A left invariant metric on a nilpotent Lie group is called minimal, if it minimizes the norm of the Ricci tensor among all left invariant metrics with the same scalar curvature. Such metrics are unique up to isometry and scaling and the groups admitting a minimal metric are precisely the nilradicals of (standard) Einstein solvmanifolds. If $N$ is endowed with an invariant symplectic, complex or hypercomplex structure, then minimal compatible metrics are also unique up to isometry and scaling. The aim of this paper is to give more evidence of the existence of minimal metrics, by presenting several explicit examples. This also provides many continuous families of symplectic, complex and hypercomplex nilpotent Lie groups. A list of all known examples of Einstein solvmanifolds is also given.
We obtain an example of a compact locally conformal symplectic nilmanifold which admits no locally conformal Kähler metrics. This gives a new positive answer to a question raised by L. Ornea and M. Verbitsky.
The aim of this paper is to study self-similar solutions to the symplectic cuvature flow on 6-dimensional nilmanifolds. For this purpose, we focus our attention in the family of symplectic Two- and Three-step nilpotent Lie algebras admitting a "minimal compatible metric" and we give a complete classification of these algebras together with their respective metric. Such classification is given by using our generalization of Nikolayevsky's nice basis criterium (arXiv:1301.4949), which will be repeated here in the context of canonical compatible metrics for geometric structures on nilmanifolds, f…
We construct metrics of positive Ricci curvature on some vector bundles over tori (or more generally, over nilmanifolds). This gives rise to the first examples of manifolds with positive Ricci curvature which are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic to manifolds of nonnegative sectional curvature.
On a complex manifold an Hermitian metric which is simultaneously SKT and balanced has to be necessarily Kähler. It has been conjectured that if a compact complex manifold (M,J) has an SKT metric and a balanced metric both compatible with J, then (M, J) is necessarily Kähler. We show that the conjecture is true for nilmanifolds.
Let (N,g) be a nilpotent Lie group endowed with an invariant geometric structure (cf. symplectic, complex, hypercomplex or any of their `almost' versions). We define a left invariant Riemannian metric on N compatible with g to be minimal, if it minimizes the norm of the invariant part of the Ricci tensor among all compatible metrics with the same scalar curvature. We prove that minimal metrics (if any) are unique up to isometry and scaling, they develop soliton solutions for the `invariant Ricci' flow and are characterized as the critical points of a natural variational problem. The uniqueness…
Let (N,J) be a real 2n-dimensional nilpotent Lie group endowed with an invariant complex structure. A left-invariant Riemannian metric on N compatible with J is said to be minimal, if it minimizes the norm of the invariant part of the Ricci tensor among all compatible metrics on (N,J) with the same scalar curvature. In this paper, we determine all complex structures that admit a minimal compatible metric on 6-dimensional nilpotent Lie groups.
We classify invariant complex structures on 6-dimensional nilmanifolds up to equivalence. As an application, the behaviour of the associated Frölicher sequence is studied as well as its relation to the existence of strongly Gauduchon metrics. We also show that the strongly Gauduchon property and the balanced property are not closed under holomorphic deformation.
We use Bott-Chern cohomology to measure the non-Kählerianity of 6-dimensional nilmanifolds endowed with the invariant complex structures in M. Ceballos, A. Otal, L. Ugarte, and R. Villacampa's classification, [Invariant Complex Structures on 6-Nilmanifolds: Classification, Frölicher Spectral Sequence and Special Hermitian Metrics, J. Geom. Anal. (2014)]. We investigate the existence of pluriclosed metric in connection with such a classification.
Take a riemanniann nilmanifold, lift its metric on its universal cover. In that way one obtains a metric invariant under the action of some co-compact subgroup. We use it to define metric balls and then study the spectrum of the laplacian for the dirichlet problem on them. We describe the asymptotic behaviour of the spectrum when the radius of these balls goes to infinity. Furthermore we show that the first macroscopic eigenvalue is bounded from above, by an uniform constant for the three dimensional heisenberg group, and by a constant depending on the Albanese's torus for the other nilmanifol…
We study the existence of invariant metrics with holonomy $G_{2(2)}^* \subset SO(4,3)$ on compact nilmanifolds, i.e. on compact quotients of nilpotent Lie groups by discrete subgroups. We prove that, up to isomorphism, there exists only one indecomposable nilpotent Lie algebra admitting a torsion-free $G_{2(2)}^*$-structure such that the center is definite with respect to the induced inner product. In particular, we show that the associated compact nilmanifold admits a 3-parameter family of invariant metrics with full holonomy $G_{2(2)}^*$.
A nilmanifold is a quotient of a nilpotent group $G$ by a co-compact discrete subgroup. A complex nilmanifold is one which is equipped with a $G$-invariant complex structure. We prove that a complex nilmanifold has trivial canonical bundle. This is used to study hypercomplex nilmanifolds (nilmanifolds with a triple of $G$-invariant complex structures which satisfy quaternionic relations). We prove that a hypercomplex nilmanifold admits an HKT (hyperkahler with torsion) metric if and only if the underlying hypercomplex structure is abelian. Moreover, any $G$-invariant HKT-metric on a nilmanifol…
In this paper we study the geometry of simply connected two-step nilpotent Lie groups of dimension five. We give the Levi-Civita connection, curvature tensor, sectional and scalar curvatures of these spaces and show that they have constant negative scalar curvature. Also we show that the only space which admits left invariant Randers metric of Berwald type has three dimensional center. In this case the explicit formula for computing flag curvature is obtained and it is shown that flag curvature and sectional curvature have the same sign.
In this paper we study the geodesic flow on nilmanifolds equipped with a left-invariant metric. We write the underlying definitions and find general formulas for the Poisson involution. As an example we develop the Heisenberg Lie group equipped with its canonical metric. We prove that a family of first integrals giving the complete integrability can be read off at the Lie algebra of the isometry group. We also explain the complete integrability on compact quotients and for any invariant metric.
Let (J,g) be a Hermitian structure on a compact nilmanifold M with invariant complex structure J and compatible metric g, which is not required to be invariant. We give classifications of 6-dimensional nilmanifolds M admitting strong Kähler with torsion, balanced or locally conformal Kähler structures (J,g).
We find a one-parameter family of non-isomorphic nilpotent Lie algebras $\mathfrak{g}_a$, with $a \in [0,\infty)$, of real dimension eight with (strongly non-nilpotent) complex structures. By restricting $a$ to take rational values, we arrive at the existence of infinitely many real homotopy types of $8$-dimensional nilmanifolds admitting a complex structure. Moreover, balanced Hermitian metrics and generalized Gauduchon metrics on such nilmanifolds are constructed.
The aim of this article is to study the existence of invariant SKT structures on nilmanifolds. More precisely, we give a negative answer to the question of whether there exist a $k$-step ($k>2$) complex nilmanifold admitting an invariant SKT metric. We also provide a construction which serves as a tool to generate examples of invariant SKT structures on $2$-step nilmanifolds in arbitrary dimensions.
We construct a Laplace isospectral deformation of metrics on an orbifold quotient of a nilmanifold. Each orbifold in the deformation contains singular points with order two isotropy. Isospectrality is obtained by modifying a generalization of Sunada's Theorem due to DeTurck and Gordon.
We consider the Ricci flow for simply connected nilmanifolds, which translates to a Ricci flow on the space of nilpotent metric Lie algebras. We consider the evolution of the inner product and the evolution of structure constants, as well as the evolution of these quantities modulo rescaling. We set up systems of O.D.E.'s for some of these flows and describe their qualitative properties. We also present some explicit solutions for the evolution of soliton metrics under the Ricci flow.
Let $(X,J)$ be a nilmanifold with a left-invariant nilpotent complex structure. We study the existence of $p$-Kähler structures (which include Kähler and balanced metrics) on $X$. More precisely, we determine an optimal $p$ such that there are no $p$-Kähler structures on $X$. Finally, we show that, contrarily to the Kähler case, on compact complex manifolds there is no relation between the existence of balanced metrics and the degeneracy step of the Frölicher spectral sequence. More precisely, on balanced manifolds the degeneracy step can be arbitrarily large.
In this note, we analyze the question of when will a complex nilmanifold have Kähler-like Strominger (also known as Bismut), Chern, or Riemannian connection, in the sense that the curvature of the connection obeys all the symmetries of that of a Kähler metric. We give a classification in the first two cases and a partial description in the third case. It would be interesting to understand these questions for all Lie-Hermitian manifolds, namely, Lie groups equipped with a left invariant complex structure and a compatible left invariant metric.
We answer in the affirmative the question posed by Conti and Rossi on the existence of nilpotent Lie algebras of dimension 7 with an Einstein pseudo-metric of nonzero scalar curvature. Indeed, we construct a left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric $g$ of signature $(3, 4)$ on a nilpotent Lie group of dimension 7, such that $g$ is Einstein and not Ricci-flat. We show that the pseudo-metric $g$ cannot be induced by any left-invariant closed $G_2^*$-structure on the Lie group. Moreover, some results on closed and harmonic $G_2^*$-structures on an arbitrary 7-manifold $M$ are given. In particular,…
This is partly an expository paper, where the authors' work on pseudoriemannian Einstein metrics on nilpotent Lie groups is reviewed. A new criterion is given for the existence of a diagonal Einstein metric on a nice nilpotent Lie group. Classifications of special classes of Ricci-flat metrics on nilpotent Lie groups of dimension $\leq8$ are obtained. Some related open questions are presented.
We completely describe the signatures of the Ricci curvature of left-invariant Riemannian metrics on arbitrary real nilpotent Lie groups. The main idea in the proof is to exploit a link between the kernel of the Ricci endomorphism and closed orbits in a certain representation of the general linear group, which we prove using the `real GIT' framework for the Ricci curvature of nilmanifolds.
We study left-invariant symmetric Killing 2-tensors on 2-step nilpotent Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant Riemannian metric, and construct genuine examples, which are not linear combinations of parallel tensors and symmetric products of Killing vector fields.
Let $(N, J)$ be a simply connected $2n$-dimensional nilpotent Lie group endowed with an invariant complex structure. We define a left invariant Riemannian metric on $N$ compatible with $J$ to be minimal, if it minimizes the norm of the invariant part of the Ricci tensor among all compatible metrics with the same scalar curvature. In [L1], J. Lauret proved that minimal metrics (if any) are unique up to isometry and scaling. This uniqueness allows us to distinguish two complex structures with Riemannian data, giving rise to a great deal of invariants. We show how to use a Riemannian invariant: t…
In this note we observe that on a 2-step nilpotent Lie group equipped with a left-invariant SKT structure the (1,1)-part of the Bismut-Ricci form is seminegative definite. As application we give a simplified proof of the non-existence of invariant SKT static metrics on 2-step nilmanifolds and of the existence of a long time solution to the pluriclosed flow in 2-step nilmanifolds.
We classify non-nilpotent complex structures on 6-nilmanifolds and their associated invariant balanced metrics. As an application we find a large family of solutions of the heterotic supersymmetry equations with non-zero flux, non-flat instanton and constant dilaton satisfying the anomaly cancellation condition with respect to the Chern connection.
Let T be the nilpotent group of 4 x 4 real upper triangular matrices. In this note we show that the Euler equations of certain left-invariant riemannian metrics on T have a horseshoe. We also show, with the aid of a numerical computation of a Melnikov-type integral, that the Euler equations of the sub-riemannian Carnot metric on T has a horseshoe. This sharpens an earlier result of Montgomery, Shapiro and Stolin who had shown that the equations are algebraically non-integrable.
We continue the study of the distribution of closed geodesics on nilmanifolds constructed from a simply connected 2-step nilpotent Lie group with a left invariant metric and a lattice. We consider a Lie group with an associated 2-step nilpotent Lie algebra constructed from an irreducible representation of a compact semisimple Lie algebra on a real finite dimensional vector space. We determine sufficient conditions on the semisimple Lie algebra for the nilmanifold to have the density of closed geodesics property for a lattice arising from a Chevalley rational structure.
We study the interplay between the following types of special non-Kähler Hermitian metrics on compact complex manifolds: it locally conformally Kähler, $k$-Gauduchon, balanced and locally conformally balanced and prove that a locally conformally Kähler compact nilmanifold carrying a balanced or a $k$-Gauduchon metric is necessarily a torus. Combined with a result of Fino and Vezzoni from 2016, this leads to the fact that a compact complex 2-step nilmanifold endowed with whichever two of the following types of metrics: balanced, pluriclosed and locally conformally Kähler is a torus. Moreover, w…
The geodesic orbit property is useful and interesting in Riemannian geometry. It implies homogeneity and has important classes of Riemannian manifolds as special cases. Those classes include weakly symmetric Riemannian manifolds and naturally reductive Riemannian manifolds. The corresponding results for indefinite metric manifolds are much more delicate than in Riemannian signature, but in the last few years important corresponding structural results were proved for geodesic orbit Lorentz manifolds. Here we carry out a major step in the structural analysis of geodesic orbit Lorentz nilmanifold…
We consider magnetic flows on 2-step nilmanifolds $M = Γ\backslash G$, where the Riemannian metric $g$ and the magnetic field $σ$ are left-invariant. Our first result is that when $σ$ represents a rational cohomology class and its restriction to $\mathfrak{g} = T_eG$ vanishes on the derived algebra, then the associated magnetic flow has zero topological entropy. In particular, this is the case when $σ$ represents a rational cohomology class and is exact. Our second result is the construction of a magnetic field on a 2-step nilmanifold that has positive topological entropy for arbitrarily high …
We prove that the Ricci flow g(t) starting at any metric on the euclidean space that is invariant by a transitive nilpotent Lie group N, can be obtained by solving an ODE for a curve of nilpotent Lie brackets. By using that this ODE is the negative gradient flow of a homogeneous polynomial, we obtain that g(t) is type-III, and, up to pull-back by time-dependent diffeomorphisms, that g(t) converges to the flat metric, and the rescaling |R(g(t))|g(t) converges smoothly to a Ricci soliton, uniformly on compact sets. The Ricci soliton limit is also invariant by some transitive nilpotent Lie group,…
The aim of this work is the study of magnetic trajectories on nilmanifolds. The magnetic equation is written and the corresponding solutions are found for a family of invariant Lorentz forces on a 2-step nilpotent Lie group equipped with a left-invariant metric. Some examples are computed in the Heisenberg Lie groups $H_n$ for $n=3,5$, showing differences with the case of exact forms. Interesting magnetic trajectories related to elliptic integrals appear in $H_3$. The question of existence of closed or periodic magnetic trajectories for every energy level on Lie groups or on compact quotients …
In this work we introduce an obstruction for the existence of symplectic structures on nilpotent Lie algebras. Indeed, a necessary condition is presented in terms of the cohomology of the Lie algebra. Using this obstruction we obtain both positive and negative results on the existence of symplectic structures on a large family of nilpotent Lie algebras. Namely the family of nilradicals of minimal parabolic subalgebras associated to the real split Lie algebra of classical complex simple Lie algebras.
We study left-invariant Killing forms of arbitrary degree on simply connected $2-$step nilpotent Lie groups endowed with left-invariant Riemannian metrics, and classify them when the center of the group is at most two-dimensional.
This work deals with the structure of the isometry group of pseudo-Riemannian 2-step nilmanifolds. We study the action by isometries of several groups and we construct examples showing substantial differences with the Riemannain situation; for instance the action of the nilradical of the isometry group does not need to be transitive. For a nilpotent Lie group endowed with left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric we study conditions for which the subgroup of isometries fixing the identity element equals the subgroup of isometric automorphisms. This set equality holds for pseudo-$H$-type groups.
We study the geodesic orbit property for nilpotent Lie groups $N$ when endowed with a pseudo-Riemannian left-invariant metric. We consider this property with respect to different groups acting by isometries. When $N$ acts on itself by left-translations we show that it is a geodesic orbit space if and only if the metric is bi-invariant. Assuming $N$ is 2-step nilpotent and with non-degenerate center we give algebraic conditions on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak n$ of $N$ in order to verify that every geodesic is the orbit of a one-parameter subgroup of $N\rtimes\operatorname{Auto}(N)$. In addition …
The Bott-Chern cohomology of 6-dimensional nilmanifolds endowed with invariant complex structure is studied with special attention to the cases when balanced or strongly Gauduchon Hermitian metrics exist. We consider complex invariants introduced by Angella and Tomassini and by Schweitzer, which are related to the $\partial \bar\partial$-lemma condition and defined in terms of the Bott-Chern cohomology, and show that the vanishing of some of these invariants is not a closed property under holomorphic deformations. In the balanced case, we determine the spaces that parametrize deformations in t…
Cyclic Riemannian nilmanifolds are naturally reductive
College of Science, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications（南京邮电大学理学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Ningbo University（宁波大学数学与统计学院）；College of Mathematics and Systems Science, Shandong University of Science and Technology（山东科技大学数学与系统科学学院）
We provide families of compact astheno-Kähler nilmanifolds and we study the behaviour of the complex blowup of such manifolds. We prove that the existence of an astheno-Kähler metric satisfying an extra differential condition is not preserved by blowup. We also study the interplay between Strong Kähler with torsion metrics and geometrically Bott-Chern metrics. We show that Fino-Parton-Salamon nilmanifolds are geometrically-Bott-Chern-formal, whereas we obtain negative results on the product of two copies of primary Kodaira surface, Inoue surface of type $\mathcal{S}_M$ and on the product of a …
We study left-invariant Killing $k$-forms on simply connected $2$-step nilpotent Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant Riemannian metric. For $k=2,3$, we show that every left-invariant Killing $k$-form is a sum of Killing forms on the factors of the de Rham decomposition. Moreover, on each irreducible factor, non-zero Killing $2$-forms define (after some modification) a bi-invariant orthogonal complex structure and non-zero Killing $3$-forms arise only if the Riemannian Lie group is naturally reductive when viewed as a homogeneous space under the action of its isometry group. In both cases,…
We show that the Malcev Lie algebra of the fundamental group of a compact $2n+1$-dimensional Sasakian manifold with $n\ge 2$ admits a quadratic presentation by using Morgan's bigradings of minimal models of mixed-Hodge diagrams. By using bigradings of minimal models, we also simplify the proof of the result of Cappelletti-Montano, De Nicola, Marrero and Yudin on Sasakian nilmanifolds.
We exhibit families of Ricci-flat Kahler metrics on K3 surfaces which collapse to an interval, with Tian-Yau and Taub-NUT metrics occurring as bubbles. There is a corresponding continuous surjective map from the K3 surface to the interval, with regular fibers diffeomorphic to either 3-tori or Heisenberg nilmanifolds.
We review some constructions and properties of complex manifolds admitting pluriclosed and balanced metrics. We prove that for a 6-dimensional solvmanifold endowed with an invariant complex structure J having holomorphically trivial canonical bundle the pluriclosed flow has a long time solution for every invariant initial datum. Moreover, we state a new conjecture about the existence of balanced and SKT metrics on compact complex manifolds. We show that the conjecture is true for nilmanifolds of dimension 6 and 8 and for 6-dimensional solvmanifolds with holomorphically trivial canonical bundle…
We show that a left-invariant metric g on a nilpotent Lie group N is a soliton metric if and only if a matrix U and vector v associated the manifold (N,g) satisfy the matrix equation Uv = [1], where [1] is a vector with every entry a one. We associate a generalized Cartan matrix to the matrix U and use the theory of Kac-Moody algebras to analyze the solution spaces for such linear systems. We use these methods to find infinitely many new examples of nilmanifolds with soliton metrics. We give a sufficient condition for a sum of soliton metric nilpotent Lie algebra structures to be soliton, and …
We classify nilmanifolds with an invariant symplectic half-flat structure. We solve the half-flat evolution equations in one example, writing down the resulting Ricci-flat metric. We study the geometry of the orbit space of 6-manifolds with an SU(3)-structure preserved by a U(1) action, giving characterizations in the symplectic half-flat and integrable case.
In this work we investigate solvable and nilpotent Lie groups with special metrics. The metrics of interest are left-invariant Einstein and algebraic Ricci soliton metrics. Our main result shows that the existence of a such a metric is intrinsic to the underlying Lie algebra. More precisely, we show how one may determine the existence of such a metric by analyzing algebraic properties of the Lie algebra in question and infinitesimal deformations of any initial metric. Our second main result concerns the isometry groups of such distinguished metrics. Among the completely solvable unimodular Lie…
