We describe complex twistor spaces over inner 3-symmetric spaces $G/H$, such that $H$ acts transitively on the fibre. Like in the symmetric case, these are flag manifolds $G/K$ where $K$ is the centralizer of a torus in $G$. Moreover, they carry an almost complex structure defined using the horizontal distribution of the normal connection on $G/H$, that coincides with the complex structure associated to a parabolic subgroup $P \subset G^{\mathbb C}$ if it is integrable. Conversely, starting from a complex flag manifold $G^{\mathbb C}/P$, there exists a natural fibration with complex fibres on a 3-symmetric space, called fibration of degree 3.
An order four automorphism of a Lie algebra gives rise to an integrable system discussed by Terng. We show that solutions of this system may be identified with certain vertically harmonic twistor lifts of conformal maps of surfaces in a Riemannian symmetric space. Specialising to 4-dimensional target, we find that surfaces with holomorphic mean curvature in 4-dimensional spaces with constant sectional or holomorphic sectional curvatures constitute an integrable system as do Hamiltonian stationary Lagrangian surfaces in a 4-dimensional Hermitian symmetric space (this last being a result of Hele…
We show that given a harmonic map $φ$ from a Riemann surface to a classical compact simply connected inner symmetric space, there is a $J_2$-holomorphic twistor lift of $φ$ (or its negative) if and only if it is nilconformal. In the case of harmonic maps of finite uniton number, we give algebraic formulae in terms of holomorphic data which describes their extended solutions. In particular, this gives explicit formulae for the twistor lifts of all harmonic maps of finite uniton number from a surface to the above symmetric spaces.
We consider the unique Hermitian connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion on a Hermitian manifold. We prove that if the torsion is parallel and the holonomy is Sp(n)U(1), considered as a subgroup of U(2n) x U(1), then the manifold is locally isomorphic to the twistor space of a quaternionic Kaehler manifold with positive scalar curvature. If the manifold is complete, then it is globally isomorphic to such a twistor space.
We define, on smooth manifolds, the notions of almost twistorial structure and twistorial map, thus providing a unified framework for all known examples of twistor spaces. The condition of being harmonic morphisms naturally appears among the geometric properties of submersive twistorial maps between low-dimensional Weyl spaces endowed with a nonintegrable almost twistorial structure due to Eells and Salamon. This leads to the twistorial characterisation of harmonic morphisms between Weyl spaces of dimensions four and three. Also, we give a thorough description of the twistorial maps with one-d…
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…
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 contrast to the classical twistor spaces whose fibres are 2-spheres, we introduce twistor spaces over manifolds with almost quaternionic structures of the second kind in the sense of P. Libermann whose fibres are hyperbolic planes. We discuss two natural almost complex structures on such a twistor space and their holomorphic functions.
We introduce integrable complex structures on twistor spaces fibered over complex manifolds. We then show, in particular, that the twistor spaces associated with generalized Kahler, SKT and strong HKT manifolds all naturally admit complex structures. Moreover, in the strong HKT case we construct a metric and three compatible complex structures on the twistor space that have equal torsions.
In this paper we give a geometrical interpretation of all the second elliptic integrable systems associated to 4-symmetric spaces. We first show that a 4-symmetric space $G/G_0$ can be embedded into the twistor space of the corresponding symmetric space $G/H$. Then we prove that the second elliptic system is equivalent to the vertical harmonicity of an admissible twistor lift $J$ taking values in $G/G_0 \hookrightarrow Σ(G/H)$. We begin the paper by an example: $G/H=\R^4$. We study also the structure of 4-symmetric bundles over Riemannian symmetric spaces.
In this paper we introduce the twistor space of a Riemannian manifold with an even Clifford structure. This notion generalizes the twistor space of quaternion-Hermitian manifolds and weak-Spin(9) structures. We also construct almost complex structures on the twistor space for parallel even Clifford structures and check their integrability. Moreover, we prove that in some cases one can give Kähler and Nearly-Kähler metrics to these spaces.
We explicitly describe all SO(7)-invariant almost quaternion-Hermitian structures on the twistor space of the six sphere and determine the types of their intrinsic torsion.
In this paper we determine the Gray-Hervella classes of the compatible almost complex structures on the twistor spaces of oriented Riemannian four-manifolds considered by G. Deschamps
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 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}^…
In this paper, we provide a correspondence between certain 5-dimensional complex spacetimes and 4-dimensional twistor spaces. The spacetimes are almost contact manifolds whose curvature tensor satisfies certain conditions. By using the correspondence, we show that a 5-dimensional K-contact manifold can be obtained from the Ren-Wang twistor space, which is obtained from two copies of \C^4 identifying open subsets by a holomorphic map. From this result, the Ren-Wang twistor space can be interpreted in the framework of Itoh.
The theory of twistors on foliated manifolds is developed and the twistor space of the normal bundle is constructed. It is demonstrated that the classical constructions of the twistor theory lead to foliated objects and permit to formulate and prove foliated versions of some well-known results on holomorphic mappings. Since any orbifold can be understood as the leaf space of a suitable defined Riemannian foliation we obtain orbifold versions of the classical results as a simple consequence of the results on foliated mappings.
In recent papers math.DG/0701278 and arXiv:0705.0060, we gave explicit description of some new Moishezon twistor spaces. In this paper, developing the method in the papers much further, we explicitly give projective models of a number of new Moishezon twistor spaces, as conic bundles over some rational surfaces (called minitwistor spaces). These include the twistor spaces studied in the papers as very special cases. Our source of the result is a series of self-dual metrics with torus action constructed by D. Joyce. Actually, for arbitrary Joyce metrics and U(1)-subgroups of the torus which fix…
The twistor construction for Riemannian manifolds is extended to the case of manifolds endowed with generalized metrics (in the sense of generalized geometry à la Hitchin). The generalized twistor space associated to such a manifold is defined as the bundle of generalized complex structures on the tangent spaces of the manifold compatible with the given generalized metric. This space admits natural generalized almost complex structures whose integrability conditions are found in the paper. An interesting feature of the generalized twistor spaces discussed in it is the existence of intrinsic is…
In this paper a bijective correspondence between superminimal surfaces of an oriented Riemannian $4$-manifold and particular Lagrangian submanifolds of the twistor space over the $4$-manifold is proven. More explicitly, for every superminimal surface a submanifold of the twistor space is constructed which is Lagrangian for all the natural almost Hermitian structures on the twistor space. The twistor fibration restricted to the constructed Lagrangian gives a circle bundle over the superminimal surface. Conversely, if a submanifold of the twistor space is Lagrangian for all the natural almost He…
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.
We characterize HKT structure in terms of nondegenrate complex Poisson bivector on hypercomplex manifold. We extend the characterization to the twistor space. After considering the flat case in detail, we show that the twistor space of hyperkaehler manifold admits a holomorphic Poisson structure. We briefly mention the relation to quaternionic and hypercomplex deformations on tori and K3 surfaces
The twistor construction is applied for obtaining examples of generalized complex structures (in the sense of N. Hitchin) that are not induced by a complex or a symplectic structure.
We show that a 1-parameter family Ricci flow ancient solutions arises from the natural collapsings of the twistor space of positive quaternion Kähler manifolds. We use these ancient solutions to show that a positive quaternion Kähler manifold is isometric to one of the Wolf spaces.
Classifying Slice-Regular Polynomials via Group Actions on the Twistor Space
Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学）；Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院数学研究所）；Warsaw University（华沙大学）；Huzhou Normal University（湖州师范学院）
The target space of a (4,0) supersymmetric two-dimensional sigma model with Wess-Zumino term has a connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion and holonomy contained in Sp(n)Sp(1) (resp. Sp(n)), QKT (resp. HKT)-spaces. We study the geometry of QKT, HKT manifold and their twistor spaces. We show that the Swann bundle of a QKT manifold admits a HKT structure with special symmetry if and only if the twistor space of the QKT manifold admits an almost hermitian structure with totally skew-symmetric Nijenhuis tensor, thus connecting two structures arising from quantum field theories and supersymm…
A conformal map from a Riemann surface to the Euclidean four-space is explained in terms of its twistor lift. A local factorization of a differential of a conformal map is obtained. As an application, the factorization of a differential provides an upper bound of the area of a super-conformal map around a branch point.
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.
Twistor correspondences for R-invariant indefinite self-dual conformal structures on R^4 are established explicitly. These correspondences are written down by using a natural integral transform from functions on a two dimensional cylinder to functions on the flat Lorentz space R^{1,2} which is related to the wave equation and the Radon transform. A general method on the twistor construction of indefinite self-dual 4-spaces and indefinite Einstein-Weyl 3-spaces are also summarized.
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.
Starting from a real analytic conformal Cartan connection on a real analytic surface $S$, we construct a complex surface $T$ containing a family of pairs of projective lines. Using the structure on $S$ we also construct a complex $3$-space $Z$, such that $Z$ is a twistor space of a self-dual conformal $4$-fold and $T$ is a quotient of $Z$ by a holomorphic local $\mathbb{C}^*$ action. We prove that $T$ is a minitwistor space of an asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein-Weyl space with $S$ as an asymptotic boundary.
Let M be a hyperkähler manifold. The S^2-family of complex structures compatible with the hyperkähler metric can be assembled into a single complex structure on Z=MxS^2; the resulting complex manifold is known as the twistor space of M. We describe the analogous construction for generalized complex structures in the sense of Hitchin. Specifically, we exhibit a natural S^2xS^2-family of generalized complex structures compatible with the hyperkähler metric, and assemble them into a single generalized complex structure on X=MxS^2xS^2. We call the resulting generalized complex manifold the general…
We study a natural functional on the space of holomorphic sections of the Deligne-Hitchin moduli space of a compact Riemann surface, generalizing the energy of equivariant harmonic maps corresponding to twistor lines. We give a link to a natural meromorphic connection on the hyperholomorphic line bundle recently constructed by Hitchin. Moreover, we prove that for a certain class of real holomorphic sections of the Deligne-Hitchin moduli space, the functional is basically given by the Willmore energy of corresponding (equivariant) conformal map to the 3-sphere. As an application we use the func…
We characterise, in the setting of the Kodaira-Spencer deformation theory, the twistor spaces of (co-)CR quaternionic manifolds. As an application, we prove that, locally, the leaf space of any nowhere zero quaternionic vector field on a quaternionic manifold is endowed with a natural co-CR quaternionic structure. Also, for any positive integers $k$ and $l$, with $kl$ even, we obtain the geometric objects whose twistorial counterparts are complex manifolds endowed with a conjugation without fixed points and which preserves an embedded Riemann sphere whose normal bundle is $l$ times the line bu…
We give a new proof that the sphere S^6 does not admit an integrable orthogonal complex structure, as in \cite{LeBrun}, following the methods from twistor theory. We present the twistor space of a pseudo-sphere S^{2n}_{2q}=SO_{2p+1,2q}/SO_{2p,2q} as a pseudo-Kähler symmetric space. We then consider orthogonal complex structures on the pseudo-sphere, only to prove such a structure cannot exist.
In this paper we investigate a family of Moishezon twistor spaces on the connected sum of 4 complex projective planes, which can be regarded as a direct generalization of the twistor spaces on 3CP^2 of double solid type studied by Poon and Kreussler-Kurke. These twistor spaces have a natural structure of double covering over a scroll of 2-planes over a conic. We determine the defining equations of the branch divisors in an explicit form, which are very similar to the case of 3CP^2. Using these explicit description we compute the dimension of the moduli spaces of these twistor spaces. Also we o…
In this paper we investigate Moishezon twistor spaces which have a structure of double covering over a very simple rational threefold. These spaces can be regarded as a direct generalization of the twistor spaces studied by Poon and Kreussler-Kurke to the case of arbitrary signature. In particular, the branch divisor of the double covering is a cut of the rational threefold by a single quartic hypersurface. A defining equation of the hypersurface is determined in an explicit form. We also show that these twistor spaces interpolate LeBrun twistor spaces and the twistor spaces constructed in mat…
In a recent paper (math.DG/0701278) we constructed a series of new Moishezon twistor spaces which is a kind of variant of the famous LeBrun twistor spaces. In this paper we explicitly give projective models of another series of Moishezon twistor spaces on nCP^2 for arbitrary n>2, which can be regarded as a generalization of the twistor spaces of a 'double solid type' on 3CP^2 studied by Kreussler, Kurke, Poon and the author. Similarly to the twistor spaces of 'double solid type' on 3CP^2, projective models of present twistor spaces have a natural structure of double covering of a CP^2-bundle o…
We explicitly construct the twistor spaces of Joyce metrics with torus action that are not treated in Part I (math.DG/0603242). This finishes a construction of all the twistor spaces of Joyce metrics on the connected sum of four complex projective planes.
We introduce a plethora of skew algebroids on twistor spaces and describe the corresponding foliations. In a forthcoming paper, we use these algebroids to derive results about bihermitian manifolds, also known as generalized Kahler manifolds.
We provide a simple algebraic construction of the twistor spaces of arbitrary Joyce's self-dual metrics on the 4-manifold H^2 x T^2 that extend smoothly to nCP^2, the connected sum of complex projective planes. Indeed, we explicitly realize projective models of the twistor spaces of arbitrary Joyce metrics on nCP^2 in a CP^4-bundle over CP^1, and show that they contain the twistor spaces of H^2 x T^2 as dense non-Zariski open subsets. In particular, we see that the last non-compact twistor spaces can be realized in rank-4 vector bundles over CP^1 by quite simple defining equations.
Let (M,g) be a Riemannian 4-manifold. The twistor space Z->M is a CP1-bundle whose total space Z admits a natural metric h. The aim of this article is to study properties of complex structures on (Z,h) which are compatible with the CP1-fibration and the metric h. The results obtained enable us to translate some metric properties on M in terms of complex properties on its twistor space Z.
The theory of slice regular functions of a quaternion variable is applied to the study of orthogonal complex structures on domains Ω of R^4. When Ω is a symmetric slice domain, the twistor transform of such a function is a holomorphic curve in the Klein quadric. The case in which Ω is the complement of a parabola is studied in detail and described by a rational quartic surface in the twistor space CP^3.
With respect to the Dirac operator and the conformally invariant Laplacian, an explicit description of the inverse Penrose transform on Riemannian twistor spaces is given. A Dolbeault representative of cohomology on the twistor space is constructed from a solution of the field equation on the base manifold.
In this paper we explicitly construct Moishezon twistor spaces on nCP^2 for arbitrary n>1 which admit a holomorphic C*-action. When n=2, they coincide with Y. Poon's twistor spaces. When n=3, they coincide with the one studied by the author in math.DG/0403528. When n>3, they are new twistor spaces, to the best of the author's knowledge. By investigating the anticanonical system, we show that our twistor spaces are bimeromorphic to conic bundles over certain rational surfaces. The latter surfaces can be regarded as orbit spaces of the C*-action on the twistor spaces. Namely they are minitwistor…
