We propose a definition for analytic torsion of the Rumin complex on contact manifolds. This is given by the derivative at zero of a well-chosen combination of zeta functions of a fourth-order modified Rumin Laplacian. The regular value at zero (before differentiation) of this well-chosen combination of zeta functions is shown to be a contact invariant. The variation of our analytic torsion is given as the integral of local terms, together with a global term coming from the null-space of the Laplacian.
We explicitly write down all eigenvalues of the Rumin Laplacian on the standard contact spheres, and express the analytic torsion functions associated with the {Rumin complex} in terms of the Riemann zeta function. In particular, we find that the functions vanish at the origin and determine the analytic torsions.
We express explicitly the analytic torsion functions associated with the Rumin complex on lens spaces in terms of the Hurwitz zeta function. In particular, we find that the functions vanish at the origin and determine the analytic torsions. Moreover, we have a formula between this torsion and the Ray-Singer torsion.
We consider contact manifolds equipped with Carnot-Caratheodory metrics, and show that the Rumin complex is respected by Sobolev mappings: Pansu pullback induces a chain mapping between the smooth Rumin complex and the distributional Rumin complex. As a consequence, the Rumin flat complex -- the analog of the Whitney flat complex in the setting of contact manifolds -- is bilipschitz invariant. We also show that for Sobolev mappings between general Carnot groups, Pansu pullback induces a chain mapping when restricted to a certain differential ideal of the de Rham complex. Both results are appli…
The Rumin algebra of a contact manifold is a contact invariant $C_\infty$-algebra of differential forms which computes the de Rham cohomology algebra. We recover this fact by giving a simple and explicit construction of the Rumin algebra via Markl's formulation of the Homotopy Transfer Theorem.
This paper shows that when the Riemannian metric on a contact manifold is blown up along the direction orthogonal to the contact distribution, the corresponding harmonic forms rescaled and normalized in the $L^2$-norms will converge to Rumin's harmonic forms. This proves a conjecture in Gromov `` Carnot-Caratheodory spaces seen from within '', IHES preprint, 1994. This result can also be reformulated in terms of spectral sequences, after Forman, Mazzeo-Melrose. A key ingredient in the proof is the fact that the curvatures become unbounded in a controlled way.
We show that the kernel of the Rumin Laplacian agrees with that of the Hodge-de Rham Laplacian on compact Sasakian manifolds. As a corollary, we obtain another proof of primitiveness of harmonic forms. Moreover, the space of harmonic forms coincides with the sub-Riemann limit of Hodge-de Rham Laplacian when its limit converges. Finally, we express the analytic torsion function associated with the Rumin complex in terms of the Reeb vector field.
We give a new CR invariant treatment of the bigraded Rumin complex and related cohomology groups via differential forms. A key benefit is the identification of balanced $A_\infty$-structures on the Rumin and bigraded Rumin complexes. We also prove related Hodge decomposition theorems. Among many applications, we give a sharp upper bound on the dimension of the Kohn--Rossi groups $H^{0,q}(M^{2n+1})$, $1\leq q\leq n-1$, of a closed strictly pseudoconvex manifold with a contact form of nonnegative pseudohermitian Ricci curvature; we prove a sharp CR analogue of the Frölicher inequalities in terms…
We construct a versal family of deformations of CR structures in five dimensions, using a differential complex closely related to the differential form complex introduced by Rumin for contact manifolds.
Given a contact manifold $M_#$ together with a transversal infinitesimal automorphism $ξ$, we show that any local leaf space $M$ for the foliation determined by $ξ$ naturally carries a conformally symplectic (cs-) structure. Then we show that the Rumin complex on $M_#$ descends to a complex of differential operators on $M$, whose cohomology can be computed. Applying this construction locally, one obtains a complex intrinsically associated to any manifold endowed with a cs-structure, which recovers the generalization of the so-called Rumin-Seshadri complex to the conformally symplectic setting.…
We study 5-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that admit an almost contact metric structure. We classify these structures by their intrinsic torsion and review the literature in terms of this scheme. Moreover, we determine necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of metric connections with vectorial, totally skew-symmetric or traceless cyclic torsion that are compatible with the almost contact metric structure. Finally, we examine explicit examples of almost contact metric 5-manifolds from this perspective.
A natural connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion on almost contact manifolds with B-metric is constructed. The class of these manifolds, where the considered connection exists, is determined. Some curvature properties for this connection, when the corresponding curvature tensor has the properties of the curvature tensor for the Levi-Civita connection and the torsion tensor is parallel, are obtained.
The space of the torsion (0,3)-tensors of the linear connections on almost contact manifolds with B-metric is decomposed in 15 orthogonal and invariant subspaces with respect to the action of the structure group. Three known connections, preserving the structure, are characterized regarding this classification.
We go further on the study of harmonicity for almost contact metric structures already initiated by Vergara-Diaz and Wood. By using the intrinsic torsion, we characterise harmonic almost contact metric structures in several equivalent ways and show conditions relating harmonicity and classes of almost contact metric structures. Additionally, we study the harmonicity of such structures as a map into the quotient bundle of the oriented orthonormal frames by the action of the structural group U(n)x1. Finally, by using a Bochner type formula proved by Bor and Hernandez Lamoneda, we display some ex…
For an almost contact metric manifold $N$, we find conditions for which either the total space of an $S^1$-bundle over $N$ or the Riemannian cone over $N$ admits a strong Kähler with torsion (SKT) structure. In this way we construct new 6-dimensional SKT manifolds. Moreover, we study the geometric structure induced on a hypersurface of an SKT manifold, and use such structures to construct new SKT manifolds via appropriate evolution equations. Hyper-Kähler with torsion (HKT) structures on the total space of an $S^1$-bundle over manifolds with three almost contact structures are also studied.
On a main class of the almost contact manifolds with B-metric, it is described the family of the linear connections preserving the manifold's structures by 4 parameters. In this family there are determined the canonical-type connection and the connection with zero parameters.
It is considered a differentiable manifold equipped with a pseudo-Riemannian metric and an almost contact 3-struc\-ture so that an almost contact metric structure and two almost contact B-metric structures are generated. There are introduced the so-called associated Nijenhuis tensors for the studied structures. It is given a geometric interpretation of the vanishing of these tensors as a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of linear connections with totally skew-symmetric torsions preserving the structure. An example of a 7-dimensional manifold with connections of the consider…
In this paper we produce several new invariants for CR and contact manifolds by looking at the noncommutative residue traces of various geometric projections. In the CR setting these operators arise from the Kohn-Rossi complex and include the Szegö projections on forms. In the contact setting they stem from the generalized Szegö projections at arbitrary integer levels of Epstein-Melrose and from the contact complex of Rumin. In particular, we recover and extend recent results of Hirachi and Boutet de Monvel and answer a question of Fefferman.
In this paper we establish a Gaffney type inequality, in $W^{\ell,p}$-Sobolev spaces, for differential forms on sub-Riemannian contact manifolds without boundary, having bounded geometry (hence, in particular, we have in mind non-compact manifolds). Here $p\in]1,\infty[$ and $\ell=1,2$ depending on the order of the differential form we are considering. The proof relies on the structure of the Rumin's complex of differential forms in contact manifolds, on a Sobolev-Gaffney inequality proved by Baldi-Franchi in the setting of the Heisenberg groups and on some geometric properties that can be pro…
We investigate quaternionic contact (qc) manifolds from the point of view of intrinsic torsion. We argue that the natural structure group for this geometry is a non-compact Lie group K containing Sp(n)H^*, and show that any qc structure gives rise to a canonical K-structure with constant intrinsic torsion, except in seven dimensions, when this condition is equivalent to integrability in the sense of Duchemin. We prove that the choice of a reduction to Sp(n)H^* (or equivalently, a complement of the qc distribution) yields a unique K-connection satisfying natural conditions on torsion and curvat…
Contact path geometries are curved geometric structures on a contact manifold comprising smooth families of paths modeled on the family of all isotropic lines in the projectivization of a symplectic vector space. Locally such a structure is equivalent to the graphs in the space of independent and depedent variables of the family of solutions of a system of an odd number of second order ODE's subject to a single maximally non-integrable constraint. A subclass of contact path geometries is distinguished by the vanishing of an invariant contact torsion. For this subclass the equivalence problem i…
In this paper, we describe the space of adapted connections on a metric contact manifold through the space of their torsion tensors. The torsion tensor is an element of the space of TM-valued two-forms, which splits into various subspaces. We study the parts of the torsion tensor according to this splitting to completely describe the space of adapted connections. We use this description to obtain characterizations of the generalized Tanaka-Webster connection and to describe the Dirac operators of adapted connections.
The canonical-type connection on the almost contact manifolds with B-metric is constructed. It is proved that its torsion is invariant with respect to a subgroup of the general conformal transformations of the almost contact B-metric structure. The basic classes of the considered manifolds are characterized in terms of the torsion of the canonical-type connection.
We propose a definition for analytic torsion of the contact complex on contact manifolds. We show it coincides with Ray-Singer torsion on any 3-dimensional CR Seifert manifold equipped with a unitary representation. In this particular case we compute it and relate it to dynamical properties of the Reeb flow. In fact the whole spectral torsion function we consider may be interpreted on CR Seifert manifolds as a purely dynamical function through Selberg-type trace formulae.
A contact projective structure is a contact path geometry the paths of which are among the geodesics of some affine connection. In the manner of T.Y. Thomas there is associated to each contact projective structure an ambient affine connection on a symplectic manifold with one-dimensional fibers over the contact manifold and using this the local equivalence problem for contact projective structures is solved by the construction of a canonical regular Cartan connection. This Cartan connection is normal if and only if an invariant contact torsion vanishes. Every contact projective structure deter…
The Newman-Penrose-Perjes formalism is applied to smooth contact structures on riemannian 3-manifolds. In particular it is shown that a contact 3-manifold admits an adapted riemannian metric if and only if it admits a metric with a divergence-free, constantly twisting, geodesic congruence. The shear of this congruence is identified with the torsion of the associated pseudohermitian structure, while the Tanaka-Webster curvature is identified with certain derivatives of the spin coefficients. The particular case where the associated riemannian metric is Einstein is studied in detail. It is found…
We explore the consequences of curvature and torsion on the topology of quaternionic contact manifolds with integrable vertical distribution. We prove a general Myers theorem and establish a Cartan-Hadamard result for almost qc-Einstein manifolds.
This paper is devoted to the study of curvature and torsion of almost contact curves in trans-Sasakian 3-Manifolds. The conditions for the frenet curves to be almost contact curves in trans-Sasakian 3-manifolds have been obtained.
This paper constructs a family of coordinate systems about a point on a quaternionic contact manifold, called quaternionic contact pseudohermitian normal coordinates. Once defined, conformal variations of the quaternionic contact structure induce changes on the coordinates which are studied in an effort to simplify the torsion and curvature at the center point.
In the first part, we define and investigate new classes of almost 3-contact metric manifolds, with two guiding ideas in mind: first, what geometric objects are best suited for capturing the key properties of almost 3-contact metric manifolds, and second, the newly defined classes should admit 'good' metric connections with skew torsion. In particular, we introduce the Reeb commutator function and the Reeb Killing function, we define the new classes of canonical almost 3-contact metric manifolds and of 3-$(α,δ)$-Sasaki manifolds (including as special cases 3-Sasaki manifolds, quaternionic Heis…
In this paper we establish an analogue of the classical Lichnerowicz' theorem giving a sharp lower bound of the first non-zero eigenvalue of the sub-Laplacian on a compact seven-dimensional quaternionic contact manifold, assuming a lower bound of the qc-Ricci tensor, torsion tensor and its distinguished covariant derivatives.
We classify locally homogeneous quasi-Sasakian manifolds in dimension five that admit a parallel spinor $ψ$ of algebraic type $F \cdot ψ= 0$ with respect to the unique connection $\nabla$ preserving the quasi-Sasakian structure and with totally skew-symmetric torsion. We introduce a certain conformal transformation of almost contact metric manifolds and discuss a link between them and the dilation function in 5-dimensional string theory. We find natural conditions implying conformal invariances of parallel spinors. We present topological obstructions to the existence of parallel spinors in the…
A partial solution of the quaternionic contact Yamabe problem on the quaternionic sphere is given. It is shown that the torsion of the Biquard connection vanishes exactly when the trace-free part of the horizontal Ricci tensor of the Biquard connection is zero and this occurs precisely on 3-Sasakian manifolods. All conformal deformations sending the standard flat torsion-free quaternionic contact structure on the quaternionic Heisenberg group to a quaternionic contact structure with vanishing torsion of the Biquard connection are explicitly described. A '3-Hamiltonian form' of infinitesimal co…
On connected manifolds of dimension higher than three, the non-existence of $132$ Chinea and González-Dávila types of almost contact metric structures is proved. This is a consequence of some interrelations among components of the intrinsic torsion of an almost contact metric structure. Such interrelations allow to describe the exterior derivatives of some relevant forms in the context of almost contact metric geometry.
This paper is a survey of results obtained by the authors on the geometry of connections with totally skew-symmetric torsion on the following manifolds: almost complex manifolds with Norden metric, almost contact manifolds with B-metric and almost hypercomplex manifolds with Hermitian and anti-Hermitian metric.
Almost contact manifolds with B-metric are considered. There are studied three natural connections (i.e. linear connections preserving the structure tensors) determined by conditions for their torsions. These connections are investigated on a family of Lie groups considered as 5-dimensional almost contact B-metric manifolds.
Adapted connections with skew-torsion on metric $f$-manifolds
Institute of Mathematics, Jagiellonian University in Kraków（克拉科夫雅盖隆大学数学研究所）；Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University（马萨里克大学理学院数学与统计系）
We propose the study of some kind of monopole equations directly associated with a contact structure. Through a rudimentary analysis about the solutions, we show that a closed contact 3-manifold with positive Tanaka-Webster curvature and vanishing torsion must be either not symplectically semifillable or having torsion Euler class of the contact structure.
A dualistic structure on a smooth Riemaniann manifold $M$ is a triple $(M,g,\nabla)$ with $g$ a Riemaniann metric and $\nabla$ an affine connection, generally assumed to be torsionless. From $g$ and $\nabla$, the dual connection $\nabla^*$ can be defined and the triple $(M, \nabla,\nabla^*)$ is called a statistical manifold, a basic object in information geometry. In this work, we give conditions based on this notion for a manifold to admit an almost contact structure and some related structures: almost contact metric,contact, contact metric, cosymplectic, and coKähler in the three-dimensional…
The study of harmonicity for almost contact metric structures was initiated by Vergara-Díaz and Wood and continued by González-Dávila and the present author. By using the intrinsic torsion and some restriction on the type of almost contact metric structure, González-Dávila and the present author have characterised harmonic structures by showing conditions relating harmonicity and classes of almost contact metric structures. Here we do this in a more general context. Moreover, the harmonicity of almost contact metric structures as a map is also done in such a general context. Finally, some rema…
This paper is devoted to the systematic investigation of the cone construction for Riemannian $G$ manifolds M, endowed with an invariant metric connection with skew torsion $\nabla^c$, a `characteristic connection'. We show how to define a $\bar G$ structure on the cone $\bar M=M\x \R^+$ with a cone metric, and we prove that a Killing spinor with torsion on $M$ induces a spinor on $\bar M$ that is parallel w.\,r.\,t. the characteristic connection of the $\bar G$ structure. We establish the explicit correspondence between classes of metric almost contact structures on $M$ and almost hermitian c…
The object of study in the present dissertation are some topics in differential geometry of smooth manifolds with additional tensor structures and metrics of Norden type. There are considered four cases depending on the dimension of the manifold: 2n, 2n + 1, 4n and 4n + 3. The studied tensor structures, which are counterparts in the different related dimensions, are the almost complex/contact/hypercomplex structure and the almost contact 3-structure. The considered metric on the 2n-dimensional case is the Norden metric, and the metrics in the other three cases are generated by it. The purpose …
In this paper we provide an explicit description of normal almost contact structures obtained from Cartan-Ehresmann connections (gauge fields) on principal $S^{1}$-bundles over complex flag manifolds. The main feature of our approach is to employ elements of representation theory of complex simple Lie algebras in order to describe and classify these structures. We use these normal almost contact structures to explicitly describe a huge class of compact Hermitian non-Kähler manifolds obtained from products of principal $S^{1}$-bundles over complex flag manifolds. Moreover, we obtain from our de…
We consider a pair of smooth manifolds, which are the counterparts in the even-dimensional and odd-dimensional cases. They are separately an almost complex manifold with Norden metric and an almost contact manifolds with B-metric, respectively. They can be combined as the so-called almost contact complex Riemannian manifold. This paper is a survey with additions of results on differential geometry of canonical-type connections (i.e. metric connections with torsion satisfying a certain algebraic identity) on the considered manifolds.
We introduce the notion of $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold, which includes as particular cases $η\,$-Einstein Riemannian and Lorentzian (para) contact metric three-manifolds, but which in addition allows for the Reeb vector field to be null. We prove that the product of an $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein Lorentzian $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold with an $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein Riemannian contact metric three-manifold carries a bi-parametric family of Ricci-flat Lorentzian metric-compatible connections with isotropic, totally skew-symmetric, cl…
We introduce a global Cauchy-Riemann($CR$)-invariant and discuss its behavior on the moduli space of $CR$-structures. We argue that this study is related to the Smale conjecture in 3-topology and the problem of counting complex structures. Furthermore, we propose a contact-analogue of Ray-Singer's analytic torsion. This ``contact torsion'' is expected to be able to distinguish among ``contact lens'' spaces. We also propose the study of a certain kind of monopole equation associated with a contact structure.
We introduce the notion of abelian almost contact structures on an odd dimensional real Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$. This a sufficient condition for the structure to be normal. We investigate correspondences with even dimensional real Lie algebras endowed with an abelian complex structure, and with Kähler Lie algebras when $\mathfrak g$ carries a compatible inner product. The classification of 5-dimensional Sasakian Lie algebras with abelian structure is obtained. Later, we introduce and study abelian almost 3-contact structures on real Lie algebras of dimension $4n+3$. These are given by triple…
A closed CR 3-manifold is said to have $C_{0}$-positive pseudohermitian curvature if $(W+C_{0}Tor)(X,X)>0$ for any $0\neq X\in T_{1,0}(M)$. We discover an obstruction for a closed CR 3-manifold to possess $C_{0}$-positive pseudohermitian curvature. We classify closed three-dimensional CR Yamabe solitons according to $C_{0}$-positivity and $C_{0}$-negativity whenever $C_{0}=1$ and the potential function lies in the kernel of Paneitz operator. Moreover, we show that any closed three-dimensional CR torsion soliton must be the standard Sasakian space form. At last, we discuss the persistence of $C…
We study 5-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that admit an almost contact metric structure. In particular, we generalize the class of quasi-Sasaki manifolds and characterize these structures by their intrinsic torsion. Among other things, we see that these manifolds admit a unique metric connection that is compatible with the underlying almost contact metric structure. Finally, we construct a family of examples that are not quasi-Sasaki.
We show that a connection with skew-symmetric torsion satisfying the Einstein metricity condition exists on an almost contact metric manifold exactly when it is D-homothetic to a cosymplectic manifold. In dimension five, we get that the existence of a connection with skew torsion satisfying the Einstein metricity condition is equivalent to the existence of a Sasaki-Einstein 5-manifold and vice versa, any Sasaki-Einstein 5-manifold generates a two parametric family of connections with skew torsion satisfying the Einstein metricity condition. Formulas for the curvature and the Ricci tensors of t…
