Dirac operators for coadjoint orbits of compact Lie groups

The coadjoint orbits of compact Lie groups carry many K"ahler structures, which include a Riemannian metric and a complex structure. We provide a fairly explicit formula for the Levi-Civita connection of the Riemannian metric, and we use the complex structure to give a fairly explicit construction of a canonical Dirac operator for the Riemannian metric, in a way that avoids use of the Spin^c groups. Substantial parts of our results apply to compact almost-Hermitian homogeneous spaces, and to other connections besides the Levi-Civita connection. For these other connections we give a criterion that is both necessary and sufficient for their Dirac operator to be formally self-adjoint. We hope to use the detailed results given here to clarify statements in the literature of high-eneregy physics concerning “Dirac operators” for matrix algebras that converge to coadjoint orbits. To facilitate this we employ here only global methods – we never use local coordinate charts, and we use the cross-section modules of vector bundles.