na2
[
0
[, then [[

0
[[
C
a2 ck
(m/2)na5q
. Therefore,
[[
bal
k

k
[[
C
a
(
0
)
= O(k
1
). (4.7)
5. Asymptotic expansion
The goal of this section is to prove Theorem 1.3, which gives an asymptotic expansion
for the Bergman kernel of (PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
). We obtain such an expansion
by using the Bergman kernel asymptotic expansion proved in [C] and [Z]. Also we
compute the rst nontrivial coefcient of the expansion. In the next section, we use
this to construct a sequence of almost balanced metrics. We start with some linear
algebra.
Let V be a Hermitian vector space of dimension r. The projective space PV

can
be identied with the space of hyperplanes in V via f V

ker(f ) = V
f
V. If
f ,= 0, then V
f
will be a hyperplane. There is a natural isomorphism between V and
H
0
(PV

, O
PV
(1)) which sends v V to v H
0
(PV

, O
PV
(1)) such that for any
f V

, v(f ) = f (v). Now we can see that the inner product on V induces an inner
590 REZA SEYYEDALI
product on V

and then a metric on O

PV
(1). For v, w V and f V

we dene
v, w)
[f ]
=
f (v)f (w)
[f [
2
.
Denition 5.1
For any inner product h on V, we denote the induced metric on O
PV
(1) by

h.
The following is a straightforward computation.
PROPOSITION 5.1
For any v, w V we have
v, w)
h
= C
1
r
_
PV

v, w)

r1
FS
(r 1)!
where C
r
is a constant dened by
C
r
=
_
C
r1
d d
_
1

r1
j=1
[
j
[
2
_
r1
. (5.1)
Here d d = (

1d
1
d
1
) (

1d
r1
d
r1
).
Denition 5.2
For any v V, we dene an endomorphism of V by
(v, h) =
1
[[v[[
2
h
v v

h
,
where v

h
(.) = h(., v).
Let (X, ) be a K ahler manifold of dimension m, and let E be a holomorphic vector
bundle on X of rank r. Let L be an ample line bundle on X endowed with a Hermitian
metric such that i

log = . For any Hermitian metric h on E, we dene the

volume form
d
g
=

r1
g
(r 1)!

m
m!
,
where g =

h,
g
= i

log g = i

log

h, and : PE

X is the projection map.

The goal is to nd an asymptotic expansion for the Bergman kernel of O
PE
(1)L
k

PE

with respect to the L

2
-metric dened on H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
). We dene
the L
2
-metric using the ber metric g
k
and the volume form d
g,k
dened as
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 591
follows:
d
g,k
= k
m
(
g
k)
mr1
(mr 1)!
=
m

j=0
k
jm

mr1j
g
(mr j)!


j
j!
. (5.2)
In order to do that, we reduce the problem to the problem of Bergman kernel
asymptotics on E L
k
X. The rst step is to use the volume form d
g
, which is
a product volume form instead of the more complicated one d
g,k
. So, we replace the
volume form d
g,k
with d
g
and the ber metric g
k
with g(k)
k
, where the
metrics g(k) are dened on O
PE
(1) by
g(k) = k
m
_
m

j=0
k
j
f
j
_
g = (f
m
k
1
f
m1
k
m
f
0
)g, (5.3)
and

mr1j
g
(mr j)!


j
j!
= f
j
d
g
. (5.4)
Clearly the L
2
-inner products L
2
(g
k
, d
g,k
) and L
2
(g(k)
k
, d
g
) on
H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
) are the same. The second step is going from O
PE
(1)
PE

to E X. In order to do this we somehow push forward the metric g(k) to get a

metricg(k) on E (see Denition 5.5). Then we can apply the result on the asymptotics
of the Bergman kernel on E. The last step is to use this to get the result.
Denition 5.3
Let

s
k
1
, . . . ,

s
k
N
be an orthonormal basis for H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
) with respect
to L
2
(g
k
, d
k,g
). We dene

k
(g, ) =
N

i=1
[

s
k
i
[
2
g
k
. (5.5)
Denition 5.4
For any (j, j)-form on X, we dene the contraction
j

of with respect to the

K ahler form by
m!
(mj)!

mj
= (
j

)
m
.
In this section we x the K ahler form on X and therefore simply denote
j

by

j
.
592 REZA SEYYEDALI
LEMMA 5.2
Let
0
be a xed K ahler form on X. For any positive integer p there exists a constant
C such that for any (j, j)-form , we have
[[
p
(
j
)[[

0

C
inf
xX
[(x)
m
[

0
(x)
([[ [[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
j
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
)
_
m

i=1
[[[[
i
C
p
(
0
)
_
,
where is the connection dened with respect to
0
.
Proof
Let be a (j, j)-form. By denition, we have (
j
)
m
=
m!
(mj)!

mj
.
Therefore for any positive integer p, we have

p
_
(
j
)
m
_
=
m!
(mj)!

p
(
mj
).
Applying Leibnitzs rule, we get
p

i=0
_
p
i
_

i
(
j
)
pi

m
=
m!
(mj)!
p

i=0
_
p
i
_

i

pi

mi
.
Thus there exists a positive constant C
/
so that
[[
p
(
j
)
m
[[
C
0
(
0
)
C
/
([[
m
[[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
j
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
[[ [[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
mj
[[
C
p
(
0
)
).
On the other hand there exists a constant c
p,j
such that for any 0 j m1,
[[
mj
[[
C
p
(
0
)
c
p,j
[[[[
mj
C
p
(
0
)
c
p,j
_
m

i=1
[[[[
i
C
p
(
0
)
_
.
Hence there exists a constant C such that
[[
p
(
j
)[[
C
inf
xX
[(x)
m
[

0
(x)
([[ [[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
j
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
)
_
m

i=1
[[[[
i
C
p
(
0
)
_
.

Denition 5.5
For any Hermitian form g on O
PE
(1), we dene a Hermitian formg on E as
g(s, t ) = C
1
r
_
PE

x
g(s,

t )

r1
g
(r 1)!
, (5.6)
for s, t E
x
(see (5.1) for the denition of C
r
).
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 593
Notice that if g =

h for some Hermitian metric h on E, Proposition 5.1 implies that

g = h. Dene Hermitian forms g
j
s on E by
g
j
(s, t ) = C
1
r
_
PE

x
f
j
g(s,

t )

r1
g
(r 1)!
, (5.7)
for s, t E
x
. Also we dene
j
End(E) by g
j
=
j
h.
PROPOSITION 5.3
Let
0
be a xed K ahler form on X as in Lemma 5.2. For any positive numbers l and
l
/
and any positive integer p, there exists a positive number C
l,l
/
,p
such that if
[[[[
C
p
(
0
)
, [[h[[
C
p2
(
0
)
l and inf
xX
[(x)
m
[

0
(x)
l
/
,
then [[
i
[[
C
p
(
0
)
C
l,l
/
,p
, for any 1 i m.
Proof
Fix a point p X. Let e
1
, . . . , e
r
be a local holomorphic frame for E around p such
that
e
i
, e
j
)
h
(p) =
ij
, de
i
, e
j
)
h
(p) = 0.
For simplicity, we also assume that
i
2
F
h
(p) =

1
0 0
0
2
0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0
r

.
Let
1
, . . . ,
r
be the homogeneous coordinates on the ber. On the ber over the
point p, we have

g
=
FS,g

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
.
Therefore,
rj1
g

mj
=
_
r j 1
r 1
_

r1
FS,g

_

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
. The
denition of f
mj
gives
f
mj

r1
g

m
=
_
m
j
_

r1
g

__

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
_
.
594 REZA SEYYEDALI
Hence
f
mj

r1
FS,g

m
=
_
m
j
_

r1
FS,g

_
_

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
_
.
Therefore,

r1
FS,g

_
f
mj

_
m
j
_
_

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
_
= 0,
which implies that
f
mj

m
=
_
m
j
_
_

i
[
i
[
2

[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
=
_
m
j
_

j
1
j
r
=j
_
j
j
1
,...,j
r
_

j
1
1

j
r
r
[
1
[
2j
1
[
r
[
2j
r
_
[
i
[
2
_
j

mj
.
Simple calculation gives
_
C
r1
[

[
2
[
1
[
2j
1
. . . [
r1
[
2j
r1
d d
_
1

r1
j=1
[
j
[
2
_
rj1
=
C
r
r!j
1
! j
r
!(j

1)
(r j)!
,
when j
1
j
r
= j and 1 r. Hence
g
mj
(e

, e

) = C
1
r

_
f
mj
g( e

, e

)

r1
g
(r 1)!
_
=
r!
(r j)!

j
_

j
1
j
r
=j
(j

1)
j
1
1

j
r
r
_
. (5.8)
From the theory of symmetric functions, one can see that there exist polynomials
P
i
(x
1
, . . . , x
j
) of degree i such that

mj
=
j
_
F
j
h
P
1
(c
1
(h), . . . , c
j
(h))F
j1
h
P
j
(c
1
(h), . . . , c
j
(h))
_
,
where c
i
(h) is the ith chern form of h. Since [[h[[
C
p2
(
0
)
l, there exists a positive
constant c
/
such that [[F
j
h
P
j
(c
1
(h), . . . , c
j
(h))[[
C
p
(
0
)
c
/
(1 l)
j
. Therefore
Lemma 5.2 implies that
[[
p

mj
[[
C
l
/
_
c
/
(1 l)
j
[[
mj
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
_
(1 l)
m
,
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 595
since
inf
xX
[(x)
m
[

0
(x)
l
/
and
m

i=1
[[[[
i
C
p
(
0
)

m

i=1
l
i
(1 l)
m
.
On the other hand,
[[
mi
[[
C
p
(
0
)
= [[
p

mj
[[ [[
mi
[[
C
p1
(
0
)

C
l
/
_
c
/
(1 l)
j
[[
mj
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
_
(1 l)
m
[[
mi
[[
C
p1
(
0
)
.
Now we can conclude the proof by induction on p.
LEMMA 5.4
We have the following:
(1)
m
= I
E
;
(2)
m1
=
i
2(r 1)
(Tr(F
h
)I
E
F
h
).
Proof
The rst part is an immediate consequence of Proposition 5.1 and the denition of

m
. For the second part, we use the notation used in the proof of Proposition 5.3. It is
easy to see that for ,= , we get g
m1
(e

, e

) = 0. On the other hand, by plugging

j = 1 in (5.8), we get
g
m1
(e

, e

) =
1
(r 1)
_
Tr(F)

_
.

The following lemmas are straightforward.

LEMMA 5.5
We have g
k
=g
k
.
LEMMA 5.6
Let s
1
, . . . , s
N
be a basis for H
0
(X, E). Then

[s
i
([v

])[
2

h
= Tr(B(v

, h)), where
B =

s
i
s

h
i
.
596 REZA SEYYEDALI
Proof of Theorem 1.3
We dene the metric h(k) on E by
h(k) =
m

j=0
k
jm
g
j
=
_
m

j=0
k
jm

j
_
h. (5.9)
Let B
k
(h(k), ) be the Bergman kernel of EL
k
with respect to the L
2
-metric dened
by the Hermitian metric h(k)
k
on E L
k
and the volume form
m
/m! on X.
Therefore, if s
1
, . . . , s
N
is an orthonormal basis for H
0
(X, E L
k
) with respect to
the L
2
(h(k)
k
, (
m
/m!)), then
B
k
_
h(k),
_
=

s
i
s

h(k)
k
i
. (5.10)
We dene

B
k
(h, ) as follows:

B
k
(h, ) =

s
i
s

h
k
i
. (5.11)
Let s
1
, . . . , s
N
be the corresponding basis for H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1) L
k
). Hence,
_
PE

s
i
, s
j
)
g
k d
g,k
=
_
PE

s
i
, s
j
)
g
k
_
m

j=0
k
j
f
j
_
d
g
=
_
PE

s
i
, s
j
)
g(k)
k d
g
= C
r
_
X
s
i
, s
j
)
h(k)
k

m
m!
= C
r

ij
.
Therefore as can be seen, (1/

C
r
) s
1
, . . . , (1/

C
r
) s
N
is an orthonormal basis for
H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)L
k
) with respect to L
2
(g
k
, d
k,g
). Hence Lemma 5.6 implies
that C
r

k
(g) = Tr((v

, h)

B
k
(h, )). Now, in order to conclude the proof, it sufces
to show that there exist smooth endomorphisms A
i
(X, E) such that

B
k
(h, )
k
m
A
1
k
m1
. Let B
k
(h, ) be the Bergman kernel of EL
k
with respect to the
L
2
(h
k
). A fundamental result on the asymptotics of the Bergman kernel ([C], [Z])
states that there exists an asymptotic expansion B
k
(h, ) k
m
B
1
(h)k
m1
,
where
B
1
(h) =
i
2
F
(E,h)

1
2
S()I
E
.
(See also [BBS], [W2].) Moreover this expansion holds uniformly for any h in
a bounded family. Therefore, we can Taylor expand the coefcients B
i
(h)s. We
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 597
conclude that for endomorphisms
1
, . . . ,
M
,
B
k
_
h
_
I
M

i=0
k
i

i
_
,
_
k
m
B
1
(h)k
m1
.
Note that B
1
(h) in the above expansion does not depend on
i
s and is given as before
by
B
1
(h) =
i
2
F
(E,h)

1
2
S()I
E
.
On the other hand
B
k
_
h(k),
_
=

s
i
s

g(k)
k
i
=
_

s
i
s

h
k
i
__
m

j=0
k
jm

j
_
=

B
k
(h, )
_
m

j=0
k
jm

j
_
.
Therefore,

B
k
(h, ) = B
k
(h(k), )
_
m
j=0
k
jm

j
_
1
k
m
(B
1
(h)
m1
)k
m1

. Notice that Proposition 5.3 implies that if h and vary in a bounded family and
is bounded from below, then
1
, . . . ,
m
vary in a bounded family. Therefore the
asymptotic expansion that we obtained for

B
k
(h, ) is uniform as long as h and
vary in a bounded family and is bounded from below.
PROPOSITION 5.7
Suppose that

2c
1
(L) is a K ahler form with constant scalar curvature and
h
HE
is a Hermitian-Einstein metric on E, that is,

F
(E,h
HE
)
= I
E
, where is the

-slope of the bundle E. We have

A
1,1
:=
d
dt

t =0
A
1
_
h
HE
(I t ),

it
_
=
r 1
2r
D

DI
E

i
2
_
(

(F
h
HE
(i)))

1
r
tr(

)
2

(F
h
HE
(i))
_
,
where D

D is a Lichnerowicz operator (cf. [D3, p. 515]).

Proof
Dene f (t ) =

it
F
(h
HE
(It ))
. Therefore, we have
mF
(h
HE
(It ))
(

it )
m1
= f (t )(

it )
m
.
598 REZA SEYYEDALI
Differentiating with respect to t at t = 0, we obtain
m
m1

m(m1)F
h
HE
(i)
m2

= f
/
(0)
m

mf (0)(i)
m1

.
Since f (0) = I
E
, we get f
/
(0) =

(F
h
HE
(i))

(i)I
E
.
On the other hand (cf. [D3, pp. 515, 516]),
d
dt

t =0
S(

it ) = D

D.

COROLLARY 5.8
Suppose that Aut(X, L)/C

is discrete and E is stable. Then the map A

1,1
:

0
(End(E))
0
(End(E)) is an isomorphism, where
0
(End(E)) is the space
of smooth endomorphisms (X, End(E)) such that
_
X
tr()
m

= 0.
Proof
First, notice that
0
(End(E)) =
00
(End(E))

0
(X), where
00
(End(E)) is the
space of trace-free endomorphisms of E and C

0
(X) is the space of smooth functions
on X such that
_
X

m

= 0. Assume that A
1,1
(, ) = 0, where
00
(End(E))
and C

0
(X). Hence ((r 1)/2r)D

D = 0, and
i
2
_
(

(F
h
HE
(i)))
1
r
tr(

)
2

(F
h
HE
(i))
_
= 0.
Since Aut(X, L)/C

is discrete, the rst equation implies that is constant and

therefore that = 0. So, the second equation reduces to the following:

(1/r)tr(

) = 0. It implies that

= 0, since is traceless. Hence

the simplicity of E implies that = 0 (cf. [K]). In order to prove surjectivity, let

0
(End(E)). We know that the map C

0
D

D C

0
is surjective
since Aut(X, L)/C

is discrete (cf. [D3, pp. 515 516]). Hence we can nd

0
such
that D

D
0
= tr(). On the other hand,
i
2
_

(F
h

(i
0
))
1
r
tr(
2

(F
h

(i
0
)))
_

1
r
tr()
0
_
End(E)
_
.
The map

0
(End(E))
i
2

0
(End(E))
is surjective since E is simple. Hence, we can nd
0
such that A
1,1
(
0
,
0
) = .
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 599
6. Constructing almost balanced metrics
Let h

be a Hermitian metric on L such that

= i

log h

be a K ahler form
with constant scalar curvature, and let h
HE
be the corresponding Hermitian-Einstein
metric on E, that is,

F
(E,h
HE
)
= I
E
, where is the slope of the bundle E. Let

0
= i

log

h
HE
. After tensoring by a high power of L, we can assume without loss
of generality that
0
is a K ahler form on PE

. We x an integer a 4. In order to
prove the following, we use ideas introduced by Donaldson in [D3, Theorem 26].
THEOREM 6.1
Suppose that Aut(X, L) is discrete. There exist smooth functions
1
,
2
, . . . on X and
smooth endomorphisms
1
,
2
, . . . of E such that for any positive integer q, if

k,q
=

i
_
q

j=1
k
j

j
_
and h
k,q
= h
HE
_
I
E

q

j=1
k
j

j
_
,
then

B
k
(h
k,q
,
k,q
) =
C
r
N
k
k
m
V
k
(I
E

q
), (6.1)
where [[
q
[[
C
a2 = O(k
q1
) and V
k
= Vol(PE

, O
PE
(1) L
k
) is a topological
invariant.
Proof
The error term in the asymptotic expansion is uniformly bounded in C
a2
for all h
and in a bounded family. Therefore there exists a positive integer s that depends
only on p and q such that
A
p
_
h(1 ), i
_
= A
p
(h, )
q

j=1
A
p,j
(, ) O
_
[[(, )[[
q1
C
s
_
, (6.2)
where A
p,j
are homogeneous polynomials of degree j, depending on h and , in
and and its covariant derivatives. Let
1
, . . . ,
q
be smooth endomorphisms of E
and
1
, . . . ,
q
be smooth functions on X. We have
A
p
_
h
_
1
q

j=1
k
j

j
_
, i
_
q

j=1
k
j

j
_
_
=A
p
(h, )
q

j=1
b
p,j
k
j
O(k
q1
),
(6.3)
600 REZA SEYYEDALI
where b
p,j
s are multilinear expression on
i
s and
i
s. Hence

B
k
_
h
_
1
q

j=1
k
j

j
_
, i
_
q

j=1
k
j

j
__
= k
m
A
1
(h, )k
m1

_
A
q
(h, ) b
q1,1
b
1,q1
_
k
mq
O(k
mq1
). (6.4)
We need to choose
j
and
j
such that coefcients of k
m
, . . . , k
mq
in the right-
hand side of (6.4) are constant. Donaldsons key observation is that
p
and
p
only
appear in the coefcient of k
mp
in the form of A
1,1
(
p
,
p
). Hence, we can do this
inductively. Assume that we choose
1
,
2
, . . . ,
p1
and
1
,
2
, . . . ,
p1
so that
the coefcients of k
m
, . . . , k
mp1
are constant. Now we need to choose
p
and
p
such that the coefcient of k
mp
is constant. This means that we need to solve the
equation
A
1,1
(
p
,
p
) c
p
I
E
= P
p1
, (6.5)
for
p
,
p
, and the constant c
p
. In this equation P
p1
is determined by
1
, . . . ,
p1
and
1
, . . . ,
p1
. Corollary 5.8 implies that we can always solve the equa-
tion (6.5).
COROLLARY 6.2
For any positive integer q, there exist Hermitian metrics g
k,q
on O
PE
(1) and K ahler
forms
k,q
on X in the class of 2c
1
(L) so that

k
(g
k,q
,
k,q
) =
N
k
k
m
V
k
(1
k,q
),
where [[
k,q
[[
C
a2 = O(k
q1
). Moreover,
[[
g
k,q
k
k,q
(
0
k

)[[
C
a
(
0
k

)
= O(k
1
). (6.6)
Proof
Let g
k,q
=

h
k,q
. By Theorem 6.1, we have

k
(g
k,q
,
k,q
) =
N
k
k
m
V
k
Tr
_
(v

, h
k,q
)(I
E

q
)
_
=
N
k
k
m
V
k
_
1 Tr((v

, h
k,q
)
q
)
_
.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 601
The rst part of the corollary is proved, since h
k,q
is bounded and [[
k,q
[[
C
a2 =
O(k
q1
). Dene
0
=
0
k

. For the second part, we have

[[
g
k,q
k
k,q
(
0
k

)[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
g
k,q

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
k[[
k,q

[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
g
k,q

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
k[[
k,q

[[
C
a
(k

)
= [[
g
k,q

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
[[
k,q

[[
C
a
(

)
= O(k
1
).
Notice that by denition, we have [[
g
k,q

0
[[
C
a
(
0
)
= O(k
1
), and [[
k,q

[[
C
a
(

)
= O(k
1
).
7. Proof of the main theorem
In this section, we prove Theorem 1.2. In order to do that, we want to apply The-
orem 4.6. Hence, we need to construct a sequence of almost balanced metrics on
PE

, O
PE
(1) L
k
. Also, we need to show that PE

has no nontrivial holomorphic

vector elds.
PROPOSITION 7.1
Let E be a holomorphic vector bundle over a compact K ahler manifold X. Suppose
that X has no nonzero holomorphic vector elds. If E is stable, then PE

has no
nontrivial holomorphic vector elds.
Proof
Let T F be the sheaf of tangent vectors to the ber of . We have the following exact
sequence over PE: 0 T F T PE

T X 0. This gives the long exact

sequence
0 H
0
(PE

, T F) H
0
(PE

, T PE

) H
0
(PE

T X)
Since H
0
(PE

T X) = 0, we have H
0
(PE

, T F) . H
0
(PE

, T PE

). On
the other hand,

T F may be identied with the sheaf of trace-free endomor-

phisms of E. Therefore by the simplicity of E (cf. [K]), H
0
(PE

, T F) .
H
0
(X,

T F) = 0.
Proof of Theorem 1.2
Since Chow stability is equivalent to the existence of a balanced metric, it sufces
to show that (PE

, O
PE
(1)

L
k
) admits a balanced metric for k 0. Fix a
positive integer q. Fromnowon we drop all indexes q for simplicity. Let
k
=

(1

q
j=1
k
j

j
)), where
j
s are as in the statement of Theorem2.1, and let

be a metric
on Lsuch that i

log

. Therefore i

log
k
=
k,q
. For the rest of the proof,
602 REZA SEYYEDALI
we denote
k,q
by
k
. Let t
1
, . . . , t
N
be an orthonormal basis for H
0
(PE

, O
PE
(1)
L
k
) with respect to L
2
(g
k

k
k
((
g
k
k
k
)
mr1
/(mr 1)!)). Thus, Corollary
6.2 implies that

[t
i
[
2
g
k

k
k
=
N
k
V
k
(1
k
).
Dene g
/
k
= (V
k
/N
k
)(1
k
)
1
g
k
. We have

[t
i
[
2
g
/
k

k
k
= 1. This implies that the
metric g
/
k
is the Fubini-Study metric on O
PE
(1) L
k
induced by the embedding

t
: PE

P
N1
, where t = (t
1
, . . . , t
N
). We prove that this sequence of embedding
is almost balanced of order q:
_
PE

t
i
, t
j
)
g
/
k

k
k
(
g
/
k
k
k
)
mr1
(mr 1)!
= D
(k)

ij
M
ij
,
where M
(k)
= [M
ij
] is a trace-free Hermitian matrix, D
(k)
C
r
as k and
[[M
(k)
[[
op
= O(k
q1
).
We have
M
(k)
ij
=
_
PE

t
i
, t
j
)
g
/
k

k
k
(
g
/
k
k
k
)
mr1
(mr 1)!

V
k
N
k
_
PE

t
i
, t
j
)
g
k

k
k
(
g
k
k
k
)
mr1
(mr 1)!
=
V
k
N
k
_
PE

t
i
, t
j
)
g
k

k
k
_
f
k
(1
k
)
1
1
_
(
g
k
k
k
)
mr1
(mr 1)!
,
where (
g
/
k
k
k
)
mr1
= f
k
(
g
k
k
k
)
mr1
. By a unitary change of basis, we may
assume without loss of generality that the matrix M
(k)
is diagonal. Thus
[[M
(k)
[[
op

V
k
N
k
[[f
k
(1
k
)
1
1[[
L
.
On the other hand,
[[
g
/
k

g
k
[[
C
0
(
0
)
= [[ log(1
k
)[[
C
0
(
0
)
[[ log(1
k
)[[
C
2
(
0
)
log(1 C[[
k
[[
C
2
(
0
)
) = O(k
q1
).
Therefore,
[[f
k
1[[

mr1
g
/
k

mr1
g
k

mr1
g
k

mr1
g
/
k

mr1
g
k

mr1
0

mr1
0

mr1
g
k

Ck
q1

mr1
0

mr1
g
k

.
BALANCED METRICS AND CHOW STABILITY 603
This implies that [[f
k
1[[

Ck
q1
, since [(
mr1
0
/
mr1
g
k
)[ is bounded. Hence
[[f
k
(1
k
)
1
1[[ C
/
k
q1
. Therefore [[M
(k)
[[
op
= O(k
q1
). Proposition 7.1
implies that PE

has no nontrivial holomorphic vector elds. On the other hand,

[[ log(g
k

k
k
) log(

h
HE

k

)[[
C
a2
(
0
)
= O(1).
Therefore, applying Theorem 4.6 and (6.6) concludes the proof.
Remark 7.2
Since PE

has no nontrivial holomorphic vector elds, there exists a unique balanced

metric
bal
k
in the class of O
PE
(1) L
k
for each k 0. Dene the sequence of
metrics
k
=
bal
k
k

in the class of O
PE
(1). A natural question is whether
k
converges to
0
as k . If dim
C
X = 1, then it is easy to see that
k
converges
to
0
in C

-norm as k . In general, we have

[[
k

0
[[
C
p
(
0
)
= [[
bal
k

0
[[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
bal
k

k
[[
C
p
(
0
)
[[
k

0
[[
C
p
(
0
)
.
The rst term has order O(k
1
) by (4.7), and the second term is of order O(1).
Therefore, in higher dimension one gets [[
k

0
[[
C
p
(
0
)
= O(1) for any positive
integer p. It is not clear whether it is possible to nd a sharper estimate with these
methods.
The following remark was brought to the authors attention by the referee.
Remark 7.3
By the result of Hong ([H1], [H2]) there exist constant scalar curvature metrics

k
c
1
(O
PE
(1)

L
k
) for k 0, and those satisfy
k

0
= O(k
1
). Therefore

bal
k

k
= O(k
1
). So, in this sense, the balanced metrics converge to constant
scalar curvature metrics, making the parallel with Donaldsons theorem ([D3]).
Acknowledgments. I am sincerely grateful to Richard Wentworth for introducing me
to the subject, for many helpful discussions and suggestions, and for his continuous
help, support, and encouragement. I would like to thank Bo Berndtsson, Hamid Hezari,
Duong Phong, Julius Ross, and Steve Zelditch for many helpful discussions and
suggestions. I would also like to thank the referees for an exceptionally careful reading
of the manuscript and for many useful comments as well as suggesting a proof for
Theorem 3.2 which improves the estimate in the original version.
604 REZA SEYYEDALI
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Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA;
rseyyeda@math.uci.edu