We study invariant systems of PDEs defining Killing vector-valued forms, and then we specialize to Killing spinor-valued forms. We give a detailed treatment of their prolongation and integrability conditions by relating the point-wise values of solutions to the curvature of the underlying manifold. As an example, we completely solve the equations on model spaces of constant curvature producing brand new solutions which do not come from the tensor product of Killing spinors and Killing-Yano forms.
On a pseudo-Riemannian manifold $\mathcal{M}$ we introduce a system of partial differential Killing type equations for spinor-valued differential forms, and study their basic properties. We discuss the relationship between solutions of Killing equations on $\mathcal{M}$ and parallel fields on the metric cone over $\mathcal{M}$ for spinor-valued forms.
We prove a classification result for ground state solutions of the critical Dirac equation on $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq2$. By exploiting its conformal covariance, the equation can be posed on the round sphere $\mathbb{S}^n$ and the non-zero solutions at the ground level are given by Killing spinors, up to conformal diffeomorphisms. Moreover, such ground state solutions of the critical Dirac equation are also related to the Yamabe equation for the sphere, for which we crucially exploit some known classification results.
The basic first-order differential operators of spin geometry that are Dirac operator and twistor operator are considered. Special types of spinors defined from these operators such as twistor spinors and Killing spinors are discussed. Symmetry operators of massless and massive Dirac equations are introduced and relevant symmetry operators of twistor spinors and Killing spinors are constructed from Killing-Yano (KY) and conformal Killing-Yano (CKY) forms in constant curvature and Einstein manifolds. The squaring map of spinors gives KY and CKY forms for Killing and twistor spinors respectively…
We determine the holonomy of generalized Killing spinor covariant derivatives of the form $D= \nabla + Ω$ on pseudo-Riemannian reductive homogeneous spaces in a purely algebraic and algorithmic way, where $Ω: TM \rightarrow Λ^*(TM)$ is a left-invariant homomorphism. This is essentially an application of the theory of invariant principal bundle connections defined over homogeneous principal bundles. Moreover, the algorithm allows a computation of the associated Killing superalgebra in certain cases. The procedure is demonstrated by determining the supersymmetries of certain homogeneous M2 duals…
We use an isomorphism between the space of valence two Killing tensors on an n-dimensional constant sectional curvature manifold and the irreducible GL(n+1)-representation space of algebraic curvature tensors in order to translate the Nijenhuis integrability conditions for a Killing tensor into purely algebraic integrability conditions for the corresponding algebraic curvature tensor, resulting in two simple algebraic equations of degree two and three. As a first application of this we construct a new family of integrable Killing tensors.
We study the twistor equation on pseudo-Riemannian $Spin^c-$manifolds whose solutions we call charged conformal Killing spinors (CCKS). We derive several integrability conditions for the existence of CCKS and study their relations to spinor bilinears. A construction principle for Lorentzian manifolds admitting CCKS with nontrivial charge starting from CR-geometry is presented. We obtain a partial classification result in the Lorentzian case under the additional assumption that the associated Dirac current is normal conformal and complete the Classification of manifolds admitting CCKS in all di…
In this paper, we extend the study of generalized Killing spinors on Riemannian Spin$^c$ manifolds started by Moroianu and Herzlich to complex Killing functions. We prove that such spinor fields are always real Spin$^c$ Killing spinors or imaginary generalized Spin$^c$ Killing spinors, providing that the dimension of the manifold is greater or equal to 4. Moreover, we classify Riemannian Spin$^c$ manifolds carrying imaginary and imaginary generalized Killing spinors.
We show that the first-order symmetry operators of twistor spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms in conformally-flat backgrounds. We express the conditions on conformal Killing-Yano forms to obtain mutually commuting symmetry operators of twistor spinors. Conformal superalgebras which consist of conformal Killing vectors and twistor spinors and play important roles in supersymmetric field theories in conformal backgrounds are extended to more general superalgebras by using the graded Lie algebra structure of conformal Killing-Yano forms and the symmetry operators of twis…
We study generalized Killing spinors on round spheres $\mathbb{S}^n$. We show that on the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^8$ any generalized Killing spinor has to be an ordinary Killing spinor. Moreover we classify generalized Killing spinors on $\mathbb{S}^n$ whose associated symmetric endomorphism has at most two eigenvalues and recover in particular Agricola--Friedrich's canonical spinor on 3-Sasakian manifolds of dimension 7. Finally we show that it is not possible to deform Killing spinors on standard spheres into genuine generalized Killing spinors.
In this review, basic definitions of spin geometry are given and some of its applications to supersymmetry, supergravity and condensed matter physics are summarized. Clifford algebras and spinors are defined and the first-order differential operators on spinors which lead to the definitions of twistor and Killing spinors are discussed. Holonomy classification for manifolds admitting parallel and Killing spinors are given. Killing-Yano and conformal Killing-Yano forms resulting from the spinor bilinears of Killing and twistor spinors are introduced and the symmetry operators of special spinor e…
We investigate instantons on manifolds with Killing spinors and their cones. Examples of manifolds with Killing spinors include nearly Kaehler 6-manifolds, nearly parallel G_2-manifolds in dimension 7, Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, and 3-Sasakian manifolds. We construct a connection on the tangent bundle over these manifolds which solves the instanton equation, and also show that the instanton equation implies the Yang-Mills equation, despite the presence of torsion. We then construct instantons on the cones over these manifolds, and lift them to solutions of heterotic supergravity. Amongst our s…
We generalize the symmetry superalgebras of isometries and geometric Killing spinors on a manifold to include all the hidden symmetries of the manifold generated by Killing spinors in all dimensions. We show that bilinears of geometric Killing spinors produce special Killing-Yano and special conformal Killing-Yano forms. After defining the Lie algebra structure of hidden symmetries generated by Killing spinors, we construct the symmetry operators as the generalizations of the Lie derivative on spinor fields. All these constructions together constitute the structure of generalized symmetry supe…
We consider some natural infinitesimal Einstein deformations on Sasakian and 3-Sasakian manifolds. Some of these are infinitesimal deformations of Killing spinors and further some integrate to actual Killing spinor deformations. In particular, on 3-Sasakian 7 manifolds these yield infinitesimal Einstein deformations preserving 2, 1, or none of the 3 independent Killing spinors. Toric 3-Sasakian manifolds provide non-trivial examples with integrable deformation preserving precisely 2 Killing spinors. Thus the dimension of Killing spinors is not preserved under Einstein deformations but is only …
Let (M^n,g) be a Riemannian spin manifold. The basic equations in supergravity models of type IIa string theory with 4-form flux involve a 3-form T, a 4-form F, a spinorial covariant derivative \nabla depending on \nabla^g, T, F, and a \nabla-parallel spinor field Ψ. We classify and construct many explicit families of solutions to this system of spinorial field equations by means of non-integrable special geometries. The latter include α-Sasakian structures in dimensions 5 and 7, almost Hermitian structures in dimension 6 and cocalibrated G_2-structures in dimension 7. We show that there are s…
Manifolds admitting Killing spinors are Einstein manifolds. Thus, a deformation of a Killing spinor entails a deformation of Einstein metrics. In this paper, we study infinitesimal deformations of Killing spinors on nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-manifolds. Since there is a one-to-one correspondence between nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures and Killing spinors on 7-dimensional spin manifolds, our results imply that infinitesimal deformations of nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures are examined in terms of Killing spinors. Applying the same technique, we identify that the space of …
This text is dedicated to the real Killing equation on 3-dimensional Weyl manifolds. Any manifold admitting a real Killing spinor of weight 0 satisfies the conditions of a Gauduchon-Tod geometry. Conversely, any simply connected Gauduchon-Tod geometry has a 2-dimensional space of solutions of the real Killing equation on the spinor bundle of weight 0.
We outline the solution of the Killing spinor equations of the heterotic supergravity. In addition, we describe the classification of all half supersymmetric solutions.
We review the actions of the supergravity theory in eleven dimensions as well as the type IIA and IIB supergravities in ten dimensions and derive the bosonic equations of motion in a coordinate-free notation. We also consider the existence of supersymmetries and the associated generalized Killing spinor equations. The aim of this note is to serve as a formulary and make the equations of supergravity more easily accessible to mathematicians.
In this paper, we study the existence of a skew Killing spinor (see the definition below) on 2 and 3-dimensional Riemannian spin manifolds. We establish the integrability conditions and prove that these spinor fields correspond to twistor spinors in the two dimensional case while, up to a conformal change of the metric, they correspond to parallel spinors in the three dimensional case.
We study a Killing spinor type equation on spin Riemannian flows. We prove integrability conditions and partially classify those Riemannian flows $M$ carrying non-trivial solutions to that equation in case $M$ is a local Riemannian product, a Sasakian manifold or 3-dimensional.
This paper is devoted to the classification of 4-dimensional Riemannian spin manifolds carrying skew Killing spinors. A skew Killing spinor $ψ$ is a spinor that satisfies the equation $\nabla$X$ψ$ = AX $\times$ $ψ$ with a skew-symmetric endomorphism A. We consider the degenerate case, where the rank of A is at most two everywhere and the non-degenerate case, where the rank of A is four everywhere. We prove that in the degenerate case the manifold is locally isometric to the Riemannian product R x N with N having a skew Killing spinor and we explain under which conditions on the spinor the spec…
Semi-Riemannian $\text{spin}^c$ manifolds carrying generalized Killing spinors and the classification of Riemannian $\text{spin}^c$ manifolds admitting a type I imaginary generalized Killing spinor
The complex projective space $\mathbb C P^2$ of complex dimension $2$ has a Spin$^c$ structure carrying Kählerian Killing spinors. The restriction of one of these Kählerian Killing spinors to a surface $M^2$ characterizes the isometric immersion of $M^2$ into $\mathbb C P^2$ if the immersion is either Lagrangian or complex.
We study generalized Killing spinors on compact Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature. This problem is related to the existence compact Einstein hypersurfaces in manifolds with parallel spinors, or equivalently, in Riemannian products of flat spaces, Calabi-Yau, hyperkaehler, G_2 and Spin(7) manifolds.
Let $M$ be a pseudo-Riemannian spin manifold of dimension $n$ and signature $s$ and denote by $N$ the rank of the real spinor bundle. We prove that $M$ is locally homogeneous if it admits more than ${3/4}N$ independent Killing spinors with the same Killing number, unless $n\equiv 1 \pmod 4$ and $s\equiv 3 \pmod 4$. We also prove that $M$ is locally homogeneous if it admits $k_+$ independent Killing spinors with Killing number $λ$ and $k_-$ independent Killing spinors with Killing number $-λ$ such that $k_++k_->{3/2}N$, unless $n\equiv s\equiv 3\pmod 4$. Similarly, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold …
Killing tensor fields have been thought of as describing hidden symmetry of space(-time) since they are in one-to-one correspondence with polynomial first integrals of geodesic equations. Many problems in classical mechanics can be formulated as geodesic problems in curved spaces and spacetimes, and thus solving the defining equation for Killing tensor fields (the Killing equation) is a powerful way to integrate the equations of motion. In this paper we attempt to formulate the integrability conditions of the Killing equation, which serve to put an upper bound on the number of linearly indepen…
Riemannian manifolds with non-zero Killing spinors are Einstein manifolds. Klaus Kröncke proved that all complete Riemannian manifolds with imaginary Killing spinors are (linearly) strictly stable in \cite{Kro15}. In this paper, we obtain a new proof for this stability result by using a Bochner type formula in \cite{DWW05} and \cite{Wan91}. Moreover, existence of real Killing spinors is closely related to the Sasaki-Einstein structure. A regular Sasaki-Einstein manifold is essentially the total space of a certain principal $S^{1}$-bundle over a Kähler-Einstein manifold. We prove that if the ba…
We study the geometric structure of Lorentzian spin manifolds, which admit imaginary Killing spinors. The discussion is based on the cone construction and a normal form classification of skew-adjoint operators in signature $(2,n-2)$. Derived geometries include Brinkmann spaces, Lorentzian Einstein-Sasaki spaces and certain warped product structures. Exceptional cases with decomposable holonomy of the cone are possible.
We construct the space of infinitesimal variations for the Strominger system and an obstruction space to integrability, using elliptic operator theory. We initiate the study of the geometry of the moduli space, describing the infinitesimal structure of a natural foliation on this space. The associated leaves are related to generalized geometry and correspond to moduli spaces of solutions of suitable Killing spinor equations on a Courant algebroid. As an application, we propose a unifying framework for metrics with holonomy $\SU(3)$ and solutions of the Strominger system.
The integrability conditions for the existence of a conformal Killing-Yano tensor of arbitrary order are worked out in all dimensions and expressed in terms of the Weyl tensor. As a consequence, the integrability conditions for the existence of a Killing-Yano tensor are also obtained. By means of such conditions, it is shown that in certain Einstein spaces one can use a conformal Killing-Yano tensor of order p to generate a Killing-Yano tensor of order (p-1). Finally, it is proved that in maximally symmetric spaces the covariant derivative of a Killing-Yano tensor is a closed conformal Killing…
This paper is a survey on special geometric structures that admit conformal Killing spinors based on lectures, given at the ``Workshop on Special Geometric Structures in String Theory'', Bonn, September 2001 and at ESI, Wien, November 2001. We discuss the case of Lorentzian signature and explain which geometries occur up to dimension 6.
A supermanifold M is canonically associated to any pseudo Riemannian spin manifold (M_0,g_0). Extending the metric g_0 to a field g of bilinear forms g(p) on T_p M, p\in M_0, the pseudo Riemannian supergeometry of (M,g) is formulated as G-structure on M, where G is a supergroup with even part G_0\cong Spin(k,l); (k,l) the signature of (M_0,g_0). Killing vector fields on (M,g) are, by definition, infinitesimal automorphisms of this G-structure. For every spinor field s there exists a corresponding odd vector field X_s on M. Our main result is that X_s is a Killing vector field on (M,g) if and o…
Let $(M,ω)$ be a symplectic manifold admitting a metaplectic structure (a symplectic analogue of the Riemannian spin structure) and a torsion-free symplectic connection $\nabla.$ Symplectic Killing spinor fields for this structure are sections of the symplectic spinor bundle satisfying a certain first order partial differential equation and they are the main topic of this paper. We derive a necessary condition satisfied by a symplectic Killing spinor field. The advantage of this condition consists in the fact that it is expressed by a zeroth order operator. This condition helps us substantiona…
The integrability conditions for the existence of Killing-Yano tensors or, equivalently, covariantly closed conformal Killing-Yano tensors, in the presence of torsion are worked out. As an application, all metrics and torsions compatible with the existence of a Killing-Yano tensor of order n-1 are obtained. Finally, the issue of defining a maximally symmetric space with respect to connections with torsion is addressed.
We consider gauged twistor spinors which are supersymmetry generators of supersymmetric and superconformal field theories in curved backgrounds. We show that the spinor bilinears of gauged twistor spinors satify the gauged conformal Killing-Yano equation. We prove that the symmetry operators of the gauged twistor spinor equation can be constructed from ordinary conformal Killing-Yano forms in constant curvature backgrounds. This provides a way to obtain gauged twistor spinors from ordinary twistor spinors.
Symmetry operators of twistor spinors and harmonic spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms. Transformation operators relating twistors to harmonic spinors are found in terms of potential forms. These constructions are generalized to gauged twistor spinors and gauged harmonic spinors. The operators that transform gauged twistor spinors to gauged harmonic spinors are found. Symmetry operators of gauged harmonic spinors in terms of conformal Killing-Yano forms are obtained. Algebraic conditions to obtain solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations are discussed.
The fundamental tool in the classification of orthogonal coordinate systems in which the Hamilton-Jacobi and other prominent equations can be solved by a separation of variables are second order Killing tensors which satisfy the Nijenhuis integrability conditions. The latter are a system of three non-linear partial differential equations. We give a simple and completely algebraic proof that for a Killing tensor the third and most complicated of these equations is redundant. This considerably simplifies the classification of orthogonal separation coordinates on arbitrary (pseudo-)Riemannian man…
We prove that the Cauchy problem for parallel null vector fields on smooth Lorentzian manifolds is well posed. The proof is based on the derivation and analysis of suitable hyperbolic evolution equations given in terms of the Ricci tensor and other geometric objects. Moreover, we classify Riemannian manifolds satisfying the constraint conditions for this Cauchy problem. It is then possible to characterise certain holonomy reductions of globally hyperbolic manifolds with parallel null vector in terms of flow equations for Riemannian special holonomy metrics. For exceptional holonomy groups thes…
We generalize the well-known lower estimates for the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on a compact Riemannian spin manifold proved by Th. Friedrich (1980) and O. Hijazi (1986, 1992). The special solutions of the Einstein-Dirac equation constructed recently by Friedrich/Kim are examples for the limiting case of these inequalities. The discussion of the limiting case of these estimates yields two new field equations generalizing the Killing equation as well as the weak Killing equation for spinor fields. Finally, we discuss the 2- and 3-dimensional case in more detail.
The seven and nine dimensional geometries associated with certain classes of supersymmetric $AdS_3$ and $AdS_2$ solutions of type IIB and D=11 supergravity, respectively, have many similarities with Sasaki-Einstein geometry. We further elucidate their properties and also generalise them to higher odd dimensions by introducing a new class of complex geometries in $2n+2$ dimensions, specified by a Riemannian metric, a scalar field and a closed three-form, which admit a particular kind of Killing spinor. In particular, for $n\ge 3$, we show that when the geometry in $2n+2$ dimensions is a cone we…
Exact solutions to an Einstein-Maxwell(E-D-M) system with an electric current are simple models of global cosmic magnetic phenomena in the universe. In this paper, we consider an E-D-M system with two chiral spinors $ ψ^\pm$ coupled with a gauge field $ A$ and an electromagnetic field $F=dA$. We construct a family of exact solutions to the E-D-M system on four-dimensional static Sasakian spacetimes. The electromagnetic field in the solutions is a contact magnetic field, and the chiral spinors are induced from Sasakian quasi-Killing spinors. We find closed universe models whose weak energy cond…
We study generalized Killing spinors on the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$, which turn out to be related to Lagrangian embeddings in the nearly Kähler manifold $S^3\times S^3$ and to great circle flows on $\mathbb{S}^3$. Using our methods we generalize a well known result of Gluck and Gu concerning divergence-free geodesic vector fields on the sphere and we show that the space of Lagrangian submanifolds of $S^3\times S^3$ has at least three connected components.
We study the spinorial Killing equation of supergravity involving a torsion 3-form $\T$ as well as a flux 4-form $\F$. In dimension seven, we construct explicit families of compact solutions out of 3-Sasakian geometries, nearly parallel $\G_2$-geometries and on the homogeneous Aloff-Wallach space. The constraint $\F \cdot Ψ= 0$ defines a non empty subfamily of solutions. We investigate the constraint $\T \cdot Ψ= 0$, too, and show that it singles out a very special choice of numerical parameters in the Killing equation, which can also be justified geometrically.
We develop a new framework for the study of generalized Killing spinors, where generalized Killing spinor equations, possibly with constraints, can be formulated equivalently as systems of partial differential equations for a polyform satisfying algebraic relations in the Kähler-Atiyah bundle constructed by quantizing the exterior algebra bundle of the underlying manifold. At the core of this framework lies the characterization, which we develop in detail, of the image of the spinor squaring map of an irreducible Clifford module $Σ$ of real type as a real algebraic variety in the Kähler-Atiyah…
We propose a way to classify all supersymmetric configurations of D=11 supergravity using the G-structures defined by the Killing spinors. We show that the most general bosonic geometries admitting a Killing spinor have at least a local SU(5) or an (Spin(7)\ltimes R^8)x R structure, depending on whether the Killing vector constructed from the Killing spinor is timelike or null, respectively. In the former case we determine what kind of local SU(5) structure is present and show that almost all of the form of the geometry is determined by the structure. We also deduce what further conditions mus…
In a previous article we proved a lower bound for the spectrum of the Dirac operator on quaternionic Kaehler manifolds. In the present article we study the limiting case, i. e. manifolds where the lower bound is attained as an eigenvalue. We give an equivalent formulation in terms of a quaternionic Killing equation and show that the only symmetric quaternionic Kaehler manifolds with smallest possible eigenvalue are the quaternionic projective spaces.
We prove the instability of some families of Riemannian manifolds with non-trivial real Killing spinors. These include the invariant Einstein metrics on the Aloff-Wallach spaces $N_{k, l}={\rm SU}(3)/i_{k, l}(S^{1})$ (which are all nearly ${\rm G}_2$ except $N_{1,0}$), and Sasaki Einstein circle bundles over certain irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces. We also prove the instability of most of the simply connected non-symmetric compact homogeneous Einstein spaces of dimensions $5, 6, $ and $7$, including the strict nearly Kähler ones (except ${\rm G}_2/{\rm SU}(3)$).
In this paper, the Dirac, twistor and Killing equations on Weyl manifolds with CSpin structures are investigated. A conformal Schr"odinger-Lichnerowicz formula is presented and used to show integrability conditions for these equations. By introducing the Killing equation for spinors of arbitrary weight, the result of Andrei Moroianu in [9] is generalized in the following sense. The only non-closed Weyl manifolds of dimension greater than 3 that admit solutions of the real Killing equation are 4-dimensional and non-compact. Any Weyl manifold of these dimensions admitting a real Killing spinor h…
We collect our recent results ([5] and [8]) and we get the equivalence of the three notions of the title under some conditions. We then use this equivalence in order to prove some consequences about Sasakian manifolds, complex almost contact structures and complex k-contact structures.
