The usual definition of a $spin^c$ structure on a riemannian manifold $M$ is often given by (the equivalence class of) the lifting of the frame bundle $P\to M$ of the tangent bundle $TM$ via the standard homomorphism $Spin^c(n)\to SO(n)$.
And there is yet another definition given in Monopoles and Three-manifolds, Kronheimer and Mrowka:
A $spin^c$ structure is a choice of "spinor bundle" $S$ (a complex vector bundle of proper dimension) and a Clifford multiplication $\rho : TM\to End(S)$ which satisfies $\rho(X)^2=-\left<X,X\right>id_{S}$ (hence extendable to the action of the Clifford algebra on $S$, $Cl(TM)\to End(S)$ which we furthermore assume that this restricts to the spin representation $Cl(T_xM)\to End(S_x)$ on each fiber).
(It might be the case that this definition is only valid in low-dimensional manifolds, especially 3 and 4Ds.)
Sadly this is where I stuck. After some searching, the equivalence between these two definitions is a forklore to experts, but it is hard to find the reference to the proof. My current understanding is,
- From the first definition to the second, the correspondence is (should be?) via the associated bundle construction w.r.t. the standard $spin^c$ representation $Spin^c(n)\to End(\Delta)$. For this direction, I have no confusion, this is totally fine with me.
- For the reverse direction, I have little clue. I only feel there would be a similar construction as "the frame bundle construction of a vector bundle that makes a correspondence between $SO(n)$-bundles and (oriented) vector bundles". But what can be a version of frames in the case of spinors?
- Or it might be possible that we can directly show the bijectiveness of the correspondence from the first to the second. But, from the second definition, I feel there's more freedom than the first, say we can choose a trivial bundle of proper dimension as $S$ and then there's no obstruction in defining a Clifford multiplication map $TM\to End(S)$ (at least considering the fact that End(S) has much larger dimension than $TM$). So, in this approach, the bijective correspondence seems rather a miracle to me.