We discuss contravariant connections on Poisson manifolds. For vector bundles, the corresponding operational notion of a contravariant derivative had been introduced by Izu Vaisman. We show that these connections play an important role in the study of global properties of Poisson manifolds and we use them to define Poisson holonomy and new invariants of Poisson manifolds.
We look at Poisson geometry taking the viewpoint of singular foliations, understood as suitable submodules generated by Hamiltonian vector fields rather than partitions into (symplectic) leaves. The class of Poisson structures which behave best from this point of view, are those whose submodule generated by Hamiltonian vector fields arises from a smooth holonomy groupoid. We call them almost regular Poisson structures and determine them completely. They include regular Poisson and log symplectic manifolds, as well as several other Poisson structures whose symplectic foliation presents singular…
We introduce linear holonomy on Poisson manifolds. The linear holonomy of a Poisson structure generalizes the linearized holonomy on a regular symplectic foliation. However, for singular Poisson structures the linear holonomy is defined for the lifts of tangential path to the cotangent bundle (cotangent paths). The linear holonomy is closely related to the modular class studied by A. Weinstein. Namely, the logarithm of the determinant of the linear holonomy is equal to the integral of the modular vector field along such a lift. This assertion relies on the notion of the integral of a vector fi…
We extend the notion of connection in order to be able to study singular geometric structures, namely, we consider a notion of connection on a Lie algebroid which is a natural extension of the usual concept of connection. Using connections, we are able to define holonomy of the orbit foliation of a Lie algebroid and prove a stability theorem. We also introduce secondary or exotic characteristic classes that generalize the modular class of a Lie algebroid.
Holonomy algebras of Weyl connections in Lorentzian signature are classified. In particular, examples of Weyl connections with all possible holonomy algebras are constructed.
In this paper we introduce a generalisation of the notion of holonomy for connections over a bundle map on a principal fibre bundle. We prove that, as in the standard theory on principal connections, the holonomy groups are Lie subgroups of the structure group of the principle fibre bundle and we also derive a straightforward generalisation of the Reduction Theorem.
Given an almost complex manifold (M, J), we study complex connections with trivial holonomy and such that the corresponding torsion is either of type (2,0) or of type (1,1) with respect to J. Such connections arise naturally when considering Lie groups, and quotients by discrete subgroups, equipped with bi-invariant and abelian complex structures.
A hypercomplex structure on a smooth manifold is a triple of integrable almost complex structures satisfying quaternionic relations. The Obata connection is the unique torsion-free connection that preserves each of the complex structures. The holonomy group of the Obata connection is contained in $GL(n, \mathbb{H})$. There is a well-known construction of hypercomplex structures on Lie groups due to Joyce. In this paper we show that the holonomy of the Obata connection on SU(3) coincides with $GL(2, \mathbb{H})$.
Dual affine connections on Riemannian manifolds have played a central role in the field of information geometry since their introduction by Amari. Here I would like to extend the notion of dual connections to general vector bundles with an inner product, in the same way as a unitary connection generalizes a metric affine connection, using Cartan decompositions of Lie algebras. This gives a natural geometric interpretation for the Amari tensor, as a "connection form term" which generates dilations, and which is reversed for the dual connections.
For a conformal manifold we introduce the notion of an ambient connection, an affine connection on an ambient manifold of the conformal manifold, possibly with torsion, and with conditions relating it to the conformal structure. The purpose of this construction is to realise the normal conformal tractor holonomy as affine holonomy of such a connection. We give an example of an ambient connection for which this is the case, and which is torsion free if we start the construction with a C-space, and in addition Ricci-flat if we start with an Einstein manifold. Thus for a $C$-space this example le…
We define the equivariant holonomy of an invariant connection on a principal U(1)-bundle. The properties of the ordinary holonomy are generalized to the equivariant setting. In particular, equivariant U(1)-bundles with connection are shown to be classified by its equivariant holonomy modulo isomorphisms. We also show that the equivariant holonomy can be used to obtain results about equivariant prequantization and anomaly cancellation.
We investigate the holonomy group of a linear metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion. In case of the euclidian space and a constant torsion form this group is always semisimple. It does not preserve any non-degenerated 2-form or any spinor. Suitable integral formulas allow us to prove similar properties in case of a compact Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection of skew-symmetric torsion. On the Aloff-Wallach space N(1,1) we construct families of connections admitting parallel spinors. Furthermore, we investigate the geometry of these connections as well as the geometry o…
We prove that energy minimizing Yang-Mills connections on a compact $G_{2}$-manifold has holonomy equal to $G_{2}$ are $G_{2}$-instantons, subject to an extra condition on the curvature. Furthermore, we show that energy minimizing connections on a compact Calabi-Yau $3$-fold has holonomy equal to $SU(3)$ subject to a similar condition are holomorphic.
Bryant \cite{Br} proved the existence of torsion free connections with exotic holonomy, i.e. with holonomy that does not occur on the classical list of Berger \cite{Ber}. These connections occur on moduli spaces $\Y$ of rational contact curves in a contact threefold $\W$. Therefore, they are naturally contained in the moduli space $\Z$ of all rational curves in $\W$. We construct a connection on $\Z$ whose restriction to $\Y$ is torsion free. However, the connection on $\Z$ has torsion unless both $\Y$ and $\Z$ are flat. We also show the existence of a new exotic holonomy which is a certain si…
Our main aim is to associate a holonomy Lie groupoid to the connective structure of an abelian gerbe. The construction has analogies with a procedure for the holonomy Lie groupoid of a foliation, in using a locally Lie groupoid and a globalisation procedure. We show that path connections and 2-holonomy on line bundles may be formulated using the notion of a connection pair on a double category, due to Brown-Spencer, but now formulated in terms of double groupoids using the thin fundamental groupoids introduced by Caetano-Mackaay-Picken. To obtain a locally Lie groupoid to which globalisation a…
The reductive holonomy algebras for a torsion-free affine connection are analysed, with the goal of establishing which ones can correspond to a Ricci-flat connection with the same properties. Various families of holonomies are eliminated through different algebraic means, and examples are constructed (in this paper and in `Projective Geometry II: Holonomy Classification', by the same author) in the remaining cases, thus solving this problem completely, for reductive holonomy.
A locally metric connection on a smooth manifold $M$ is a torsion-free connection $D$ on $TM$ with compact restricted holonomy group $\mathrm{Hol}_0(D)$. If the holonomy representation of such a connection is irreducible, then $D$ preserves a conformal structure on $M$. Under some natural geometric assumption on the life-time of incomplete geodesics, we prove that conversely, a locally metric connection $D$ preserving a conformal structure on a compact manifold $M$ has irreducible holonomy representation, unless $\mathrm{Hol}_0(D)=0$ or $D$ is the Levi-Civita connection of a Riemannian metric …
Narasimhan and Ramadas showed that the Gribov ambiguity was maximal for the product SU(2) bundle over S^3. Specifically they showed that the holonomy group of the Coulomb connection is dense in the connected component of the identity of the gauge group. Instead of base manifold S^3, we consider here a base manifold with a boundary. In this with-boundary case we must include boundary conditions on the connection forms. We will use the so-called conductor (a.k.a Dirichlet) boundary conditions on connections. With these boundary conditions, we will first show that the space of connections is a C^…
Our aim is to support the choice of two remarkable connections with torsion in a 3-Sasakian manifold, proving that, in contrast to the Levi-Civita connection, the holonomy group in the homogeneous cases reduces to a proper subgroup of the special orthogonal group, of dimension considerably smaller. We realize the computations of the holonomies in a unified way, by using as a main algebraic tool a nonassociative structure, that one of symplectic triple system.
We study geometry on real gerbes in the spirit of Cheeger-Simons theory. The concepts of adaptations and holonomy forms are introduced for flat connections on real gerbes. Their relations to complex gerbes with connections are presented, as well as results in loop and map spaces.
Recently twisted K-theory has received much attention due to its applications in string theory and the announced result by Freed, Hopkins and Telemann relating the twisted equivariant K-theory of a compact Lie group to its Verlinde algebra. Rather than considering gerbes as separate objects, in twisted K-theory one considers a gerbe as being part of the data for a twisted vector bundle. There is also a notion of a connection in a twisted vector bundle and Kapustin has studied some aspects of the holonomy of such connections. In this note I study the holonomy of connections in twisted principal…
Our goal in this paper is to make an attempt to find the largest Lie algebra of vector fields on the indicatrix such that all its elements are tangent to the holonomy group of a Finsler manifold. First, we introduce the notion of the curvature algebra, generated by curvature vector fields, then we define the infinitesimal holonomy algebra by the smallest Lie algebra of vector fields on an indicatrix, containing the curvature vector fields and their horizontal covariant derivatives with respect to the Berwald connection. At the end we introduce the notion of the holonomy algebra of a Finsler ma…
We study compact Sasakian manifolds whose Tondeur connection has holonomy group either trivial or contained in Sp(n). We show that the first condition forces the manifold to be a compact quotient of the Heisenberg Lie group, while in the simply-connected case a Sasakian structure has the holonomy of the Tondeur connection contained in Sp(n) if and only if there exists a transverse hypercomplex structure. This latter result is the "Sasakian version" of a theorem of Verbitsky.
We classify the possible local holonomy groups of Weyl connections. The Berger-Simons theorem and the Merkulov-Schwachhöfer classification of holonomy groups of irreducible torsion-free connections leaves us with the remaining case, where the Weyl connection $D$ is reducible and non-closed. In this case, it was shown by F. Belgun and A. Moroianu that the Weyl structure is an adapted Weyl structure of a non-closed conformal product. Furthermore we prove that non-closed Einstein-Weyl product structures only exist in dimension $4$.
This paper studies the relation between two notions of holonomy on a conformal manifold. The first is the conformal holonomy, defined to be the holonomy of the normal tractor connection. The second is the holonomy of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric of the conformal manifold. It is shown that the infinitesimal conformal holonomy and the infinitesimal ambient holonomy always agree up to the order that the ambient metric is defined.
The holonomy of the Bismut connection on Vaisman manifolds is studied. We prove that if $M^{2n}$ is endowed with a Vaisman structure, then the holonomy group of the Bismut connection is contained in U$(n-1)$. We compute explicitly this group for particular types of manifolds, namely, solvmanifolds and some classical Hopf manifolds.
This paper shows how to construct anomaly free world sheet actions in string theory with $D$-branes. Our method is to use Deligne cohomology and bundle gerbe theory to define geometric objects which are naturally associated to $D$-branes and connections on them. The holonomy of these connections can be used to cancel global anomalies in the world sheet action.
In this paper we study weakly irreducible holonomy representations of the normal connection of a spacelike submanifold in a pseudo-Riemannian space from. We associate screen representations to weakly irreducible normal holonomy groups and classify the screen representations having the Borel-Lichnérowicz property. In particular, we derive a classification of Lorentzian normal holonomy representations.
Holonomy groups and holonomy algebras for connections on locally free sheaves over supermanifolds are introduced. A one-to-one correspondence between parallel sections and holonomy-invariant vectors, and a one-to-one correspondence between parallel locally direct subsheaves and holonomy-invariant vector supersubspaces are obtained. As the special case, the holonomy of linear connections on supermanifolds is studied. Examples of parallel geometric structures on supermanifolds and the corresponding holonomies are given. For Riemannian supermanifolds an analog of the Wu theorem is proved. Berger …
We give a new construction of the holonomy groupoid of a regular foliation in terms of a partial connection on a diffeological principal bundle of germs of transverse parametrisations. We extend these ideas to construct a novel holonomy groupoid for any foliated bundle, which we prove sits at the top of a hierarchy of diffeological jet holonomy groupoids associated to the foliated bundle.
Given a principal bundle with a connection, we look for an asymptotic expansion of the holonomy of a loop in terms of its length. This length is defined relative to some Riemannian or sub-Riemannian structure. We are able to give an asymptotic formula that is independent of choice of gauge.
In 1955, Berger \cite{Ber} gave a list of irreducible reductive representations which can occur as the holonomy of a torsion-free affine connection. This list was stated to be complete up to possibly a finite number of missing entries. In this paper, we show that there is, in fact, an infinite family of representations which are missing from this list, thereby showing the incompleteness of Berger's classification. Moreover, we develop a method to construct torsion-free connections with prescribed holonomy, and use it to give a complete description of the torsion-free affine connections with th…
We develop Hodge theory for a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ with a background closed 3-form, H. Precisely, we prove that if the metric connections with torsion $\pm H$ have holonomy groups $G_\pm$, then the $d^H$-Laplacian preserves the irreducible representations of the Lie algebras of the holonomy groups on the space of forms.
In this paper we discuss some examples and general properties of holonomy groups of $\nabla^φ$ introduced by Wylie and the author, the connection corresponding to the $N=1$ Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature, and also Wylie's $\bar{\mathrm{sec}}_f$. In particular we classify all possible holonomy groups in dimension 2 and also provide two infinite families: $SL_n(\mathbb{R})$ and $SO^+(p,q)$.
We describe a new class of holonomy groups on pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. Namely, we prove the following theorem. Let g be a nondegenerate bilinear form on a vector space V, and L:V -> V a g-symmetric operator. Then the identity component of the centraliser of L in SO(g) is a holonomy group for a suitable Levi-Civita connection.
We give a construction of $G_2$ and $Spin(7)$ instantons on exceptional holonomy manifolds constructed by Bryant and Salamon, by using an ansatz of spherical symmetry coming from the manifolds being the total spaces of rank-4 vector bundles. In the $G_2$ case, we show that, in the asymptotically conical model, the connections are asymptotic to Hermitian Yang-Mills connections on the nearly Kähler $S^3\times S^3$.
Narasimhan and Ramadas showed that the restricted holonomy group of the Coulomb connection is dense in the connected component of the identity of the gauge group when one considers the product principal bundle $S^3 \times SU(2)\to S^3$. Instead of a base manifold S^3, we consider here a base manifold of dimension $n\ge 2$ with a boundary and use Dirichlet boundary conditions on connections as defined by Marini. A key step in the method of Narasimhan and Ramadas consisted in showing that the linear space spanned by the curvature form at one specially chosen connection is dense in the holonomy L…
We show that on an HKT manifold the holonomy of the Obata connection is contained in SL(n,H) if and only if the Lee form is an exact one form. As an application, we show compact HKT manifolds with holomorphically trivial canonical bundle which are not balanced. A simple criterion for non-existence of HKT metric on hypercomplex manifold is given in terms of the Ricci-type tensors of the Obata connection.
This paper analyses the parabolic geometries generated by a free $n$-distribution in the tangent space of a manifold. It shows that certain holonomy reductions of the associated normal Tractor connections, imply preferred connections with special properties, along with Riemannian or sub-Riemannian structures on the manifold. It constructs examples of these holonomy reductions in the simplest cases. The main results, however, lie in the free 3-distributions. In these cases, there are normal Fefferman constructions over CR and Lagrangian contact structures corresponding to holonomy reductions to…
We discuss in this paper the conformal geometry of bi-invariant metrics on compact semisimple Lie groups. For this purpose we develop a conformal Cartan calculus adapted to this problem. In particular, we derive an explicit formula for the holonomy algebra of the normal conformal Cartan connection of a bi-invariant metric. As an example, we apply this calculus to the group $\SO(4)$. Its conformal holonomy group is calculated to be $\SO(7)$.
We introduce an axiomatic framework for the parallel transport of connections on gerbes. It incorporates parallel transport along curves and along surfaces, and is formulated in terms of gluing axioms and smoothness conditions. The smoothness conditions are imposed with respect to a strict Lie 2-group, which plays the role of a band, or structure 2-group. Upon choosing certain examples of Lie 2-groups, our axiomatic framework reproduces in a systematical way several known concepts of gerbes with connection: non-abelian differential cocycles, Breen-Messing gerbes, abelian and non-abelian bundle…
This note proves the geodesic completeness of any compact manifold endowed with a linear connection such that the closure of its holonomy group is compact.
This article is a follow-up of ``Holonomy and Path Structures in General Relativity and Yang-Mills Theory" by Barrett, J. W. (Int.J.Theor.Phys., vol.30, No.9, 1991). Its main goal is to provide an alternative proof of this part of the reconstruction theorem which concerns the existence of a connection. A construction of connection 1-form is presented. The formula expressing the local coefficients of connection in terms of the holonomy map is obtained as an immediate consequence of that construction. Thus the derived formula coincides with that used in "On Loop Space Formulation of Gauge Theori…
Let $G$ be a connected Lie group and $\mathfrak{g}$ its Lie algebra. We denote by $\nabla^0$ the torsion free bi-invariant linear connection on $G$ given by $\nabla^0_XY=\frac12[X,Y],$ for any left invariant vector fields $X,Y$. A Poisson structure on $\mathfrak{g}$ is a commutative and associative product on $\mathfrak{g}$ for which $\mathrm{ad}_u$ is a derivation, for any $u\in\mathfrak{g}$. A torsion free bi-invariant linear connections on $G$ which have the same curvature as $\nabla^0$ is called special. We show that there is a bijection between the space of special connections on $G$ and …
This paper is concerned with the holonomy of a class of spaces which includes Landsberg spaces of Finsler geometry. The methods used are those of Lie groupoids and algebroids as developed by Mackenzie. We prove a version of the Ambrose-Singer Theorem for such spaces. The paper ends with a discussion of how the results may be extended to Finsler spaces and homogeneous nonlinear connections in general.
In this paper we consider two generalizations of the Skyrme model. One is a variational problem for maps from a compact three-manifold to a compact Lie group. The other is a variational problem for flat connections. We describe the path components of the configuration spaces of smooth fields for each of the variational problems. We prove that the invariants separating the path components are well-defined for (not necessarily smooth) fields with finite Skyrme energy. We prove that for every possible value of these invariants there exists a minimizer of the Skyrme functional. Throughout the pape…
We consider the geometry determined by a torsion-free affine connection whose holonomy lies in the subgroup U*(2m), a real form of GL(2m,C), otherwise denoted by SL(m,H).U(1). We show in particular how examples may be generated from quaternionic Kähler or hyperkähler manifolds with a circle action.
In this paper we establish a one-to-one correspondence between $S^1$-gerbes with connections, on the one hand, and their holonomies, for simply connected manifolds, or their parallel transports, in the general case, on the other hand. This result is a higher-order analogue of the familiar equivalence between bundles with connections and their holonomies for connected manifolds. The holonomy of a gerbe with group $S^1$ on a simply connected manifold $M$ is a group morphism from the thin second homotopy group to $S^1$, satisfying a smoothness condition, where a homotopy between maps from $[0,1]^…
We define a notion of connection in a fibre bundle that is compatible with a singular foliation of the base. Fibre bundles equipped with such connections are in plentiful supply, arising naturally for any Lie groupoid-equivariant bundle, and simultaneously generalising regularly foliated bundles in the sense of Kamber-Tondeur and singular foliations. We define hierarchies of diffeological holonomy groupoids associated to such bundles, which arise from the parallel transport of jet/germinal conservation laws. We show that the groupoids associated in this manner to trivial singularly foliated bu…
A classic theorem in the theory of connections on principal fiber bundles states that the evaluation of all holonomy functions gives enough information to characterize the bundle structure (among those sharing the same structure group and base manifold) and the connection up to a bundle equivalence map. This result and other important properties of holonomy functions has encouraged their use as the primary ingredient for the construction of families of quantum gauge theories. However, in these applications often the set of holonomy functions used is a discrete proper subset of the set of holon…
This paper aims to classify the holonomy of the conformal Tractor connection, and relate these holonomies to the geometry of the underlying manifold. The conformally Einstein case is dealt with through the construction of metric cones, whose Riemmanian holonomy is the same as the Tractor holonomy of the underlying manifold. Direct calculations in the Ricci-flat case and an important decomposition theorem complete the classification for definitive signature.