Curvature dependent lower bounds for the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator

Using Weitzenb"ock techniques on any compact Riemannian spin manifold we derive inequalities that involve a real parameter and join the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator with curvature terms. The discussion of these inequalities yields vanishing theorems for the kernel of the Dirac operator $D$ and lower bounds for the spectrum of $D^2$ if the curvature satisfies certain conditions.