We study general linear perturbations of a class of 4d real-dimensional hyperkahler manifolds obtainable by the (generalized) Legendre transform method. Using twistor methods, we show that deformations can be encoded in a set of holomorphic functions of 2d+1 variables, as opposed to the functions of d+1 variables controlling the unperturbed metric. Such deformations generically break all tri-holomorphic isometries of the unperturbed metric. Geometrically, these functions generate the symplectomorphisms which relate local complex Darboux coordinate systems in different patches of the twistor space. The deformed Kahler potential follows from these data by a Penrose-type transform. As an illustration of our general framework, we determine the leading exponential deviation of the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold away from its negative mass Taub-NUT limit. In a companion paper arXiv:0810.1675, we extend these techniques to quaternionic-Kahler spaces with isometries.
Relative moduli spaces of periodic monopoles provide novel examples of Asymptotically Locally Flat hyperkahler manifolds. By considering the interactions between well-separated periodic monopoles, we infer the asymptotic behavior of their metrics. When the monopole moduli space is four-dimensional, this construction yields interesting examples of metrics with self-dual curvature (gravitational instantons). We discuss their topology and complex geometry. An alternative construction of these gravitational instantons using moduli spaces of Hitchin equations is also described.
We review a construction of hyperkahler metrics proposed in joint work of Davide Gaiotto, Greg Moore and the author. A key ingredient in this construction is a collection of integer "DT invariants" obeying the wall-crossing formula of Kontsevich-Soibelman.
The hyperKähler-quaternionic Kähler correspondence constructs quaternionic Kähler metrics from hyperKähler metrics with a rotating circle symmetry. We discuss how this may be interpreted as a combination of the twist construction with the concept of elementary deformation, surveying results of our forthcoming paper. We outline how this leads to a uniqueness statement for the above correspondence and indicate how basic examples of c-map constructions may be realised in this context.
We use twistor methods to promote Namikawa's universal Poisson deformations of conic affine symplectic singularities to families of hyperkähler structures deforming hyperkähler cone metrics. The metrics we produce are generally incomplete, but for specific classes of hyperkähler cones, even these incomplete metrics have some interest and applications: we study in detail the case of the nilpotent cone of a simple complex Lie algebra, with applications to hyperkähler metrics with symmetries and hyperkähler quotients, and the case of Kleinian singularities, with applications to codimension-4 sing…
Recently, a metric construction for the Calabi-Yau 3-folds from a four-dimensional hyperkahler space by adding a complex line bundle was proposed. We extend the construction by adding a U(1) factor to the holomorphic (3,0)-form, and obtain the explicit formalism for a generic hyperkahler base. We find that a discrete choice arises: the U(1) factor can either depend solely on the fibre coordinates or vanish. In each case, the metric is determined by one differential equation for the modified Kahler potential. As explicit examples, we obtain the generalized resolutions (up to orbifold singularit…
We address the construction of four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models on tangent bundles of arbitrary Hermitian symmetric spaces starting from projective superspace. Using a systematic way of solving the (infinite number of) auxiliary field equations along with the requirement of supersymmetry, we are able to derive a closed form for the Lagrangian on the tangent bundle and to dualize it to give the hyperkahler potential on the cotangent bundle. As an application, the case of the exceptional symmetric space E_6/SO(10) \times U(1) is explicitly worked out for the first time.
We present ALH hyperkahler metrics induced from well-separated SU(2) monopole walls which are equivalent to monopoles on T^2 x R. The metrics are explicitly obtained due to Manton's observation by using explicit monopole solutions. These are doubly-periodic and have the modular invariance with respect to the complex structure of the complex torus T^2. We also derive metrics from monopole walls with Dirac-type singularities.
A method for constructing explicit Calabi-Yau metrics in six dimensions in terms of an initial hyperkahler structure is presented. The equations to solve are non linear in general, but become linear when the objects describing the metric depend on only one complex coordinate of the hyperkahler 4-dimensional space and its complex conjugated. This situation in particular gives a dual description of D6-branes wrapping a complex 1-cycle inside the hyperkahler space, which was studied by Fayyazuddin. The present work generalize the construction given by him. But the explicit solutions we present co…
A supersymmetric solution of 5d supergravity may admit an `evanescent ergosurface': a timelike hypersurface such that the canonical Killing vector field is timelike everywhere except on this hypersurface. The hyperkähler `base space' of such a solution is `ambipolar', changing signature from $(++++)$ to $(----)$ across a hypersurface. In this paper, we determine how the hyperkähler structure must degenerate at the hypersurface in order for the 5d solution to remain smooth. This leads us to a definition of an ambipolar hyperkähler manifold which generalizes the recently-defined notion of a `fol…
In the present work some examples of toric hyperkahler metrics in eight dimensions are constructed. First it is described how the Calderbank-Pedersen metrics arise as a consequence of the Joyce description of selfdual structures in four dimensions, the Jones-Tod correspondence and a result due to Tod and Przanowski. It is also shown that any quaternionic Kahler metric with $T^2$ isometry is locally isometric to a Calderbank-Pedersen one. The Swann construction of hyperkahler metrics in eight dimensions is applied to them to find hyperkahler examples with $U(1)\times U(1)$ isometry. The connect…
In the present work the local form of certain Calabi-Yau metrics possessing a local Hamiltonian Killing vector is described in terms of a single non linear equation. The main assumptions are that the complex $(3,0)$-form is of the form $e^{ik}\widetildeΨ$, where $\widetildeΨ$ is preserved by the Killing vector, and that the space of the orbits of the Killing vector is, for fixed value of the momentum map coordinate, a complex 4-manifold, in such a way that the complex structure of the 4-manifold is part of the complex structure of the complex 3-fold. The link with the solution generating techn…
We extend the twistor methods developed in our earlier work on linear deformations of hyperkahler manifolds [arXiv:0806.4620] to the case of quaternionic-Kahler manifolds. Via Swann's construction, deformations of a 4d-dimensional quaternionic-Kahler manifold $M$ are in one-to-one correspondence with deformations of its $4d+4$-dimensional hyperkahler cone $S$. The latter can be encoded in variations of the complex symplectomorphisms which relate different locally flat patches of the twistor space $Z_S$, with a suitable homogeneity condition that ensures that the hyperkahler cone property is pr…
Kahler manifolds have a natural hyperkahler structure associated with (part of) their cotangent bundles. Using projective superspace, we construct four-dimensional N = 2 models on the tangent bundles of some classical Hermitian symmetric spaces (specifically, the four regular series of irreducible compact symmetric Kahler manifolds, and their non-compact versions). A further dualization yields the Kahler potential for the hyperkahler metric on the cotangent bundle.
An explicit surjection from a set of (locally defined) unconstrained holomorphic functions on a certain submanifold of (Sp_1(C) \times C^{4n}) onto the set HK_{p,q} of local isometry classes of real analytic pseudo-hyperkähler metrics of signature (4p,4q) in dimension 4n is constructed. The holomorphic functions, called prepotentials, are analogues of Kähler potentials for Kähler metrics and provide a complete parameterisation of HK_{p,q}. In particular, there exists a bijection between HK_{p,q} and the set of equivalence classes of prepotentials. This affords the explicit construction of pseu…
We discuss the conditions for additional supersymmetry and twisted supersymmetry in N = (2, 2) supersymmetric non-linear sigma models described by one left and one right semi-chiral superfield and carrying a pair of non-commuting complex structures. Focus is on linear non-manifest transformations of these fields that have an algebra that closes off-shell. We find that additional linear supersymmetry has no interesting solution, whereas additional linear twisted supersymmetry has solutions with interesting geometrical properties. We solve the conditions for invariance of the action and show tha…
The metric on the moduli space of charge (2,1) SU(3) Bogomolny-Prasad-Sommerfield monopoles is calculated and investigated. The hyperKahler quotient construction is used to provide an alternative derivation of the metric. Various properties of the metric are derived using the hyperKahler quotient construction and the correspondence between BPS monopoles and rational maps. Several interesting limits of the metric are also considered.
The main results presented in this dissertation are the following - We have shown that in $d=4$ weak hyperkahler torsion structures are the same that hypercomplex structures and the same that the Plebanski-Finley conformally invariant heavens. With the help of this identification we have found the most general local form of an hyperkahler torsion space in four dimensions. We also presented an Ashtekar like formulation for them in which to finding an hyperkahler torsion metric is reduced to solve a quadratic differential system. - It is found the most general form for the target space metric to…
Let $(M,I,J,K,g)$ be a hyperkähler manifold. Then the complex manifold $(M,I)$ is holomorphic symplectic. We prove that for all real $x, y,$ with $x^2 + y^2 = 1$ except countably many, any finite energy $(xJ+yK)$-holomorphic curve with boundary in a collection of $I$-holomorphic Lagrangians must be constant. By an argument based on the Lojasiewicz inequality, this result holds no matter how the Lagrangians intersect each other. It follows that one can choose perturbations such that the holomorphic polygons of the associated Fukaya category lie in an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the Lagran…
We show that the regular Slodowy slice to the sum of two semisimple adjoint orbits of $GL(n,C)$ is isomorphic to the deformation of the $D_2$-singularity if $n=2$, the Dancer deformation of the double cover of the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold if $n=3$, and to the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold itself if $n=4$. For higher $n$, such slices to the sum of two orbits, each having only two distinct eigenvalues, are either empty or biholomorphic to open subsets of the Hilbert scheme of points on of one the above surfaces. In particular, these open subsets of Hilbert schemes of points carry complete hyperkähler m…
The properties of supersymmetric gauge theories in the Higgs phase at low energies can appropriately be studied by means of a non-linear sigma model, which has the target space being Kahler for N=1 supersymmetric models and hyperKahler for N=2 models. By construction of the Kahler and hyperKahler quotients for the gauge theories with SO and USp gauge symmetries, we obtain the explicit metrics on their respective manifolds. Furthermore, we study the lumps in the non-linear sigma models and their effective description, using the Kahler quotients.
The Legendre transform and its generalizations, originally found in supersymmetric sigma-models, are techniques that can be used to give constructions of hyperkahler metrics. We give a twistor space interpretation to the generalizations of the Legendre transform construction. The Atiyah-Hitchin metric on the moduli space of two monopoles is used as a detailed example.
We show that, in the region where monopoles are well separated, the L^2-metric on the moduli space of n-monopoles is exponentially close to the T^n-invariant hyperkähler metric proposed by Gibbons and Manton. The proof is based on a description of the Gibbons-Manton metric as a metric on a certain moduli space of solutions to Nahm's equations, and on twistor methods. In particular, we show how the twistor description of monopole metrics determines the asymptotic metric.
Beginning with the Legendre transform construction of hyperkähler metrics, we analyze the ALF version of the D_n metrics. We determine the constraint equation obtained from extremizing the $w$ coordinate of the generating function F(z,\bar{z},u,\bar{u},w) and study its behavior as we send two of the mass parameters of the $D_n$ metric to zero. We find that the constraint equation enforces the limit that the metric becomes that of multi-Taub-NUT.
Quaternion Kahler manifolds are known to be the target spaces for matter hypermultiplets coupled to N=2 supergravity. It is also known that there is a one-to-one correspondence between 4n-dimensional quaternion Kahler manifolds and those 4(n+1)-dimensional hyperkahler spaces which are the target spaces for rigid superconformal hypermultiplets (such spaces are called hyperkahler cones). In this paper we present a projective-superspace construction to generate a hyperkahler cone M^{4(n+1)}_H of dimension 4(n+1) from a 2n-dimensional real analytic Kahler-Hodge manifold M^{2n}_K. The latter emerge…
In this note I review the construction of higher-dimensional instantons and heterotic NS5-branes on Ricci-flat cones from arXiv:1109.3552, as well as fractional strings from arXiv:1202.5046. The focus is on methods and interpretation. I show, furthermore, that smeared 5-brane supergravity solutions on manifolds with holonomy G2 or Spin(7) can be obtained quite generally by a conformal deformation of the Ricci-flat metric, whereas Calabi-Yau and hyperkähler manifolds require more sophisticated deformations and a case by case treatment.
We review a progress in obtaining the complete non-perturbative effective action of type II string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold. This problem is equivalent to understanding quantum corrections to the metric on the hypermultiplet moduli space. We show how all these corrections, which include D-brane and NS5-brane instantons, are incorporated in the framework of the twistor approach, which provides a powerful mathematical description of hyperkahler and quaternion-Kahler manifolds. We also present new insights on S-duality, quantum mirror symmetry, connections to integrable models…
