We give a geometric derivation of Branson's Q-curvature in terms of the ambient metric associated with conformal structures; it naturally follows from the ambient metric construction of conformally invariant operators and can be applied to a large class of invariant operators. This procedure can be also applied to CR geometry and gives a CR analog of the Q-curvature; it then turns out that the Q-curvature gives the coefficient of the logarithmic singularity of the Szego kernel of 3-dimensional CR manifolds.
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.
In this paper we relate the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction for conformal manifolds to the approach to conformal geometry via the canonical Cartan connection. We show that from any ambient metric that satisfies a weakening of the usual normalisation condition, one can construct the conformal standard tractor bundle and the normal standard tractor connection, which are equivalent to the Cartan bundle and the Cartan connection. This result is applied to obtain a procedure to get tractor formulae for all conformal invariants that can be obtained from the ambient metric construction. …
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…
Given a generic 2-plane field on a 5-dimensional manifold we consider its (3,2)-signature conformal metric [g] as defined in math.DG/0406400. Every conformal class [g] obtained in this way has very special conformal holonomy: it must be contained in the split-real-form of the exceptional group G_2. In this note we show that for special 2-plane fields on 5-manifolds the conformal classes [g] have the Fefferman-Graham ambient metrics which, contrary to the general Fefferman-Graham metrics given as a formal power series, can be written in an explicit form. We propose to study the relations betwee…
This paper constructs a family of conformally invariant differential operators acting on spinor densities with leading part a power of the Dirac operator. The construction applies for all powers in odd dimensions, and only for finitely many powers in even dimensions. These operators arise naturally as obstructions to formal solution of the Dirac equation on the Fefferman-Graham ambient space with prescribed boundary conditions.
In this article, we summarize the results on symmetric conformal geometries. We review the results following from the general theory of symmetric parabolic geometries and prove several new results for symmetric conformal geometries. In particular, we show that each symmetric conformal geometry is either locally flat or covered by a pseudo-Riemannian symmetric space, where the covering is a conformal map. We construct examples of locally flat symmetric conformal geometries that are not pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces.
For a conformal manifold, we describe a new relation between the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman and Graham and the holonomy of the normal conformal Cartan connection. This relation allows us to prove several results on the vanishing and the rank of the obstruction tensor, for example for conformal structures admitting twistor spinors or normal conformal Killing forms. As our main tool we introduce the notion of a conformal holonomy distribution and show that its integrability is closely related to the exceptional conformal structures in dimensions five and six that were found by Nurow…
We use the general theory developed in our article arXiv:1208.5510 in the setting of parabolic geometries to reprove known results on special infinitesimal automorphisms of projective and conformal geometries.
In this paper, we consider the problem of building a conformal boundary, embedding a pseudo-Riamnnian manifold as an open subset of a bigger one. We get first results about conformal maximality. We also show that in dimension $\geq 3$, there are rigidity properties for the topological boundary of such a conformal embedding. We get results of the same kind about general Cartan geometries.
We present conformal structures in signature (3,2) for which the holonomy of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric is equal to the non-compact exceptional Lie group G_{2(2)}. We write down the resulting 8-parameter family of G_{2(2)}-metrics in dimension seven explicitly in an appropriately chosen coordinate system on the ambient space.
This paper provides details of the construction, properties and some applications of the ambient metric associated to a conformal class of metrics on a smooth manifold. Existence and uniqueness of formal expansions defining such metrics are considered. Equivalence with the expansions of associated Poincare metrics is established. Definitions and properties of conformal curvature tensors defined by ambient metrics together with formulation and proof of a jet isomorphism theorem with application to the characterization of scalar conformal invariants are given.
This is the second in a series of papers where we prove a conjecture of Deser and Schwimmer regarding the algebraic structure of ``global conformal invariants''; these are defined to be conformally invariant integrals of geometric scalars. The conjecture asserts that the integrand of any such integral can be expressed as a linear combination of a local conformal invariant, a divergence and of the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet integrand. The present paper addresses the hardest challenge in this series: It shows how to {\it separate} the local conformal invariant from the divergence term in the integrand; …
Jet isomorphism theorems for conformal geometry are discussed. A new proof of the jet isomorphism theorem for odd-dimensional conformal geometry is outlined, using an ambient realization of the conformal deformation complex. An infinite order ambient lift for conformal densities in the case in which harmonic extension is obstructed is described. A jet isomorphism theorem for even dimensional conformal geometry is formulated using the inhomogeneous ambient metrics recently introduced by the author and K. Hirachi.
We present three large classes of examples of conformal structures for which the equations for the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric to be Ricci-flat are linear PDEs, which we solve explicitly. These explicit solutions enable us to discuss the holonomy of the corresponding ambient metrics. Our examples include conformal pp-waves and, more importantly, conformal structures that are defined by generic rank 2 and 3 distributions in respective dimensions 5 and 6. The corresponding explicit Fefferman-Graham ambient metrics provide a large class of metrics with holonomy equal to the exceptional non-co…
An extension of the ambient metric construction of Fefferman-Graham to infinite order in even dimensions is described. The main ingredients are the introduction of "inhomogeneous ambient metrics" with asymptotic expansions involving the logarithm of a defining function homogeneous of degree 2, and an invariant procedure for taking the smooth part of such an inhomogeneous ambient metric. The metrics which result depend on the choice of an "ambiguity tensor" as well as a conformal class. An application to the description of scalar conformal invariants in even dimensions is outlined.
Lightlike Cartan geometries are introduced as Cartan geometries modelled on the future lightlike cone in Lorentz-Minkowski spacetime. Then, we provide an approach to the study of lightlike manifolds from this point of view. It is stated that every lightlike Cartan geometry on a manifold $N$ provides a lightlike metric $h$ with radical distribution globally spanned by a vector field $Z$. For lightlike hypersurfaces of a Lorentz manifold, we give the condition that characterizes when the pull-back of the Levi-Civita connection form of the ambient manifold is a lightlike Cartan connection on such…
Given an $n$-dimensional manifold $N$ with an affine connection $D$, we show that the associated Patterson-Walker metric $g$ on $T^*N$ admits a global and explicit Fefferman-Graham ambient metric. This provides a new and large class of conformal structures which are generically not conformally Einstein but for which the ambient metric exists to all orders and can be realized in a natural and explicit way. In particular, it follows that Patterson-Walker metrics have vanishing Fefferman-Graham obstruction tensors. As an application of the concrete ambient metric realization we show in addition t…
For G_2-manifolds the Fernández-Gray class X_1+X_4 is shown to consist of the union of the class X_4 of G_2-manifolds locally conformal to parallel G_2-structures and that of conformal transformations of nearly parallel or weak holonomy G_2-manifolds of type X_1. The analogous conclusion is obtained for Gray-Hervella class W_1+W_4 of real 6-dimensional almost Hermitian manifolds: this sort of geometry consists of locally conformally Kähler manifolds of class W_4 and conformal transformations of nearly Kähler manifolds in class W_1. A corollary of this is that a compact SU(3)-space in class W_1…
It is shown that the variational derivative of the integral of Branson's Q-curvature is the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman-Graham. A classification of irreducible conformally invariant tensors modulo quadratic and higher degree terms in curvature is established.
The conformal powers of the Laplacian of a Riemannian metric which are known as the GJMS-operators admit a combinatorial description in terms of the Taylor coefficients of a natural second-order one-parameter family $\H(r;g)$ of self-adjoint elliptic differential operators. $\H(r;g)$ is a non-Laplace-type perturbation of the conformal Laplacian $P_2(g) = \H(0;g)$. It is defined in terms of the metric $g$ and covariant derivatives of the curvature of $g$. We study the heat kernel coefficients $a_{2k}(r;g)$ of $\H(r;g)$ on closed manifolds. We prove general structural results for the heat kernel…
The (Fefferman-Graham) ambient obstruction tensor is a conformally invariant symmetric trace-free 2-tensor on even-dimensional Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. The conformal deformation complex is a differential complex related to infinitesimal deformations of conformal structure. We construct a conformally invariant differential operator on algebraic Weyl tensors that gives special curved analogues of certain operators related to the deformation complex and that, upon application to the Weyl curvature, yields the obstruction tensor. This new definition of the obstruction tensor lea…
We study first BGG operators and their solutions on homogeneous conformal geometries. We focus on conformal Killing tensors, conformal Killing--Yano forms and twistor spinors in particular. We develop an invariant calculus that allows us to find solutions explicitly using only algebraic computations. We also discuss applications to holonomy reductions and conserved quantities of conformal circles. We demonstrate our result on examples of homogeneous conformal geometries coming mostly from general relativity.
Complete complex parabolic geometries (including projective connections and conformal connections) are flat and homogeneous. This is the first global theorem on parabolic geometries.
The holonomy of the ambient metrics of Nurowski's conformal structures associated to generic real-analytic 2-plane fields on 5-manifolds is investigated. It is shown that the holonomy is always contained in the split real form G_2 of the exceptional Lie group, and is equal to G_2 for an open dense set of 2-plane fields given by explicit conditions. In particular, this gives an infinite-dimensional family of metrics of holonomy equal to split G_2. These results generalize work of Leistner-Nurowski. The inclusion of the holonomy in G_2 is established by proving an ambient extension theorem for p…
Conformal geodesics are distinguished curves on a conformal manifold, loosely analogous to geodesics of Riemannian geometry. One definition of them is as solutions to a third order differential equation determined by the conformal structure. There is an alternative description via the tractor calculus. In this article we give a third description using ideas from holography. A conformal $n$-manifold $X$ can be seen (formally at least) as the asymptotic boundary of a Poincaré--Einstein $(n+1)$-manifold $M$. We show that any curve $γ$ in $X$ has a uniquely determined extension to a surface $Σ_γ$ …
We prove that given a pseudo-Riemannian conformal structure whose conformal holonomy representation fixes a totally lightlike subspace of arbitrary dimension, there is, wrt. a local metric in the conformal class defined off a singular set, a parallel, totally lightlike distribution on the tangent bundle which contains the image of the Ricci-tensor. This generalizes results obtained for invariant lightlike lines and planes and closes a gap in the understanding of the geometric meaning of reducibly acting conformal holonomy groups. We show how this result naturally applies to the classification …
All parabolic geometries, i.e. Cartan geometries with homogeneous model a real generalized flag manifold, admit highly interesting classes of distinguished curves. The geodesics of a projective class of connections on a manifold, conformal circles on conformal Riemannian manifolds, and Chern--Moser chains on CR--manifolds of hypersurface type are typical examples. We show that such distinguished curves are always determined by a finite jet in one point, and study the properties of such jets. We also discuss the question when distinguished curves agree up to reparametrization and discuss the di…
We provide an explicit formula for the Fefferman-Graham-ambient metric of an $n$-dimensional conformal $pp$-wave in those cases where it exists. In even dimensions we calculate the obstruction explicitly. Furthermore, we describe all 4-dimensional $pp$-waves that are Bach-flat, and give a large class of Bach-flat examples which are conformally Cotton-flat, but not conformally Einstein. Finally, as an application, we use the obtained ambient metric to show that even-dimensional $pp$-waves have vanishing critical $Q$-curvature.
We define a class of two dimensional surfaces conformally related to minimal surfaces in flat three dimensional geometries. By the utility of the metrics of such surfaces we give a construction of the metrics of $2 N$ dimensional Ricci flat (pseudo-) Riemannian geometries.
Tractor Calculus is a powerful tool for analyzing Weyl invariance; although fundamentally linked to the Cartan connection, it may also be arrived at geometrically by viewing a conformal manifold as the space of null rays in a Lorentzian ambient space. For dimension d conformally flat manifolds we show that the (d+2)-dimensional Fefferman--Graham ambient space corresponds to the momentum space of a massless scalar field. Hence on the one hand the null cone parameterizes physical momentum excitations, while on the other hand, null rays correspond to points in the underlying conformal manifold. T…
We show that given a conformal structure whose holonomy representation fixes a totally lightlike subspace of arbitrary dimension, there is always a local metric in the conformal class off a singular set which is Ricci-isotropic and gives rise to a parallel, totally lightlike distribution on the tangent bundle. This naturally applies to parallel spin tractors resp. twistor spinors on conformal spin manifolds and clarifies which twistor spinors are locally equivalent to parallel spinors. Moreover, we study the zero set of a twistor spinor using the curved orbit decomposition for parabolic geomet…
We construct a family of canonical connections and surrounding basic theory for almost complex manifolds that are equipped with an affine connection. This framework provides a uniform approach to treating a range of geometries. In particular we are able to construct an invariant and efficient calculus for conformal almost Hermitian geometries, and also for almost complex structures that are equipped with a projective structure. In the latter case we find a projectively invariant tensor the vanishing of which is necessary and sufficient for the existence of an almost complex connection compatib…
This is a survey on the global theory of constant mean curvature surfaces in Riemannian homogeneous 3-manifolds. These ambient 3-manifolds include the eight canonical Thurston 3-dimensional geometries, i.e. R3, H3, S3, H2 \times R, S2 \times R, the Heisenberg space Nil3, the universal cover of PSL2(R) and the Lie group Sol3. We will focus on the problems of classifying compact CMC surfaces and entire CMC graphs in these spaces. A collection of important open problems of the theory is also presented.
We treat the problem of defining, and characterising in a practical way, an appropriate class of distinguished curves for Poincaré-Einstein manifolds, and other conformally singular geometries. These "generalised geodesics" agree with geodesics away from the conformal singularity set and are shown to satisfy natural "boundary conditions" at points where they meet or cross the metric singularity set. We also characterise when they coincide with conformal circles. In the case of (Poincaré-)Einstein manifolds, we are able to provide a very general theory of first integrals for these distinguished…
We answer to the question whether a system of the 3rd order ODEs describes geodesics of a conformal structure. We construct a functor from a category of conformal geometries to a category of Cartan geometries associated to the 3rd order ODEs systems. Explicit formulas which define the family of all equations on conformal geodesics are given in the last section of the article.
The conformal Codazzi structure is an intrinsic geometric structure on strictly convex hypersufaces in a locally flat projective manifold. We construct the GJMS operators and the Q-curvature for conformal Codazzi structures by using the ambient metric. We relate the total Q-curvature to the logarithmic coefficient in the volume expansion of the Blaschke metric, and derive the first and second variation formulas for a deformation of strictly convex domains.
It was proved by Graham and Witten in 1999 that conformal invariants of submanifolds can be obtained via volume renormalization of minimal surfaces in conformally compact Einstein manifolds. The conformal invariant of a submanifold $Σ$ is contained in the volume expansion of the minimal surface which is asymptotic to $Σ$ when the minimal surface approaches the conformaly infinity. In the paper we give the explicit expression of Graham-Witten's conformal invariant for closed four dimensional submanifolds and find critical points of the conformal invariant in the case of Euclidean ambient spaces…
We provide five examples of conformal geometries which are naturally associated with ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The first example describes a one-to-one correspondence between the Wuenschmann class of 3rd order ODEs considered modulo contact transformations of variables and (local) 3-dimensional conformal Lorentzian geometries. The second example shows that every point equivalent class of 3rd order ODEs satisfying the Wuenschmann and the Cartan conditions define a 3-dimensional Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl geometry. The third example associates to each point equivalence class of 3rd o…
Given any two Einstein (pseudo-)metrics, with scalar curvatures suitably related, we give an explicit construction of a Poincaré-Einstein (pseudo-)metric with conformal infinity the conformal class of the product of the initial metrics. We show that these metrics are equivalent to ambient metrics for the given conformal structure. The ambient metrics have holonomy that agrees with the conformal holonomy. In the generic case the ambient metric arises directly as a product of the metric cones over the original Einstein spaces. In general the conformal infinity of the Poincare metrics we construc…
We present a geometric construction and characterization of $2n$-dimensional split-signature conformal structures endowed with a twistor spinor with integrable kernel. The construction is regarded as a modification of the conformal Patterson--Walker metric construction for $n$-dimensional projective manifolds. The characterization is presented in terms of the twistor spinor and an integrability condition on the conformal Weyl curvature. We further derive complete description of Einstein metrics and infinitesimal conformal symmetries in terms of suitable projective data. Finally, we obtain an e…
Motivated by the rich geometry of conformal Riemannian manifolds and by the recent development of geometries modeled on homogeneous spaces $G/P$ with $G$ semisimple and $P$ parabolic, Weyl structures and preferred connections are introduced in this general framework. In particular, we extend the notions of scales, closed and exact Weyl connections, and Rho--tensors, we characterize the classes of such objects, and we use the results to give a new description of the Cartan bundles and connections for all parabolic geometries.
We describe invariant principal and Cartan connections on homogeneous principal bundles and show how to calculate the curvature and the holonomy; in the case of an invariant Cartan connection we give a formula for the infinitesimal automorphisms. The main result of this paper is that the above calculations are purely algorithmic. As an example of an homogeneous parabolic geometry we treat a conformal structure on the product of two spheres.
We introduce the notion of formally self-adjoint conformally covariant polydifferential operators and give some constructions of families of such operators. In one direction, we show that any homogeneous conformally variational scalar Riemannian invariant (CVI) induces one of these operators. In another direction, we use the ambient metric to give alternative constructions of certain operators produced this way, one of which is a formally self-adjoint, fourth-order, conformally covariant tridifferential operator which should be regarded as the simplest fully nonlinear analogue of the Paneitz o…
We describe an elementary algorithm for expressing, as explicit formulae in tractor calculus, the conformally invariant GJMS operators due to C.R. Graham et alia. These differential operators have leading part a power of the Laplacian. Conformal tractor calculus is the natural induced bundle calculus associated to the conformal Cartan connection. Applications discussed include standard formulae for these operators in terms of the Levi-Civita connection and its curvature and a direct definition and formula for T. Branson's so-called Q-curvature (which integrates to a global conformal invariant)…
We exploit the spinor description of four-dimensional Walker geometry, and conformal rescalings of such, to describe the local geometry of four-dimensional neutral geometries with algebraically degenerate self-dual Weyl curvature and an integrable distribution of alpha-planes (algebraically special real alpha-geometry). In particular, we determine the behaviour of (four-dimensional neutral) Walker geometry under conformal rescalings and provide a derivation of the hyperheavenly equation from conformal rescaling formulae.
We derive formulas for the mean curvature of associative 3-folds, coassociative 4-folds, and Cayley 4-folds in the general case where the ambient space has intrinsic torsion. Consequently, we are able to characterize those G2-structures (resp., Spin(7)-structures) for which every associative 3-fold (resp. coassociative 4-fold, Cayley 4-fold) is a minimal submanifold. In the process, we obtain new obstructions to the local existence of coassociative 4-folds in G2-structures with torsion.
We construct new families of conformally invariant differential operators acting on densities. We introduce a simple, direct approach which shows that all such operators arise via this construction when the degree is bounded by the dimension. The method relies on a study of well-known transformation laws and on Weyl's theory regarding identities holding ``formally'' vs. ``by substitution''. We also illustrate how this new method can strengthen existing results in the parabolic invariant theory for conformal geometries.
In his 1910 "Five Variables" paper, Cartan solved the equivalence problem for the geometry of $(2, 3, 5)$ distributions and in doing so demonstrated an intimate link between this geometry and the exceptional simple Lie groups of type $\textrm{G}_2$. He claimed to produce a local classification of all such (complex) distributions which have infinitesimal symmetry algebra of dimension at least $6$ (and which satisfy a natural uniformity condition), but in 2013 Doubrov and Govorov showed that this classification misses a particular distribution $\bf E$. We produce a closed form for the Fefferman-…
A recent paper [CGT] studies the evolution of star-shaped mean convex hypersurfaces of the Euclidean space by a class of nonhomogeneous expanding curvature flows. In the present paper we consider the same problem in the real, complex and quaternionic hyperbolic spaces, investigating how the richer geometry of the ambient space affects the evolution. In every case the initial conditions are preserved and the long time existence of the flow is proven. The geometry of the ambient space influences the asymptotic behaviour of the flow: after a suitable rescaling the induced metric converges to a co…
New universal invariant operators are introduced in a class of geometries which include the quaternionic structures and their generalisations as well as 4-dimensional conformal (spin) geometries. It is shown that, in a broad sense, all invariants and invariant operators arise from these universal operators and that they may be used to reduce all invariants problems to corresponding algebraic problems involving homomorphisms between modules of certain parabolic subgroups of Lie groups. Explicit application of the operators is illustrated by the construction of all non-standard operators between…
A nonstandard invariant fourth order operator acting on functions on a manifold equipped with an almost Grassmannian structure with an arbitrary trorsion is found by means of the curved translation principle. This operator can be viewed as a Grassmannian analogue of the Paneitz operator well known from conformal geometry. It is obtained by translating a Grassmannian analogue of the Laplace operator to a certain tractor bundle with a specific tractor connection, which is not normal in general.
We discuss contact invariant structures on the space of solutions of a third-order ordinary differential equation. Associated to any third-order differential equation modulo contact transformations, Chern introduced a degenerate conformal Lorentzian metric on the space of 2-jets of functions of one variable. When the Wuenschmann invariant vanishes, the degenerate metric descends to a proper conformal Lorentzian metric on the space of solutions. In the general case, when the Wuenschmann invariant is not zero, we define the notion of a causal geometry, and show that the space of solutions suppor…
