We investigate the differential geometry and topology of globally hyperbolic four-manifolds $(M,g)$ admitting a parallel real spinor $\varepsilon$. Using the theory of parabolic pairs recently introduced in arXiv:1911.08658 , we first formulate the parallelicity condition of $\varepsilon$ on $M$ as a system of partial differential equations, the parallel spinor flow equations, for a family of polyforms on any given Cauchy surface $Σ\hookrightarrow M$. Existence of a parallel spinor on $(M,g)$ induces a system of constraint partial differential equations on $Σ$, which we prove to be equivalent to an exterior differential system involving a cohomological condition on the shape operator of the embedding $Σ\hookrightarrow M$. Solutions of this differential system are precisely the allowed initial data for the evolution problem of a parallel spinor and define the notion of parallel Cauchy pair $(\mathfrak{e},Θ)$, where $\mathfrak{e}$ is a coframe and $Θ$ is a symmetric two-tensor. We characterize all parallel Cauchy pairs on simply connected Cauchy surfaces, refining a result of Baum, Leistner and Lischewski. Furthermore, we classify all compact three-manifolds admitting parallel Cauchy pairs, proving that they are canonically equipped with a locally free action of $\mathbb{R}^2$ and are isomorphic to certain torus bundles over $S^1$, whose Riemannian structure we characterize in detail. Moreover, we classify all left-invariant parallel Cauchy pairs on simply connected Lie groups, specifying when they are allowed initial data for the Ricci flat equations and when the shape operator is Codazzi. Finally, we give a novel geometric interpretation of a class of parallel spinor flows and solve it in several examples, obtaining explicit families of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds carrying parallel spinors.
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.
We prove that there exist global solutions of the twistor equation on the Fefferman spaces of strictly pseudoconvex spin manifolds of arbitrary dimension and we study their properties.
We present in this paper a $C^1$-metric on an open neighbourhood of the origin in $\RR^{5}$. The metric is of Lorentzian signature $(1,4)$ and admits a solution to the twistor equation for spinors with a unique isolated zero at the origin. The metric is not conformally flat in any neighbourhood of the origin. The construction is based on the Eguchi-Hanson metric with parallel spinors on Riemannian 4-space.
Holonomy algebras of Lorentzian Weyl spin manifolds with weighted parallel spinors are found. For Lorentzian Weyl manifolds admitting recurrent null vector fields are introduced special local coordinates similar to Kundt and Walker ones. Using that, the local form of all Lorentzian Weyl spin manifolds with weighted parallel spinors is given. The Einstein-Weyl equation for the obtained Weyl structures is analyzed and examples of Einstein-Weyl spaces with weighted parallel spinors are given.
We prove that an isometric immersion of a simply connected Lorentzian surface in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ is equivalent to a normalised spinor field solution of a Dirac equation on the surface. Using the quaternions and the Lorentz numbers, we also obtain an explicit representation formula of the immersion in terms of the spinor field. We then apply the representation formula in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ to give a new spinor representation formula for Lorentzian surfaces in 3-dimensional Minkowski space. Finally, we apply the representation formula to the local description of the flat Lorentzian surfaces w…
We describe the local conformal geometry of a Lorentzian spin manifold $(M,g)$ admitting a twistor spinor $ϕ$ with zero. Moreover, we describe the shape of the zero set of $ϕ$. If $ϕ$ has isolated zeros then the metric $g$ is locally conformally equivalent to a static monopole. In the other case the zero set consists of null geodesic(s) and $g$ is locally conformally equivalent to a Brinkmann metric. Our arguments utilise tractor calculus in an essential way. The Dirac current of $ϕ$, which is a conformal Killing vector field, plays an important role for our discussion as well.
Lorentzian manifolds with parallel spinors are important objects of study in several branches of geometry, analysis and mathematical physics. Their Cauchy problem has recently been discussed by Baum, Leistner and Lischewski, who proved that the problem locally has a unique solution up to diffeomorphisms, provided that the intial data given on a space-like hypersurface satisfy some constraint equations. In this article we provide a method to solve these constraint equations. In particular, any curve (resp. closed curve) in the moduli space of Riemannian metrics on $M$ with a parallel spinor giv…
We prove that each special Lorentzian holonomy group (with the exception of those including the isotropy groups of Kähler symmetric spaces with rank greater than one) can be realized as the holonomy group of a globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold.
In this paper we discuss the twistor equation in Lorentzian spin geometry. In particular, we explain the local conformal structure of Lorentzian manifolds, which admit twistor spinors inducing lightlike Dirac currents. Furthermore, we derive all local geometries with singularity free twistor spinors that occur up to dimension 7.
In this paper, we study the fundamental group of a certain class of globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with a positive curvature tensor. We prove that the fundamental group of lightlike geodesically complete parametrized Lorentzian products is finite under the conditions of a positive curvature tensor and the fiber compact.
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…
On a Lorentzian manifold the existence of a parallel null vector field implies certain constraint conditions on the induced Riemannian geometry of a space-like hypersurface. We will derive these constraint conditions and, conversely, show that every real analytic Riemannian manifold satisfying the constraint conditions can be extended to a Lorentzian manifold with a parallel null vector field. Similarly, every parallel null spinor on a Lorentzian manifold induces an imaginary generalised Killing spinor on a space-like hypersurface. Then, based on the fact that a parallel spinor field induces a…
In this paper, a survey of the recent results about the classification of the connected holonomy groups of the Lorentzian manifolds is given. A simplification of the construction of the Lorentzian metrics with all possible connected holonomy groups is obtained. As the applications, the Einstein equation, Lorentzian manifolds with parallel and recurrent spinor fields, conformally flat Walker metrics and the classification of 2-symmetric Lorentzian manifolds are considered.
We consider weighted parallel spinors in Lorentzian Weyl geometry in arbitrary dimensions, choosing the weight such that the integrability condition for the existence of such a spinor, implies the geometry to be Einstein-Weyl. We then use techniques developed for the classification of supersymmetric solutions to supergravity theories to characterise those Lorentzian EW geometries that allow for a weighted parallel spinor, calling the resulting geometries supersymmetric. The overall result is that they are either conformally related to ordinary geometries admitting parallel spinors (w.r.t. the …
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.
The fermionic signature operator is analyzed on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian surfaces. The connection between the spectrum of the fermionic signature operator and geometric properties of the surface is studied. The findings are illustrated by simple examples and counterexamples.
We calculate the Spencer cohomology of the $(1,0)$ Poincaré superalgebras in six dimensions: with and without R-symmetry. As the cases of four and eleven dimensions taught us, we may read off from this calculation a Killing spinor equation which allows the determination of which geometries admit rigidly supersymmetric theories in this dimension. We prove that the resulting Killing spinors generate a Lie superalgebra and determine the geometries admitting the maximal number of such Killing spinors. They are divided in two branches. One branch consists of the lorentzian Lie groups with bi-invari…
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…
Let $(\overline M,\overline g)$ be a time- and space-oriented Lorentzian spin manifold, and let $M$ be a compact spacelike hypersurface of $\overline M$ with induced Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$. If $(\overline M,\overline g)$ satisfies the dominant energy condition in a strict sense, then the Dirac--Witten operator of $M\subseteq \overline M$ is an invertible, self-adjoint Fredholm operator. This allows us to use index theoretical methods in order to detect non-trivial homotopy groups in the space of initial on $M$ satisfying the dominant energy condition in a strict …
We give a generalized Weierstrass formula for a Lorentz surface conformally immersed in the four-dimensional space $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ using spinors and Lorentz numbers. We also study the immersions of a Lorentzian surface in {\bf the} Anti-de Sitter space (a pseudo-sphere in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$): we give a new spinor representation formula and deduce the conformal description of a flat Lorentzian surface in that space.
We calculate the relevant Spencer cohomology of the minimal Poincaré superalgebra in 5 spacetime dimensions and use it to define Killing spinors via a connection on the spinor bundle of a 5-dimensional lorentzian spin manifold. We give a definition of bosonic backgrounds in terms of this data. By imposing constraints on the curvature of the spinor connection, we recover the field equations of minimal (ungauged) 5-dimensional supergravity, but also find a set of field equations for an $\mathfrak{sp}(1)$-valued one-form which we interpret as the bosonic data of a class of rigid supersymmetric th…
In this paper we examine the structure of Riemannian manifolds with a special kind of Codazzi tensors. We use them to construct globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with complete Cauchy hypersurfaces for any weakly irreducible holonomy representation with parallel spinors, i.e. with a holonomy group which is a semidirect product between $\R^{n-2}$ and one of $\1, SU(k), Sp(1), G_2$ and $Spin(7)$.
We are studying the harmonic and twistor equation on Lorentzian surfaces, that is a two dimensional orientable manifold with a metric of signature $(1,1)$. We will investigate the properties of the solutions of these equations and try to relate the conformal invariant dimension of the space of harmonic and twistor spinors to the natural conformal invariants given by the Lorentzian metric. We will introduce the notion of semi-conformally flat surfaces and establish a complete classification of the possible dimensions for this family.
We determine the Killing superalgebras underpinning field theories with rigid unextended supersymmetry on Lorentzian four-manifolds by re-interpreting them as filtered deformations of $\mathbb{Z}$-graded subalgebras with maximum odd dimension of the $N{=}1$ Poincaré superalgebra in four dimensions. Part of this calculation involves computing a Spencer cohomology group which, by analogy with a similar result in eleven dimensions, prescribes a notion of Killing spinor, which we identify with the defining condition for bosonic supersymmetric backgrounds of minimal off-shell supergravity in four d…
We study the full holonomy group of Lorentzian manifolds with a parallel null line bundle. We prove several results that are based on the classification of the restricted holonomy groups of such manifolds and provide a construction method for manifolds with disconnected holonomy which starts from a Riemannian manifold and a properly discontinuous group of isometries. Most of our examples are quotients of pp-waves with disconnected holonomy and without parallel vector field. Furthermore, we classify the full holonomy groups of solvable Lorentzian symmetric spaces and of Lorentzian manifolds wit…
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 note a proof is given for global existence and uniqueness of minimal surfaces of Lorentzian type from a cylinder into globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds for given initial values up to the first derivatives.
(This is a revised version of the paper) - In the present paper we study the geometry of doubly extended Lie groups with their natural biinvariant metric. We describe the curvature, the holonomy and the space of parallel spinors. This is completely done for all simply connected groups with biinvariantmetric of Lorentzian signature $(1,n-1)$, of signature $(2,n-2)$ and of signature $(p,q)$, where $p+q\leq 6$. Furthermore, some special series with higher signature are discussed.
Spinor representations of surfaces immersed into 4-dimensional pseudo-riemannian manifolds are defined in terms of minimal left ideals and tensor decompositions of Clifford algebras. The classification of spinor fields and Dirac operators on the immersed surfaces is given. The Dirac-Hestenes spinor field on surfaces immersed into Lorentzian manifolds and on surfaces conformally immersed into Minkowski spacetime is defined.
We show that locally conformally flat quasi-Einstein manifolds are globally conformally equivalent to a space form or locally isometric to a $pp$-wave or a warped product.
We consider a hyperbolic Dirac-type operator with growing potential on a a spatially non-compact globally hyperbolic manifold. We show that the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary value problem for such operator is Fredholm and obtain a formula for this index in terms of the local integrals and the relative eta-invariant introduced by Braverman and Shi. This extends recent results of Bär and Strohmaier, who studied the index of a hyperbolic Dirac operator on a spatially compact globally hyperbolic manifold.
The aim of this work is to complete our program on the quantization of connections on arbitrary principal U(1)-bundles over globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds. In particular, we show that one can assign via a covariant functor to any such bundle an algebra of observables which separates gauge equivalence classes of connections. The C*-algebra we construct generalizes the usual CCR-algebras since, contrary to the standard field-theoretic models, it is based on a presymplectic Abelian group instead of a symplectic vector space. We prove a no-go theorem according to which neither this funct…
We study pseudo-Riemanniasn manifolds $(M,g)$ with transitive group of conformal transformation which is essential, i.e. does not preserves any metric conformal to $g$. All such manifolds of Lorentz signature with non exact isotropy representation of the stability subalgebra are described. A construction of essential conformally homogeneous manifolds with exact isotropy represenatation is given. Using spinor formalism, we prove that it provides all 4-dimensional non conformally flat Lorentzian 4-dimensional manifolds with transitive essentially conformal group.
The study of low regularity (in-)extendibility of Lorentzian manifolds is motivated by the question whether a given solution to the Einstein equations can be extended (or is maximal) as a weak solution. In this paper we show that a timelike complete and globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold is $C^0$-inextendible. For the proof we make use of the result, recently established by Sämann [17], that even for \emph{continuous} Lorentzian manifolds that are globally hyperbolic, there exists a length-maximizing causal curve between any two causally related points.
We determine the geometry of supersymmetric heterotic string backgrounds for which all parallel spinors with respect to the connection $\hat\nabla$ with torsion $H$, the NS$\otimes$NS three-form field strength, are Killing. We find that there are two classes of such backgrounds, the null and the timelike. The Killing spinors of the null backgrounds have stability subgroups $K\ltimes\bR^8$ in $Spin(9,1)$, for $K=Spin(7)$, SU(4), $Sp(2)$, $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ and $\{1\}$, and the Killing spinors of the timelike backgrounds have stability subgroups $G_2$, SU(3), SU(2) and $\{1\}$. The former admit…
The maximal analytic Schwarzschild spacetime is manifestly inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a twice continuously differentiable metric. In this paper, we prove the stronger statement that it is even inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a continuous metric. To capture the obstruction to continuous extensions through the curvature singularity, we introduce the notion of the spacelike diameter of a globally hyperbolic region of a Lorentzian manifold with a merely continuous metric and give a sufficient condition for the spacelike diameter to be finite. The investigation of low-reg…
The existence of closed hypersurfaces of prescribed scalar curvature in globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds is proved provided there are barriers.
We extend the link between Einstein Sasakian manifolds and Killing spinors to a class of $η$-Einstein Sasakian manifolds, both in Riemannian and Lorentzian settings, characterising them in terms of generalised Killing spinors. We propose a definition of supersymmetric M-theory backgrounds on such a geometry and find a new class of such backgrounds, extending previous work of Haupt, Lukas and Stelle.
The existence of a recurrent spinor field on a pseudo-Riemannian spin manifold $(M,g)$ is closely related to the existence of a parallel 1-dimensional complex subbundle of the spinor bundle of $(M,g)$. We characterize the following simply connected pseudo-Riemannian manifolds admitting such subbundles in terms of their holonomy algebras: Riemannian manifolds; Lorentzian manifolds; pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with irreducible holonomy algebras; pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of neutral signature admitting two complementary parallel isotropic distributions.
The holonomy group of an (n+2)-dimensional simply-connected, indecomposable but non-irreducible Lorentzian manifold (M,h) is contained in the parabolic group $(\mathbb{R} \times SO(n))\ltimes \mathbb{R}^n$. The main ingredient of such a holonomy group is the SO(n)--projection $G:=pr_{SO(n)}(Hol_p(M,h))$ and one may ask whether it has to be a Riemannian holonomy group. In this paper we show that this is always the case, completing our results of the first part math.DG/0305139. We draw consequences for the existence of parallel spinors on Lorentzian manifolds.
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.
Following the lines of the celebrated Riemannian result of Gromoll and Meyer, we use infinite dimensional equivariant Morse theory to establish the existence of infinitely many geometrically distinct closed geodesics in a class of globally hyperbolic stationary Lorentzian manifolds.
Not only the Dirac operator, but also the spinor bundle of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold depends on the underlying metric. This leads to technical difficulties in the study of problems where many metrics are involved, for instance in variational theory. We construct a natural finite dimensional bundle, from which all the metric spinor bundles can be recovered including their extra structure. In the Lorentzian case, we also give some applications to Einstein-Dirac-Maxwell theory as a variational theory and show how to coherently define a maximal Cauchy development for this theory.
We use a construction which we call generalized cylinders to give a new proof of the fundamental theorem of hypersurface theory. It has the advantage of being very simple and the result directly extends to semi-Riemannian manifolds and to embeddings into spaces of constant curvature. We also give a new way to identify spinors for different metrics and to derive the variation formula for the Dirac operator. Moreover, we show that generalized Killing spinors for Codazzi tensors are restrictions of parallel spinors. Finally, we study the space of Lorentzian metrics and give a criterion when two L…
