In the algebraic context, we show that null Osserman, spacelike Osserman, and timelike Osserman are equivalent conditions for a model of signature (2,2). We also classify the null Jordan Osserman models of signature (2,2). In the geometric context, we show that a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of signature (2,2) is null Jordan Osserman if and only if either it has constant sectional curvature or it is locally a complex space form.
Walker manifolds of signature (2,2) have been used to provide examples of Osserman and of conformal Osserman manifolds of signature (2,2). We study questions of geodesic completeness and Ricci blowup in this context.
It is shown that if a compact four-dimensional manifold with metric of neutral signature is Jordan-Osserman, then it is either of constant sectional curvature or Ricci flat.
Let $R$ be an algebraic curvature tensor on a vector space of signature $(p,q)$ defining a spacelike Jordan Osserman Jacobi operator $\JJ_R$. We show that the eigenvalues of $\JJ_R$ are real and that $\JJ_R$ is diagonalizable if $p<q$.
Pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of balanced signature which are both spacelike and timelike Jordan Osserman nilpotent of order 2 and of order 3 have been constructed previously. In this short note, we shall construct pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2s,s) for any s (which is at least 2) which are spacelike Jordan Osserman nilpotent of order 3 but which are not timelike Jordan Osserman. Our example and techniques are quite different from known previously both in that they are not in neutral signature and that the manifolds constructed will be spacelike but not timelike Jordan Osserman.
One says that a smooth manifold M is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of signature (p,q) if the tangent bundle TM is equipped with a smooth non-degenerate symmetric inner product g of signature (p,q). Similarly one says that M is an affine manifold if TM is equipped with a torsion free connection. One says g is Osserman if the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator are constant on the pseudo-sphere bundles of unit timelike and spacelike vectors. We extend this concept from the pseudo-Riemannian to the affine setting to define the notion of a projectively Osserman manifold. This notion is the focus of …
We exhibit Osserman metrics with non-nilpotent Jacobi operators and with non-trivial Jordan normal form in neutral signature (n,n) for any n which is at least 3. These examples admit a natural almost para-Hermitian structure and are semi para-complex Osserman with non-trivial Jordan normal form as well; they neither satisfy the third Gray identity nor are they integrable.
We construct new examples of algebraic curvature tensors so that the Jordan normal form of the higher order Jacobi operator is constant on the Grassmannian of subspaces of type $(r,s)$ in a vector space of signature $(p,q)$. We then use these examples to establish some results concerning higher order Osserman and higher order Jordan Osserman algebraic curvature tensors.
We show the existence of a modified Cliff(1,1) structure compatible with an Osserman 0-model of signature (2,2). We then apply this algebraic result to certain classes of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2,2). We obtain a new characterization of the Weyl curvature tensor of an (anti-)self-dual manifold and we prove some new results regarding (Jordan) Osserman manifolds.
We study the higher order Jacobi operator in pseudo-Riemannian geometry. We exhibit a family of manifolds so that this operator has constant Jordan normal form on the Grassmannian of subspaces of signature (r,s) for certain values of (r,s). These pseudo-Riemannian manifolds are new and non-trivial examples of higher order Osserman manifolds.
Let s be at least 2. We construct Ricci flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2s,s) which are not locally homogeneous but whose curvature tensors never the less exhibit a number of important symmetry properties. They are curvature homogeneous; their curvature tensor is modeled on that of a local symmetric space. They are spacelike Jordan Osserman with a Jacobi operator which is nilpotent of order 3; they are not timelike Jordan Osserman. They are k-spacelike higher order Jordan Osserman for $2\le k\le s$; they are k-timelike higher order Jordan Osserman for $s+2\le k\le 2s$, and they …
The local structure of the manifolds named in the title is described. Although curvature homogeneous, they are not, in general, locally homogeneous. Not all of them are Ricci-flat, which answers an existence question about type III Jordan-Osserman metrics, raised by Diaz-Ramos, Garcia-Rio and Vazquez-Lorenzo (2006).
We exhibit a family of generalized plane wave manifolds of signature (2,2). The geodesics in these manifolds extend for infinite time (i.e. they are complete), they are spacelike and timelike Jordan Osserman, and they are spacelike and timelike Jordan Ivanov-Petrova. Some are irreducible symmetric spaces. Some are homogeneous spaces but not symmetric. Some are 1-curvature homogeneous but not homogeneous. All are 0-modeled on the same irreducible symmetric space. We determine the Killing vector fields for these manifolds.
We describe the local structure of self-dual gradient Ricci solitons in neutral signature. If the Ricci soliton is non-isotropic then it is locally conformally flat and locally isometric to a warped product of the form $I\times_φN(c)$, where $N(c)$ is a space of constant curvature. If the Ricci soliton is isotropic, then it is locally isometric to the cotangent bundle of an affine surface equipped with the Riemannian extension of the connection, and the Ricci soliton is described by the underlying affine structure. This provides examples of self-dual gradient Ricci solitons which are not local…
While the Lorenzian and Riemanian metrics for which all polynomial scalar curvature invariants vanish (the VSI property) are well-studied, less is known about the four-dimensional neutral signature metrics with the VSI property. Recently it was shown that the neutral signature metrics belong to two distinct subclasses: the Walker and Kundt metrics. In this paper we have chosen an example from each of the two subcases of the Ricci-flat VSI Walker metrics respectively. To investigate the difference between the metrics we determine the existence of a null, geodesic, expansion-free, shear-free and…
The purpose of this article is to review some recent results on the geometry of neutral signature metrics in dimension four and their twistor spaces. The following topics are considered: Neutral Kähler and hyperkähler surfaces, Walker metrics, Neutral anti-self-dual 4-manifolds and projective structures, Twistor spaces of neutral metrics.
I apply the algebraic classification of self-adjoint endomorphisms of ${\bf R}^{2,2}$ provided by their Jordan canonical form to the Ricci curvature tensor of four-dimensional neutral manifolds and relate this classification to an algebraic classification of the Ricci curvature spinor. These results parallel similar results well known in four-dimensional Lorentzian geometry. The classification is summarized in Table 2 at the end of the paper.
We review the subject of four dimensional anti-self-dual conformal structures with signature (+ + - -). Both local and global questions are discussed. Most of the material is well known in the literature and we present it in a way which underlines the connection with integrable systems. Some of the results - e.g. the Lax pair characterisation of the scalar-flat Kahler condition and a twistor construction of a conformal structure with twisting null Killing vector - are new.
We classify all self-dual Einstein four-manifolds invariant under a principal action of the three-dimensional Heisenberg group with non-degenerate orbits. The metrics are explicit and we find, in particular, that the Einstein constant can take any value. Then we study when the corresponding (Riemannian or neutral-signature) metrics are (geodesically) complete. Finally, we exhibit the solutions of non-zero Ricci-curvature as different branches of one-loop deformed universal hypermultiplets in Riemannian and neutral signature.
Notation for spin coefficients for metrics of neutral signature in four dimensions is introduced. The utility and interpretation of spin coefficients is explored through themes in null geometry familiar from (complex) general relativity. Four-dimensional Walker geometry is exploited to provide examples and the generalization of the real neutral version of Plebañski's (1975) second heavenly equation to certain Walker geometries given in Law and Matsushita [16] is extended further.
Most known four-dimensional cohomogeneity-one Einstein metrics are diagonal in the basis defined by the left-invariant one-forms, though some essentially non-diagonal ones are known. We consider the problem of explicitly seeking non-diagonal Einstein metrics, and we find solutions which in some cases exhaust the possibilities. In particular we construct new examples of neutral signature non--diagonal Bianchi type VIII Einstein metrics with self--dual Weyl tensor.
In this paper we construct a family of examples of self-dual Einstain metrics of neutral signature, which are not Ricci flat, nor locally homogenous. Curvature of these manifolds is studied in details. These are obtained by the para-quaternionic reduction. We compare our examples with the orbifolds $\oo$ given by Galicki and Lawson, for which some new properties are also established. Particularly, the sign and the pinching of their sectional curvatures are studied.