Self-adjoint extensions of differential operators on Riemannian manifolds

We study H=D∗D+V\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$H=D^*D+V$$\end{document}, where D is a first order elliptic differential operator acting on sections of a Hermitian vector bundle over a Riemannian manifold M, and V is a Hermitian bundle endomorphism. In the case when M is geodesically complete, we establish the essential self-adjointness of positive integer powers of H. In the case when M is not necessarily geodesically complete, we give a sufficient condition for the essential self-adjointness of H, expressed in terms of the behavior of V relative to the Cauchy boundary of M.