This is the second in a series of five papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0302356, math.DG/0303272 studying special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) X in (almost) Calabi-Yau m-folds M with singularities x_1,...,x_n locally modelled on special Lagrangian cones C_1,...,C_n in C^m with isolated singularities at 0. Readers are advised to begin with the final paper math.DG/0303272 which surveys the series, gives examples, and proves some conjectures.
In this paper we study the deformation theory of compact SL m-folds X in M with conical singularities. We define the moduli space M_X of deformations of X in M, and construct a natural topology on it. Then we show that M_X is locally homeomorphic to the zeroes of a smooth map Φ: I --> O between finite-dimensional vector spaces.
Here the infinitesimal deformation space I depends only on the topology of X, and the obstruction space O only on the cones C_1,...,C_n at x_1,...,x_n. If the cones C_i are "stable" then O is zero and M_X is a smooth manifold. We also extend our results to families of almost Calabi-Yau structures on M.
The first paper math.DG/0211294 laid the foundations for the series, and studied the regularity of X near its singular points. The third and fourth papers math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0302356 construct desingularizations of X, realizing X as the limit of a family N^t of compact, nonsingular SL m-folds in M.
In this article we study the deformation theory of conically singular Cayley submanifolds. In particular, we prove a result on the expected dimension of a moduli space of Cayley deformations of a conically singular Cayley submanifold. Moreover, when the Cayley submanifold is a two-dimensional complex submanifold of a Calabi--Yau four-fold we show by comparing Cayley and complex deformations that in this special case the moduli space is a smooth manifold. We also perform calculations of some of the quantities discussed for some examples.
McLean studied the deformations of compact special Lagrangian submanifolds, showing in particular that they come in moduli spaces whose dimension depends only on the topology of the submanifold. In this article we study the analogous problem for non-compact, "asymptotically conical" SL submanifolds, with respect to various "boundary conditions at infinity".
In this paper we study the short time existence problem for the (generalized) Lagrangian mean curvature flow in (almost) Calabi--Yau manifolds when the initial Lagrangian submanifold has isolated conical singularities modelled on stable special Lagrangian cones. Given a Lagrangian submanifold $F_0:L\rightarrow M$ in an almost Calabi--Yau manifold $M$ with isolated conical singularities at $x_1,...,x_n\in M$ modelled on stable special Lagrangian cones $C_1,...,C_n$ in $\mathbb{C}^m$, we show that for a short time there exist one-parameter families of points $x_1(t),... x_n(t)\in M$ and a one pa…
This is the first in a series of five papers math.DG/0211295, math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0302356, math.DG/0303272 studying special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) X in (almost) Calabi-Yau m-folds M with singularities x_1,...,x_n locally modelled on special Lagrangian cones C_1,...,C_n in C^m with isolated singularities at 0. Readers are advised to begin with the final paper math.DG/0303272, which surveys the series, gives examples, and applies the results to prove some conjectures. This first paper lays the foundations for the series, giving definitions and proving auxiliary results in symp…
We discuss a 4[k/2]-dimensional complete hyperkähler submanifold of the (4k-4)-dimensional moduli space of strongly centred SU(2)-monopoles of charge k.
This is the last in a series of five papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0211295, math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0302356 studying compact special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) X in (almost) Calabi-Yau m-folds M with singularities x_1,...,x_n locally modelled on special Lagrangian cones C_1,...,C_n in C^m with isolated singularities at 0. Readers are advised to begin with this paper. We survey the major results of the previous four papers, giving brief explanations of the proofs. We apply the results to describe the boundary of a moduli space of compact, nonsingular SL m-folds N in M. We prove the…
This is the fourth in a series of five papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0211295, math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0303272 studying compact special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) X in (almost) Calabi-Yau m-folds M with singularities x_1,...,x_n locally modelled on special Lagrangian cones C_1,...,C_n in C^m with isolated singularities at 0. Readers are advised to begin with the final paper math.DG/0303272 which surveys the series, gives examples, and applies the results to prove some conjectures. The first paper math.DG/0211294 studied the regularity of X near its singular points, and the second m…
This is the third in a series of five papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0211295, math.DG/0302356, math.DG/0303272 studying compact special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) X in (almost) Calabi-Yau m-folds M with singularities x_1,...,x_n locally modelled on special Lagrangian cones C_1,...,C_n in C^m with isolated singularities at 0. Readers are advised to begin with the final paper math.DG/0303272 which surveys the series, gives examples, and applies the results to prove some conjectures. The first two papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0211295 studied the regularity of X near its singular poi…
It is proved that the moduli space of all connected compact orientable embedded minimal affine Lagrangian submanifolds of a complex equiaffine space constitutes an infinite dimensional Frechet manifold (if it is not the empty set). The moduli space of all connected compact orientable metric Lagrangian embedded surfaces in an almost Kaehler 4-dimensional manifold forms an infinite dimensional Frechet manifold (if it is not the empty set).
In this article we address a number of features of the moduli space of spherical metrics on connected, compact, orientable surfaces with conical singularities of assigned angles, such as its non-emptiness and connectedness. We also consider some features of the forgetful map from the above moduli space of spherical surfaces with conical points to the associated moduli space of pointed Riemann surfaces, such as its properness, which follows from an explicit systole inequality that relates metric invariants (spherical systole) and conformal invariant (extremal systole).
Special Lagrangian submanifolds are submanifolds of a Calabi-Yau manifold calibrated by the real part of the holomorphic volume form. In this paper we use elliptic theory for edge-degenerate differential operators on singular manifolds to study the moduli space of deformations of special Lagrangian submanifolds with edge singularities. We obtain a general theorem describing the local structure of the moduli space. When the obstruction space vanishes the moduli space is a smooth, finite dimensional manifold.
We introduce the notion of affine Legendrian submanifolds in Sasakian manifolds and define a canonical volume called the $ϕ$-volume as odd dimensional analogues of affine Lagrangian (totally real or purely real) geometry. Then we derive the second variation formula of the $ϕ$-volume to obtain the stability result in some $η$-Einstein Sasakian manifolds. It also implies the convexity of the $ϕ$-volume functional on the space of affine Legendrian submanifolds. Next, we introduce the notion of special affine Legendrian submanifolds in Sasaki-Einstein manifolds as a generalization of that of speci…
We study the asymptotics of the determinant of Laplacian on a translation surface (a compact Riemann surface equipped with a conformal flat conical metric with trivial holonomy) of genus g with 2g-2 conical points of angle 4πas two conical points collide.
We study the natural structure on the moduli space of deformations of compact coassociative submanifolds. We show that a G2-manifold with a T^4-action of isomorphisms such that the orbits are coassociative tori is locally equivalent to a minimal 3-manifold in R^{3,3} = H^2(T^4,R) with positive induced metric. By studying minimal surfaces in quadrics we show how to construct minimal 3-manifold cones in R^{3,3} and hence G2-metrics from equations similar to a set of affine Toda equations. The relation to semi-flat special Lagrangian fibrations and the Monge-Ampère equation are explained.
The aim of this paper is to extend the definition of geodesics to conical manifolds, defined as submanifolds of $\R^n$ with a finite number of singularities. We look for an approach suitable both for the local geodesic problem and for the calculus of variation in the large
Following an earlier paper on the differential-geometric structure of the moduli space of special Lagrangian submanifolds in a Calabi-Yau manifold, we follow an analogous approach for compact complex Lagrangian submanifolds of a (Kählerian) complex symplectic manifold. The natural geometric structure on the moduli space is a special Kähler metric, but we offer a different point of view on the local differential geometry of these, based on the structure of a submanifold of $V\times V$ (where $V$ is a symplectic vector space) which is Lagrangian with respect to two constant symplectic forms. As …
Let $M^7$ be a smooth manifold equipped with a $G_2$-structure $ϕ$, and $Y^3$ be an closed compact $ϕ$-associative submanifold. In \cite{McL}, R. McLean proved that the moduli space $\bm_{Y,ϕ}$ of the $ϕ$-associative deformations of $Y$ has vanishing virtual dimension. In this paper, we perturb $ϕ$ into a $G_2$-structure $ψ$ in order to ensure the smoothness of $\bm_{Y,ψ}$ near $Y$. If $Y$ is allowed to have a boundary moving in a fixed coassociative submanifold $X$, it was proved in \cite{GaWi} that the moduli space $\bm_{Y,X}$ of the associative deformations of $Y$ with boundary in $X$ has f…
This paper is dedicated to the study of deformations of coassociative 4-folds in a G_2 manifold which have conical singularities. We stratify the types of deformations allowed into three problems. The main result for each problem states that the moduli space is locally homeomorphic to the kernel of a smooth map between smooth manifolds. In each case, the map in question can be considered as a projection from the infinitesimal deformation space onto the obstruction space. Thus, when there are no obstructions the moduli space is a smooth manifold. Furthermore, we calculate a lower bound on the e…
This paper considers the natural geometric structure on the moduli space of deformations of a compact special Lagrangian submanifold $L^n$ of a Calabi-Yau manifold. From the work of McLean this is a smooth manifold with a natural $L^2$ metric. It is shown that the metric is induced from a local Lagrangian immersion into the product of cohomology groups $H^1(L)\times H^{n-1}(L)$. Using this approach, an interpretation of the mirror symmetry discussed by Strominger, Yau and Zaslow is given in terms of the classical Legendre transform.
Given an associative 3-fold in R^7 which is asymptotically conical with generic rate less than 1, we show that its moduli space of deformations is locally homeomorphic to the kernel of a smooth map between smooth manifolds. Moreover, the virtual dimension of the moduli space is computed and shown to be non-negative for rates greater than -1, whereas the associative 3-fold is expected to be isolated for rates less than or equal to -1.
A totally umbilical submanifold in pseudo-Riemannian manifolds is a fundamental notion, which is characterized by the condition that the second fundamental form is proportional to the metric. It is also a generalization of the notion of a totally geodesic submanifold. In this paper, we classify congruent classes of full totally umbilical submanifolds in non-flat pseudo-Riemannian space forms, and consider their moduli spaces. As a consequence, we show that some moduli spaces of isometric immersions between space forms which one of the same constant curvature are non-Hausdorff.
We develop the deformation theory of instantons on asymptotically conical $G_2$-manifolds, where an asymptotic connection at infinity is fixed. A spinorial approach is adopted to relate the space of deformations to the kernel of a twisted Dirac operator on the $G_2$-manifold and to the eigenvalues of a twisted Dirac operator on the nearly Kähler link. This framework is then used to calculate the virtual dimension of the moduli spaces of $G_2$-instantons on which several known examples live. One such example considered is the $G_2$-instanton of Günaydin-Nicolai, which lives on $R^7$. As an appl…
Unlike Legendrian submanifolds, the deformation problem of coisotropic submanifolds can be obstructed. Starting from this observation, we single out in the contact setting the special class of integral coisotropic submanifolds as the direct generalization of Legendrian submanifolds for what concerns deformation and moduli theory. Indeed, being integral coisotropic is proved to be a rigid condition, and moreover the integral coisotropic deformation problem is unobstructed with discrete moduli space.
We survey what is known about singularities of special Lagrangian submanifolds (SL m-folds) in (almost) Calabi-Yau manifolds. The bulk of the paper summarizes the author's five papers math.DG/0211294, math.DG/0211295, math.DG/0302355, math.DG/0302356, math.DG/0303272 on SL m-folds X with isolated conical singularities. That is, near each singular point x, X is modelled on an SL cone C in C^m with isolated singularity at 0. We also discuss directions for future research, and give a list of open problems.
We study coassociative 4-folds N in R^7 which are asymptotically conical to a cone C with rate lambda<1. If lambda is in the interval [-2,1) and generic, we show that the moduli space of coassociative deformations of N which are also asymptotically conical to C with rate lambda is a smooth manifold, and we calculate its dimension. If lambda<-2 and generic, we show that the moduli space is locally homeomorphic to the kernel of a smooth map between smooth manifolds, and we give a lower bound for its expected dimension. We also derive a test for when N will be planar if lambda<-2 and we discuss e…
This paper is a follow-up to an earlier paper math.DG/0410260 on desingularizations of Calabi-Yau 3-folds with a conical singularity. In math.DG/0410260 we study Calabi-Yau 3-folds M_0 with a conical singularity at x modelled on some Calabi-Yau cone V, and construct a desingularization of M_0 by gluing in an Asymptotically Conical (AC) Calabi-Yau 3-fold Y to M_0 at x. In this paper, we shall investigate a similar desingularization problem on special Lagrangian (SL) 3-folds in the corresponding Calabi-Yau 3-folds. More precisely, suppose M_0 is now a Calabi-Yau 3-fold with finitely many conical…
These notes consist of a study of special Lagrangian submanifolds of Calabi-Yau manifolds and their moduli spaces. The particular case of three dimensions, important in string theory, allows us to introduce the notion of gerbes. These offer an appropriate language for describing many significant features of the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow approach to mirror symmetry.
In this note we use the Calabi ansatz, in the context of metrics with conical singularities along a divisor, to produce regular Calabi-Yau cones and Kähler-Einstein metrics of negative Ricci with a cuspidal point. As an application, we describe singularities and cuspidal ends of the completions of the complex hyperbolic metrics on the moduli spaces of ordered configurations of points in the projective line introduced by Thurston and Deligne-Mostow.
Given a coassociative 4-fold N with a conical singularity in a varphi-closed 7-manifold M (a manifold endowed with a distinguished closed 3-form varphi), we construct a smooth family, {N'(t): t\in(0,tau)} for some tau>0, of (smooth, nonsingular,) compact coassociative 4-folds in M which converge to N in the sense of currents, in geometric measure theory, as t tends to 0. This realisation of desingularizations of N is achieved by gluing in an asymptotically conical coassociative 4-fold in R^7, dilated by t, then deforming the resulting compact submanifold of M to the required coassociative 4-fo…
We study the problem of desingularizing coassociative conical singularities via gluing, allowing for topological and analytic obstructions, and discuss applications. This extends the author's earlier work on the unobstructed case. We interpret the analytic obstructions geometrically via the obstruction theory for deformations of conically singular coassociative 4-folds, and thus relate them to the stability of the singularities. We use our results to describe the relationship between moduli spaces of coassociative 4-folds with conical singularities and those of their desingularizations. We als…
The Hurwitz space is the moduli space of pairs $(X,f)$ where $X$ is a compact Riemann surface and $f$ is a meromorphic function on $X$. We study the Laplace operator $Δ^{|df|^2}$ of the flat singular Riemannian manifold $(X,|df|^2)$. We define a regularized determinant for $Δ^{|df|^2}$ and study it as a functional on the Hurwitz space. We prove that this functional is related to a system of PDE which admits explicit integration. This leads to an explicit expression for the determinant of the Laplace operator in terms of the basic objects on the underlying Riemann surface (the prime form, theta…
We prove a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for (finite coverings of) moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces endowed with the McMullen metric. The proof uses properties of an exhaustion of moduli spaces by compact submanifolds with corners and the Gauss-Bonnet formula of Allendoerfer and Weil for Riemannian polyhedra.
We show that the real-valued function $S_α$ on the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ of pointed rational curves, defined as the critical value of the Liouville action functional on a hyperbolic 2-sphere with $n\geq 3$ conical singularities of arbitrary orders $α=\{α_1,...,α_n\}$, generates accessory parameters of the associated Fuchsian differential equation as their common antiderivative. We introduce a family of Kaehler metrics on $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ parameterized by the set of orders $α$, explictly relate accessory parameters to these metrics, and prove that the functions $S_α$ are their Kae…
McLean proved that the moduli space of coassociative deformations of a compact coassociative 4-submanifold C in a G_2-manifold (M,phi,g) is a smooth manifold of dimension equal to b^2_+(C). In this paper, we show that the moduli space of coassociative deformations of a noncompact, asymptotically cylindrical coassociative 4-fold C in an asymptotically cylindrical G_2-manifold (M,phi,g) is also a smooth manifold. Its dimension is the dimension of the positive subspace of the image of H^2_cs(C,R) in H^2(C,R).
Lagrangian submanifolds in strict nearly Kähler 6-manifolds are related to special Lagrangian submanifolds in Calabi-Yau 6-manifolds and coassociative cones in $G_2$-manifolds. We prove that the mean curvature of a Lagrangian submanifold $L$ in a nearly Kähler manifold $(M^{2n}, J, g)$ is symplectically dual to the Maslov 1-form on $L$. Using relative calibrations, we derive a formula for the second variation of the volume of a Lagrangian submanifold $L^3$ in a strict nearly Kähler manifold $(M^6, J, g)$. This formula implies, in particular, that any formal infinitesimal Lagrangian deformation…
In an earlier paper, we proved that, under certain hypotheses, the moduli space of an asymptotically cylindrical special Lagrangian submanifold with fixed boundary of an asymptotically cylindrical Calabi-Yau 3-fold is a smooth manifold. Here we prove the analogous result for an asymptotically cylindrical special Lagrangian submanifold with moving boundary.
Let M be an 8-manifold with a Spin(7)-structure. We first show that closed Cayley submanifolds of M form a smooth moduli space for a generic Spin(7)-structure. Then we study the deformations of a compact, connected Cayley submanifold X of M with non-empty boundary contained in a given submanifold W of M such that X and W meet orthogonally. We show that they are rigid for a generic Spin(7)-structure. We further show that they are also rigid for a generic deformation of W.
In this paper two Poisson structures on the moduli space of hyperbolic surfaces with conical points are compared: the Weil-Petersson one and the ηcoming from the representation variety. We show that they are multiple of each other, if the angles do not exceed 2π. Moreover, we exhibit an explicit formula for ηin terms of hyperbolic lengths of a suitable system of arcs.
This is the extended version of the paper "Special Lagrangian conifolds, I: Moduli spaces", which discusses the deformation theory of special Lagrangian (SL) conifolds in complex space C^m. Conifolds are a key ingredient in the compactification problem for moduli spaces of compact SLs in Calabi-Yau manifolds. The conifold category allows for the simultaneous presence of conical singularities and of non-compact, asymptotically conical, ends. Our main theorem is the natural next step in the chain of results initiated by McLean and continued by the author and Joyce. We survey all these results, p…
In this paper, we study deformations of coisotropic submanifolds in a locally conformal symplectic manifold. Firstly, we derive the equation that governs $C^\infty$ deformations of coisotropic submanifolds and define the corresponding $C^\infty$-moduli space of coisotropic submanifolds modulo the Hamiltonian isotopies. Secondly, we prove that the formal deformation problem is governed by an $L_\infty$-structure which is a $\frak b$-deformation of strong homotopy Lie algebroids introduced in Oh and Park (2005) in the symplectic context. Then we study deformations of locally conformal symplectic…
We discuss the deformation theory of special Lagrangian (SL) conifolds in complex space C^m. Conifolds are a key ingredient in the compactification problem for moduli spaces of compact SLs in Calabi-Yau manifolds. This category allows for the simultaneous presence of conical singularities and of non-compact, asymptotically conical, ends. Our main theorem is the natural next step in the chain of results initiated by McLean and continued by the author and by Joyce. We emphasize a unifying framework for studying the various cases and discuss analogies and differences between them. This paper also…
We consider the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_ν$ of torsion-free, asymptotically conical (AC) Spin(7)-structures which are defined on the same manifold and asymptotic to the same Spin(7)-cone with decay rate $ν<0$. We show that $\mathcal{M}_ν$ is an orbifold if $ν$ is a generic rate in the non-$L^2$ regime $(-4,0)$. Infinitesimal deformations are given by topological data and solutions to a non-elliptic first-order PDE system on the compact link of the asymptotic cone. As an application, we show that the classical Bryant-Salamon metric on the bundle of positive spinors on $S^4$ has no continuous d…
We study the deformations of an asymptotically cylindrical Cayley submanifold inside an asymptotically cylindrical Spin(7)-manifold. We prove an index formula for the operator of Dirac type that arises as the linearisation of the deformation map and show that if the Spin(7)-structure is generic, then there are no obstructions, and hence the moduli space is a smooth finite-dimensional manifold whose dimension is equal to the index of the operator of Dirac type. We further construct examples of asymptotically cylindrical Cayley submanifolds inside the asymptotically cylindrical Riemannian 8-mani…
R.C.McLean showed that the moduli space of nearby submanifolds of a smooth, compact, orientable special Lagrangian submanifold L in a Calabi-Yau manifold X is a smooth manifold and its tangent space at L is identified with the space of harmonic one forms on L. In this paper, we will extend this result from Calabi-Yau manifolds to the symplectic manifolds with non-integrable almost complex structure.
A general theorem on the existence of natural torsion-free affine connections on a complete family of compact complex submanifolds in a complex manifold is proved. Applications to twistor theory are discussed.
In this paper, we are interested in flat metric structures with conical singularities on surfaces which are obtained by deforming translation surface structures. The moduli space of such flat metric structures can be viewed as some deformation of the moduli space of translation surfaces. Using geodesic triangulations, we define a volume form on this moduli space, and show that, in the well-known cases, this volume form agrees with usual ones, up to a multiplicative constant.
We give a complete description of the behaviour of Calabi-Yau instantons and monopoles with an $SU(2)^2$-symmetry, on Calabi-Yau 3-folds with asymptotically conical geometry and $SU(2)^2$ acting with co-homogeneity one. We consider gauge theory on the smoothing and the small resolution of the conifold, and on the canonical bundle of $\mathbb{CP}^1 \times \mathbb{CP}^1$, with their known asymptotically conical co-homogeneity one Calabi-Yau metrics, and find new one-parameter families of invariant instantons. We also entirely classify the relevant moduli-spaces of instantons and monopoles satisf…
