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.
We investigate the twistor space and the Grassmannian fibre bundle of a Lorentzian 4-space with natural almost optical structures and its induced CR-structures. The twistor spaces of the Lorentzian space forms $\R^4_1, \Di{S}^4_1$ and $\Di{H}^4_1$ are explicitly discussed. The given twistor construction is applied to surface theory in Lorentzian 4-spaces. Immersed spacelike surfaces in a Lorentzian 4-space with special geometric properties like semi-umbilic surfaces and surfaces that have mean curvature of vanishing lengths correspond to holomorphic curves in the Lorentzian twistor space. For …
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.
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.
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.
In this paper, following the constructions of N. R. O'Brian, J. H. Rawnsley and I. Vaisman, we define four almost Hermitian structures (up to conjugation) on the twistor space of a Hermitian surface by using canonical connections, including the Lichnerowicz connection and the Chern connection. We also study the relations between the natural geometry of the twistor spaces and the geometry of Hermitian surfaces.
We introduce in this paper normal twistor equations for differential forms and study their solutions, the so-called normal conformal Killing forms. The twistor equations arise naturally from the canonical normal Cartan connection of conformal geometry. Reductions of its holonomy are related to solutions of the normal twistor equations. The case of decomposable normal conformal holonomy representations is discussed. A typical example with an irreducible holonomy representation are the so-called Fefferman spaces. We also apply our results to describe the geometry of solutions with conformal Kill…
Motivated by generalized geometry (à la Hitchin), we discuss the integrability conditions for four natural almost complex structures on the product bundle ${\mathcal Z}\times {\mathcal Z}\to M$, where ${\mathcal Z}$ is the twistor space of a Riemannian 4-manifold $M$ endowed with a metric connection $D$ with skew-symmetric torsion. These structures are defined by means of the connection $D$ and four (Kähler) complex structures on the fibres of this bundle. Their integrability conditions are interpreted in terms of Weyl geometry and this is used to supply examples satisfying the conditions.
In this paper, we characterize Riemannian 4-manifold in terms of its almost Hermitian twistor spaces $(Z,g_t,\mathbb{J}_{\pm})$. Some special metric conditions (including Balanced metric condition, first Gauduchon metric condition) on $(Z,g_t,\mathbb{J}_{\pm})$ are studied. For the first Chern form of a natural unitary connection on the vertical tangent bundle over the twistor space $Z$, we can recover J. Fine and D. Panov's result on the condition of the first Chern form being symplectic and P. Gauduchon's result on the condition of the first Chern form being a (1,1)-form respectively, by usi…
In this paper we introduce a discrete integrable system generalizing the discrete (real) cross-ratio system in $S^4$ to complex values of a generalized cross-ratio by considering $S^4$ as a real section of the complex Plücker quadric, realized as the space of two-spheres in $S^4.$ We develop the geometry of the Plücker quadric by examining the novel contact properties of two-spheres in $S^4,$ generalizing classical Lie geometry in $S^3.$ Discrete differential geometry aims to develop discrete equivalents of the geometric notions and methods of classical differential geometry. We define discret…
In this paper we review some results on the Riemannian and almost Hermitian geometry of twistor spaces of oriented Riemannian $4$-manifolds with emphasis on their curvature properties.
In this note, we prove that the CR manifold which is induced from the canonical parabolic geometry of a quaternionic contact (qc) manifold via a Fefferman-type construction is equivalent to the CR twistor space of the qc manifold defined by O. Biquard.
In this paper, we construct tools from the holomorphic twistor spaces that we introduced in \cite{Gindi1} to derive results about the complex geometries of their base manifolds. In particular, we develop a new approach to studying generalized Kahler manifolds that leads to insights into their real and holomorphic Poisson structures.
We continue to study twistor spaces on the connected sum of four complex projective planes, whose anticanonical map is of degree two over the image. In particular, we determine the defining equation of the branch divisor of the anticanonical map in an explicit form. Together with previous two articles (arXiv:1009.3153 and arXiv:0705.0060), this completes explicit description of all such twistor spaces.
It is shown that there exists a twistor space on the $n$-fold connected sum of complex projective planes $n\mathbb{CP}^2$, whose algebraic dimension is one and whose general fiber of the algebraic reduction is birational to an elliptic ruled surface or a K3 surface. The former kind of twistor spaces are constructed over $n\mathbb{CP}^2$ for any $n\ge 5$, while the latter kind of example is constructed over $5\mathbb{CP}^2$. Both of these seem to be the first such example on $n\mathbb{CP}^2$. The algebraic reduction in these examples is induced by the anti-canonical system of the twistor spaces…
We review three examples of functors from Lorentzian categories and their applications in finiteness results, singularity theorems and boundary constructions. The third example is a novel functor from the category of ordered measure spaces to the category of Lorentzian pre-length spaces in the sense of Kunzinger-Sämann.
We deal here with the geometry of the twistor fibration $\mathcal{Z} \to \bb{S}^3_1$ over the De Sitter 3-space. The total space $\mathcal{Z}$ is a five dimensional reductive homogeneous space with two canonical invariant almost CR structures. Fixed the normal metric on $\mathcal{Z}$ we study the harmonic map equation for smooth maps of Riemann surfaces into $\mathcal{Z}$. A characterization of spacelike surfaces with harmonic twistor lifts to $\mathcal{Z}$ is obtained. It is also shown that the harmonic map equation for twistor lifts can be formulated as the curvature vanishing of an $\bb{S}^…
We consider examples of the $\mathbb H$-type groups with the natural horizontal distribution generated by the commutation relations of the group. In the contrast with the previous studies we furnish the horizontal distribution with the Lorentzian metric, which is nondegenerate metric of index 1 instead of a positive definite quadratic form. The causal character is defined. We study the reachable set by timelike future directed curves. The parametric equations of geodesics are obtained.
For a symplectic manifold admitting a metaplectic structure (a symplectic analogue of the Riemannian spin structure), we construct a sequence consisting of differential operators using a symplectic torsion-free affine connection. All but one of these operators are of first order. The first order ones are symplectic analogues of the twistor operators known from Riemannian spin geometry. We prove that under the condition the symplectic Weyl curvature tensor field of the symplectic connection vanishes, the mentioned sequence forms a complex. This gives rise to a new complex for the so called Ricc…
The purpose of this article is to review some recent results on the geometry of neutral signature metrics in dimension four and their twistor spaces. The following topics are considered: Neutral Kähler and hyperkähler surfaces, Walker metrics, Neutral anti-self-dual 4-manifolds and projective structures, Twistor spaces of neutral metrics.
In this paper we prove Hessian and Laplacian comparison theorems for the Lorentzian distance function in a spacetime with sectional (or Ricci) curvature bounded by a certain function by means of a comparison criterion for Riccati equations. Using these results, under suitable conditions, we are able to obtain some estimates on the higher order mean curvatures of spacelike hypersurfaces satisfying a Omori-Yau maximum principle for certain elliptic operators.
We give an overview on the tt*-geometry defined for isolated hypersurface singularities and tame functions via Brieskorn lattices. We discuss nilpotent orbits in this context, as well as classifying spaces of Brieskorn lattices and (limits of) period maps.
We study real lines on certain Moishezon threefolds which are potentially twistor spaces of 3CP^2. Here, line means a smooth rational curve whose normal bundle is O(1)^2 and the reality implies the invariance under an anti-holomorphic involution on the threefolds. Our threefolds are birational to double coverings of CP^3 branched along singular quartic surfaces. On these threefolds we find families of real lines in explicit form and prove that which families have to be chosen as twistor lines depend on how we take small resolutions of the double covering. This is a first step for determining t…
We develop a non-relativistic twistor theory, in which Newton--Cartan structures of Newtonian gravity correspond to complex three-manifolds with a four-parameter family of rational curves with normal bundle ${\mathcal O}\oplus{\mathcal O}(2)$. We show that the Newton--Cartan space-times are unstable under the general Kodaira deformation of the twistor complex structure. The Newton--Cartan connections can nevertheless be reconstructed from Merkulov's generalisation of the Kodaira map augmented by a choice of a holomorphic line bundle over the twistor space trivial on twistor lines. The Coriolis…
In the present paper we introduce the class of slice-polynomial functions: slice regular functions {defined over the quaternions, outside the real axis,} whose restriction to any complex half-plane is a polynomial. These functions naturally emerge in the twistor interpretation of slice regularity introduced in \cite{gensalsto} and developed in \cite{AAtwistor}. To any slice-polynomial function $P$ we associate its {\em companion} $P^\vee$ and its {\em extension} to the real axis $P_\mathbb{R}$, that are quaternionic functions naturally related to $P$. Then, using the theory of twistor spaces, …
We study the geometry and the periodic geodesics of a compact Lorentzian manifold that has a Killing vector field which is timelike somewhere. Using a compactness argument for subgroups of the isometry group, we prove the existence of one timelike non self-intersecting periodic geodesic. If the Killing vector field is never vanishing, then there are at least two distinct periodic geodesics; as a special case, compact stationary manifolds have at least two periodic timelike geodesics. We also discuss some properties of the topology of such manifolds. In particular, we show that a compact manifo…
BGG-equations are geometric overdetermined systems of PDEs on parabolic geometries. Normal solutions of BGG-equations are particularly interesting and we give a simple formula for the necessary and sufficient additional integrability conditions on a solution. We then discuss a procedure for coupling known solutions of BGG-equations to produce new ones. Employing a suitable calculus for conformal spin structures this yields explicit coupling formulas and conditions between almost Einstein scales, conformal Killing forms and twistor spinors. Finally we discuss a class of generic twistor spinors …
We introduce the symplectic twistor operator $T_s$ in symplectic spin geometry, as a symplectic analogue of the twistor operator in Riemannian spin geometry. We focus on the real dimension 2 and compute the space of its solutions on ${\mathbb R}^2$. Our analysis is based on the techniques of metaplectic Howe duality.
The twistor space of the sphere S^{2n} is an isotropic Grassmannian that fibers over S^{2n}. An orthogonal complex structure on a subdomain of S^{2n} (a complex structure compatible with the round metric) determines a section of this fibration with holomorphic image. In this paper, we use this correspondence to prove that any finite energy orthogonal complex structure on R^6 must be of a special warped product form, and we also prove that any orthogonal complex structure on R^{2n} that is asymptotically constant must itself be constant. We will also give examples defined on R^{2n} which have i…
Using the twistor correspondence, we give a classification of toric anti-self-dual Einstein metrics: each such metric is essentially determined by an odd holomorphic function. This explains how the Einstein metrics fit into the classification of general toric anti-self-dual metrics given in an earlier paper (math.DG/0602423). The results complement the work of Calderbank-Pedersen (math.DG/0105263), who describe where the Einstein metrics appear amongst the Joyce spaces, leading to a different classification. Taking the twistor transform of our result gives a new proof of their theorem.
There are three types of hypersurfaces in a pseudoconformal space C^n_1 of Lorentzian signature: spacelike, timelike, and lightlike. These three types of hypersurfaces are considered in parallel. Spacelike hypersurfaces are endowed with a proper conformal structure, and timelike hypersurfaces are endowed with a conformal structure of Lorentzian type. Geometry of these two types of hypersurfaces can be studied in a manner that is similar to that for hypersurfaces of a proper conformal space. Lightlike hypersurfaces are endowed with a degenerate conformal structure. This is the reason that their…
It is commonly known that in Riemannian and sub-Riemannian Geometry, the metric tensor on a manifold defines a distance function. In Lorentzian Geometry, instead of a distance function it provides causal relations and the Lorentzian time-separation function. Both lead to the definition of the Alexandrov topology, which is linked to the property of strong causality of a space-time. We studied three possible ways to define the Alexandrov topology on sub-Lorentzian manifolds, which usually give different topologies, but agree in the Lorentzian case. We investigated their relationships to each oth…
We show that many Lorentzian manifolds of dimension >2 do not admit a spacelike codimension-one foliation, and that almost every manifold of dimension >2 which admits a Lorentzian metric at all admits one which satisfies the dominant energy condition and the timelike convergence condition. These two seemingly unrelated statements have in fact the same origin. We also discuss the problem of topology change in General Relativity. A theorem of Tipler says that topology change is impossible via a spacetime cobordism whose Ricci curvature satisfies the strict lightlike convergence condition. In his…
Based on the work of Adams and Stuck as well as on the work of Zeghib, we classify the Lie groups which can act isometrically and locally effectively on Lorentzian manifolds of finite volume. In the case that the corresponding Lie algebra contains a direct summand isomorphic to the two-dimensional special linear algebra or to a twisted Heisenberg algebra, we also describe the geometric structure of the manifolds if they are compact. Using these results, we investigate the local geometry of compact homogeneous Lorentz spaces whose isometry groups have non-compact connected components. It turns …
In this note, we construct new examples of Lorentzian Sasaki-Einstein (LSE) metrics on Smale manifolds $M.$ It has already been established in \cite{Gmz2} that such metrics exist on the so-called torsion free Smale manifolds, i.e. the $k$-fold connected sum of $S^{2}\times S^{3}.$ Now, we show that LSE metrics exist on Smale manifolds for which $H_{2}(M,\mathbb{Z})_{tor}$ is nontrivial. In particular, we show that most simply-connected positive Sasakian rational homology 5-spheres are also negative Sasakian (hence Lorentzian Sasaki-Einstein). Moreover, we show that for each pair of positive in…
We study the Penrose transform for the `quaternionic objects' whose twistor spaces are complex manifolds endowed with locally complete families of embedded Riemann spheres with positive normal bundles.
A study is made of algebraic curves and surfaces in the flag manifold $\mathbb{F}=SU(3)/T^2$, and their configuration relative to the twistor projection $π$ from $\mathbb{F}$ to the complex projective plane $\mathbb{CP}^2$, defined with the help of an anti-holomorphic involution $j$. This is motivated by analogous studies of algebraic surfaces of low degree in the twistor space $\mathbb{CP}^3$ of $S^4$. Deformations of twistor fibres project to real surfaces in $\mathbb{CP}^2$, whose metric geometry is investigated. Attention is then focussed on toric Del Pezzo surfaces that are the simplest t…
The twistor space of a Riemannian 4-manifold carries two almost complex structures, $J_+$ and $J_-$, and a natural closed 2-form $ω$. This article studies limits of manifolds for which $ω$ tames either $J_+$ or $J_-$. This amounts to a curvature inequality involving self-dual Weyl curvature and Ricci curvature, and which is satisfied, for example, by all anti-self-dual Einstein manifolds with non-zero scalar curvature. We prove that if a sequence of manifolds satisfying the curvature inequality converges to a hyperkähler limit X (in the $C^2$ pointed topology) then X cannot contain a holomorph…
For a semisimple Lie group $G$ with parabolic subgroups $Q\subset P\subset G$, we associate to a parabolic geometry of type $(G,P)$ on a smooth manifold $N$ the correspondence space $\Cal CN$, which is the total space of a fiber bundle over $N$ with fiber a generalized flag manifold, and construct a canonical parabolic geometry of type $(G,Q)$ on $\Cal CN$. Conversely, for a parabolic geometry of type $(G,Q)$ on a smooth manifold $M$, we construct a distribution corresponding to $P$, and find the exact conditions for its integrability. If these conditions are satisfied, then we define the twis…
The fact that every compact oriented 4-manifold admits spin$^c$ structures was proved long ago by Hirzebruch and Hopf. However, the usual proof is neither direct nor transparent. This article gives a new proof using twistor spaces that is simpler and more geometric. After using these ideas to clarify various aspects of four-dimensional geometry, we then explain how related ideas can be used to understand both spin and spin$^c$ structures in any dimension.
We give a detailed account of the geometric correspondence between a smooth complex projective quadric hypersurface $\mathcal{Q}^n$ of dimension $n \geq 3$, and its twistor space $\mathbb{PT}$, defined to be the space of all linear subspaces of maximal dimension of $\mathcal{Q}^n$. Viewing complex Euclidean space $\mathbb{CE}^n$ as a dense open subset of $\mathcal{Q}^n$, we show how local foliations tangent to certain integrable holomorphic totally null distributions of maximal rank on $\mathbb{CE}^n$ can be constructed in terms of complex submanifolds of $\mathbb{PT}$. The construction is ill…
We study sub-Riemannian and sub-Lorentzian geometry on the Lie group $\SU(1,1)$ and on its universal cover $\CSU(1,1)$. In the sub-Riemannian case we find the distance function and completely describe sub-Riemannian geodesics on both $\SU(1,1)$ and $\CSU(1,1)$, connecting two fixed points. In particular, we prove that there is a strong connection between the conjugate loci and the number of geodesics. In the sub-Lorentzian case, we describe the geodesics connecting two points on $\CSU(1,1)$, and compare them with Lorentzian ones. It turns out that the reachable sets for Lorentzian and sub-Lore…
The aim of our article is the study of solution space of the symplectic twistor operator $T_s$ in symplectic spin geometry on standard symplectic space $({\mathbb R}^{2n},ω)$, which is the symplectic analogue of the twistor operator in (pseudo)Riemannian spin geometry. In particular, we observe a substantial difference between the case $n=1$ of real dimension 2 and the case of ${\mathbb R}^{2n}$, $n>1$. For $n>1$, the solution space of $T_s$ is isomorphic to the Segal-Shale-Weil representation.
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.
The Teukolsky equations are currently the leading approach for analysing stability of linear massless fields propagating in rotating black holes. It has recently been shown that the geometry of these equations can be understood in terms of a connection constructed from the conformal and complex structure of Petrov type D spaces. Since the study of linear massless fields by a combination of conformal, complex and spinor methods is a distinctive feature of twistor theory, and since versions of the twistor equation have recently been shown to appear in the Teukolsky equations, this raises the que…
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 search for a geometrical understanding of dualities in string theory, in particular T-duality, has led to the development of modern T-duality covariant frameworks such as Double Field Theory, whose mathematical structure can be understood in terms of generalized geometry and, more recently, para-Hermitian geometry. In this work we apply techniques associated to this doubled geometry to four-dimensional manifolds, and we show that they are particularly well-suited to the analysis of integrability in special spacetimes, especially in connection with Penrose's twistor theory and its applicati…
We use the manifestly conformally invariant description of a Lorentzian conformal structure in terms of a parabolic Cartan geometry in order to introduce a superalgebra structure on the space of twistor spinors and normal conformal vector fields formulated in purely algebraic terms on parallel sections in tractor bundles. Via a fixed metric in the conformal class, one reproduces a conformal superalgebra structure which has been considered in the literature before. The tractor approach, however, makes clear that the failure of this object to be a Lie superalgebra in certain cases is due to pure…
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…
We define a Lorentzian distance function on the group of contactomorphisms of a closed contact manifold. This distance function is continuous with respect to the Hofer norm on the group of contactomorphisms defined by Shelukhin and finite if and only if the group of contactomorphisms is orderable. To prove this we show that intervals defined by the positivity relation are open with respect to the topology induced by the Hofer norm. For orderable Legendrian isotopy classes we show that the Chekanov-type metric defined by Rosen and Zhang is non-degenerate. In this case similar results hold for a…
We show that conformally compact, globally hyperbolic, Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl 3-manifolds are in natural one-to-one correspondence with orientation-reversing diffeomorphisms of the 2-sphere. The proof hinges on a holomorphic-disk analog of Hitchin's mini-twistor correspondence.