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.
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.
On a Kähler spin manifold Kählerian twistor spinors are a natural analogue of twistor spinors on Riemannian spin manifolds. They are defined as sections in the kernel of a first order differential operator adapted to the Kähler structure, called Kählerian twistor (Penrose) operator. We study Kählerian twistor spinors and give a complete description of compact Kähler manifolds of constant scalar curvature admitting such spinors. As in the Riemannian case, the existence of Kählerian twistor spinors is related to the lower bound of the spectrum of the Dirac operator.
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…
Generic distributions on 5- and 6-manifolds give rise to conformal structures that were discovered by P. Nurowski resp. R. Bryant. We describe both as Fefferman-type constructions and show that for orientable distributions one obtains conformal spin structures. The resulting conformal spin geometries are then characterized by their conformal holonomy and equivalently by the existence of a twistor spinor which satisfies a genericity condition. Moreover, we show that given such a twistor spinor we can decompose a conformal Killing field of the structure. We obtain explicit formulas relating conf…
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 study spin structures on orbifolds. In particular, we show that if the singular set has codimension greater than 2, an orbifold is spin if and only if its smooth part is. On compact orbifolds, we show that any non-trivial twistor spinor admits at most one zero which is singular unless the orbifold is conformally equivalent to a round sphere. We show the sharpness of our results through examples.
We treat a non-normal Fefferman-type construction based on an inclusion $\SL(n+1)\embed\Spin(n+1,n+1)$. The construction associates a split signature $(n,n)$-conformal spin structure to a projective structure of dimension $n$. For $n\geq 3$ the induced conformal Cartan connection is shown to be normal if and only if it is flat. The main technical work of this article consists in showing that in the non-flat case the normalised conformal Cartan connection still allows a parallel (pure) spin-tractor and thus a corresponding (pure) twistor spinor on the conformal space. The Fefferman-type constru…
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 …
Generalization of twistor spinors to Kähler manifolds which are called Kählerian twistor spinors are considered. We find the differential equation satisfied by the bilinear forms of Kählerian twistor spinors. We show that the bilinear form equation reduces to Kählerian conformal Killing-Yano equation under special conditions. We also investigate the special cases of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic Kählerian twistor spinors and the bilinear forms of alternative definitions for Kählerian twistor spinors.
We consider gauged twistor spinors which are supersymmetry generators of supersymmetric and superconformal field theories in curved backgrounds. We show that the spinor bilinears of gauged twistor spinors satify the gauged conformal Killing-Yano equation. We prove that the symmetry operators of the gauged twistor spinor equation can be constructed from ordinary conformal Killing-Yano forms in constant curvature backgrounds. This provides a way to obtain gauged twistor spinors from ordinary twistor spinors.
Symmetry operators of twistor spinors and harmonic spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms. Transformation operators relating twistors to harmonic spinors are found in terms of potential forms. These constructions are generalized to gauged twistor spinors and gauged harmonic spinors. The operators that transform gauged twistor spinors to gauged harmonic spinors are found. Symmetry operators of gauged harmonic spinors in terms of conformal Killing-Yano forms are obtained. Algebraic conditions to obtain solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations are discussed.
We show that the first-order symmetry operators of twistor spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms in conformally-flat backgrounds. We express the conditions on conformal Killing-Yano forms to obtain mutually commuting symmetry operators of twistor spinors. Conformal superalgebras which consist of conformal Killing vectors and twistor spinors and play important roles in supersymmetric field theories in conformal backgrounds are extended to more general superalgebras by using the graded Lie algebra structure of conformal Killing-Yano forms and the symmetry operators of twis…
The basic first-order differential operators of spin geometry that are Dirac operator and twistor operator are considered. Special types of spinors defined from these operators such as twistor spinors and Killing spinors are discussed. Symmetry operators of massless and massive Dirac equations are introduced and relevant symmetry operators of twistor spinors and Killing spinors are constructed from Killing-Yano (KY) and conformal Killing-Yano (CKY) forms in constant curvature and Einstein manifolds. The squaring map of spinors gives KY and CKY forms for Killing and twistor spinors respectively…
We find a spinorial representation of a Riemannian or Lorentzian surface in a Lorentzian homogeneous space of dimension $3.$ We in particular obtain a representation theorem for surfaces in the $\mathbb{L}(κ,τ)$ spaces. We then recover the Calabi correspondence between minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and maximal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}_1^3$, and obtain a new Lawson type correspondence between CMC surfaces in $\mathbb{R}_1^3$ and in the 3-dimensional pseudo-hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}_1^{3}.$
We collect our recent results ([5] and [8]) and we get the equivalence of the three notions of the title under some conditions. We then use this equivalence in order to prove some consequences about Sasakian manifolds, complex almost contact structures and complex k-contact structures.
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.
We prove that an isometric immersion of a simply connected Lorentzian surface in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ is equivalent to a normalised spinor field solution of a Dirac equation on the surface. Using the quaternions and the Lorentz numbers, we also obtain an explicit representation formula of the immersion in terms of the spinor field. We then apply the representation formula in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ to give a new spinor representation formula for Lorentzian surfaces in 3-dimensional Minkowski space. Finally, we apply the representation formula to the local description of the flat Lorentzian surfaces w…
We study the geometric structure of Lorentzian spin manifolds, which admit imaginary Killing spinors. The discussion is based on the cone construction and a normal form classification of skew-adjoint operators in signature $(2,n-2)$. Derived geometries include Brinkmann spaces, Lorentzian Einstein-Sasaki spaces and certain warped product structures. Exceptional cases with decomposable holonomy of the cone are possible.
We give a spinorial characterization of isometrically immersed surfaces of arbitrary signature into 3-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian space forms. For Lorentzian surfaces, this generalizes a recent work of the first author in $\mathbb{R}^{2,1}$ to other Lorentzian space forms. We also characterize immersions of Riemannian surfaces in these spaces. From this we can deduce analogous results for timelike immersions of Lorentzian surfaces in space forms of corresponding signature, as well as for spacelike and timelike immersions of surfaces of signature (0,2), hence achieving a complete spinorial de…
For $n \geq 1$, the twistor space $\mathfrak{Z}(\mathbb{S}^{2n})$ of the conformal $2n$-sphere is biholomorphic to the Zariski closure, taken in the complex Grassmannian manifold $\mathbf{G}(n+1, 2n+2)$, of the set of graphs of skew-symmetric linear endomorphism of $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$. We use this fact to describe a natural stratification of the twistor space $\mathfrak{Z}(\mathbb{S}^{2n})$ with $n \geq 3$, in terms of what we have called {\it generalised complex orthogonal Stiefel manifolds} of $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$. In particular, the twistor space $\mathfrak{Z}(\mathbb{S}^{6})$ is biholomorphic…
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.
Let $(\overline M,\overline g)$ be a time- and space-oriented Lorentzian spin manifold, and let $M$ be a compact spacelike hypersurface of $\overline M$ with induced Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$. If $(\overline M,\overline g)$ satisfies the dominant energy condition in a strict sense, then the Dirac--Witten operator of $M\subseteq \overline M$ is an invertible, self-adjoint Fredholm operator. This allows us to use index theoretical methods in order to detect non-trivial homotopy groups in the space of initial on $M$ satisfying the dominant energy condition in a strict …
We give a generalized Weierstrass formula for a Lorentz surface conformally immersed in the four-dimensional space $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$ using spinors and Lorentz numbers. We also study the immersions of a Lorentzian surface in {\bf the} Anti-de Sitter space (a pseudo-sphere in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$): we give a new spinor representation formula and deduce the conformal description of a flat Lorentzian surface in that space.
Holonomy algebras of Lorentzian Weyl spin manifolds with weighted parallel spinors are found. For Lorentzian Weyl manifolds admitting recurrent null vector fields are introduced special local coordinates similar to Kundt and Walker ones. Using that, the local form of all Lorentzian Weyl spin manifolds with weighted parallel spinors is given. The Einstein-Weyl equation for the obtained Weyl structures is analyzed and examples of Einstein-Weyl spaces with weighted parallel spinors are given.
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…
In this review, basic definitions of spin geometry are given and some of its applications to supersymmetry, supergravity and condensed matter physics are summarized. Clifford algebras and spinors are defined and the first-order differential operators on spinors which lead to the definitions of twistor and Killing spinors are discussed. Holonomy classification for manifolds admitting parallel and Killing spinors are given. Killing-Yano and conformal Killing-Yano forms resulting from the spinor bilinears of Killing and twistor spinors are introduced and the symmetry operators of special spinor e…
We prove that the Cauchy problem for parallel null vector fields on smooth Lorentzian manifolds is well posed. The proof is based on the derivation and analysis of suitable hyperbolic evolution equations given in terms of the Ricci tensor and other geometric objects. Moreover, we classify Riemannian manifolds satisfying the constraint conditions for this Cauchy problem. It is then possible to characterise certain holonomy reductions of globally hyperbolic manifolds with parallel null vector in terms of flow equations for Riemannian special holonomy metrics. For exceptional holonomy groups thes…
On a Lorentzian manifold the existence of a parallel null vector field implies certain constraint conditions on the induced Riemannian geometry of a space-like hypersurface. We will derive these constraint conditions and, conversely, show that every real analytic Riemannian manifold satisfying the constraint conditions can be extended to a Lorentzian manifold with a parallel null vector field. Similarly, every parallel null spinor on a Lorentzian manifold induces an imaginary generalised Killing spinor on a space-like hypersurface. Then, based on the fact that a parallel spinor field induces a…
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…
Lorentzian manifolds with parallel spinors are important objects of study in several branches of geometry, analysis and mathematical physics. Their Cauchy problem has recently been discussed by Baum, Leistner and Lischewski, who proved that the problem locally has a unique solution up to diffeomorphisms, provided that the intial data given on a space-like hypersurface satisfy some constraint equations. In this article we provide a method to solve these constraint equations. In particular, any curve (resp. closed curve) in the moduli space of Riemannian metrics on $M$ with a parallel spinor giv…
In this paper we exploit the ideas and formalisms of twistor theory, to show how, on Minkowski space, given a null solution of the wave equation, there are precisely two null directions in $\ker df$, at least one of which is a shear-free ray congruence.
Anti-self-dual metrics in the $(++--)$ signature which admit a covariantly constant real spinor are studied. It is shown that finding such metrics reduces to solving a fourth order integrable PDE, and some examples are given. The corresponding twistor space is characterised by existence of a preferred non-zero real section of $κ^{-1/4}$, where $κ$ is the canonical line bundle of the twistor space It is demonstrated that if the parallel spinor is preserved by a Killing vector, then the fourth order PDE reduces to the dispersionless Kadomtsev--Petviashvili equation and its linearisation. Einstei…
We investigate the differential geometry and topology of globally hyperbolic four-manifolds $(M,g)$ admitting a parallel real spinor $\varepsilon$. Using the theory of parabolic pairs recently introduced in arXiv:1911.08658 , we first formulate the parallelicity condition of $\varepsilon$ on $M$ as a system of partial differential equations, the parallel spinor flow equations, for a family of polyforms on any given Cauchy surface $Σ\hookrightarrow M$. Existence of a parallel spinor on $(M,g)$ induces a system of constraint partial differential equations on $Σ$, which we prove to be equivalent …
This article gives a study of the higher-dimensional Penrose transform between conformally invariant massless fields on space-time and cohomology classes on twistor space, where twistor space is defined to be the space of projective pure spinors of the conformal group. We focus on the 6-dimensional case in which twistor space is the six-quadric Q in CP^7 with a view to applications to the self-dual (0,2)-theory. We show how spinor-helicity momentum eigenstates have canonically defined distributional representatives on twistor space (a story that we extend to arbitrary dimension). These give an…
We calculate the Spencer cohomology of the $(1,0)$ Poincaré superalgebras in six dimensions: with and without R-symmetry. As the cases of four and eleven dimensions taught us, we may read off from this calculation a Killing spinor equation which allows the determination of which geometries admit rigidly supersymmetric theories in this dimension. We prove that the resulting Killing spinors generate a Lie superalgebra and determine the geometries admitting the maximal number of such Killing spinors. They are divided in two branches. One branch consists of the lorentzian Lie groups with bi-invari…
We develop a new framework for the study of generalized Killing spinors, where generalized Killing spinor equations, possibly with constraints, can be formulated equivalently as systems of partial differential equations for a polyform satisfying algebraic relations in the Kähler-Atiyah bundle constructed by quantizing the exterior algebra bundle of the underlying manifold. At the core of this framework lies the characterization, which we develop in detail, of the image of the spinor squaring map of an irreducible Clifford module $Σ$ of real type as a real algebraic variety in the Kähler-Atiyah…
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 calculate the relevant Spencer cohomology of the minimal Poincaré superalgebra in 5 spacetime dimensions and use it to define Killing spinors via a connection on the spinor bundle of a 5-dimensional lorentzian spin manifold. We give a definition of bosonic backgrounds in terms of this data. By imposing constraints on the curvature of the spinor connection, we recover the field equations of minimal (ungauged) 5-dimensional supergravity, but also find a set of field equations for an $\mathfrak{sp}(1)$-valued one-form which we interpret as the bosonic data of a class of rigid supersymmetric th…
We determine the Killing superalgebras underpinning field theories with rigid unextended supersymmetry on Lorentzian four-manifolds by re-interpreting them as filtered deformations of $\mathbb{Z}$-graded subalgebras with maximum odd dimension of the $N{=}1$ Poincaré superalgebra in four dimensions. Part of this calculation involves computing a Spencer cohomology group which, by analogy with a similar result in eleven dimensions, prescribes a notion of Killing spinor, which we identify with the defining condition for bosonic supersymmetric backgrounds of minimal off-shell supergravity in four d…
We briefly review the hierarchy for the hyper-Kähler equations and define a notion of symmetry for solutions of this hierarchy. A four-dimensional hyper-Kähler metric admits a hidden symmetry if it embeds into a hierarchy with a symmetry. It is shown that a hyper-Kähler metric admits a hidden symmetry if it admits a certain Killing spinor. We show that if the hidden symmetry is tri-holomorphic, then this is equivalent to requiring symmetry along a higher time and the hidden symmetry determines a `twistor group' action as introduced by Bielawski \cite{B00}. This leads to a construction for the …
In this paper, a survey of the recent results about the classification of the connected holonomy groups of the Lorentzian manifolds is given. A simplification of the construction of the Lorentzian metrics with all possible connected holonomy groups is obtained. As the applications, the Einstein equation, Lorentzian manifolds with parallel and recurrent spinor fields, conformally flat Walker metrics and the classification of 2-symmetric Lorentzian manifolds are considered.
We consider weighted parallel spinors in Lorentzian Weyl geometry in arbitrary dimensions, choosing the weight such that the integrability condition for the existence of such a spinor, implies the geometry to be Einstein-Weyl. We then use techniques developed for the classification of supersymmetric solutions to supergravity theories to characterise those Lorentzian EW geometries that allow for a weighted parallel spinor, calling the resulting geometries supersymmetric. The overall result is that they are either conformally related to ordinary geometries admitting parallel spinors (w.r.t. the …
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…