Overdetermined systems, conformal geometry, and the BGG complex
Andreas Cap
备注：
LaTeX, 24 pages
发表信息：
in M. Eastwood, W. Miller (eds.): "Symmetries and Overdetermined Systems of Partial Differential Equations", The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications 144, Springer 2008, 1-24
This is an expanded version of a series of two lectures given at the IMA summer program "Symmetries and Overdetermined Systems of Partial Differential Equations". The main part of the article describes the Riemannian version of the prolongation procedure for certain overdetermined system obtained recently in joint work with T.P. Branson, M.G. Eastwood, and A.R. Gover. First a simple special case is discussed, then the (Riemannian) procedure is described in general. The prolongation procedure was derived from a simplification of the construction of Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand (BGG) sequences of invariant differential operators for certain geometric structures. The version of this construction for conformal structures is described next. Finally, we discuss generalizations of both the prolongation procedure and the construction of invariant operators to other geometric structures.
BGG-operators form sequences of invariant differential operators and the first of these is overdetermined. Interesting equations in conformal geometry described by these operators are those for Einstein scales, conformal Killing forms and conformal Killing tensors. We present a deformation procedure of the tractor connection which yields an invariant prolongation of the first operator. The explicit calculation is presented in the case of conformal Killing forms.
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 …
This is the second in a series of papers on natural modification of the normal tractor connection in a parabolic geometry, which naturally prolongs an underlying overdetermined system of invariant differential equations. We give a short review of the general procedure developed in [5] and then compute the prolongation covariant derivatives for a number of interesting examples in projective, conformal and Grassmannian geometries.
We study first BGG operators and their solutions on homogeneous conformal geometries. We focus on conformal Killing tensors, conformal Killing--Yano forms and twistor spinors in particular. We develop an invariant calculus that allows us to find solutions explicitly using only algebraic computations. We also discuss applications to holonomy reductions and conserved quantities of conformal circles. We demonstrate our result on examples of homogeneous conformal geometries coming mostly from general relativity.
By studying the development of shock waves out of discontinuity waves, in 1954 P. Lax discovered a class of PDEs, which he called 'completely exceptional', where such a transition does not occur after a finite time. A straightforward integration of the completely exceptionality conditions allowed Boillat to show that such PDEs are actually of Monge-Ampere type. In this paper, we first recast these conditions in terms of characteristics, and then we show that the completely exceptional PDEs, with 2 or 3 independent variables, can be described in terms of the conformal geometry of the Lagrangian…
First BGG operators are a large class of overdetermined linear differential operators intrinsically associated to a parabolic geometry on a manifold. The corresponding equations include those controlling infinitesimal automorphisms, higher symmetries, and many other widely studied PDE of geometric origin. The machinery of BGG sequences also singles out a subclass of solutions called normal solutions. These correspond to parallel tractor fields and hence to (certain) holonomy reductions of the canonical normal Cartan connection. Using the normal Cartan connection, we define a special class of l…
A regular normal parabolic geometry of type $G/P$ on a manifold $M$ gives rise to sequences $D_i$ of invariant differential operators, known as the curved version of the BGG resolution. These sequences are constructed from the normal covariant derivative $\na^\om$ on the corresponding tractor bundle $V,$ where $\om$ is the normal Cartan connection. The first operator $D_0$ in the sequence is overdetermined and it is well known that $\na^\om$ yields the prolongation of this operator in the homogeneous case $M = G/P$. Our first main result is the curved version of such a prolongation. This requi…
It is well known that pseudo-Riemannian metrics in the projective class of a given torsion free affine connection can be obtained from (and are equivalent to) the solutions of a certain overdetermined projectively invariant differential equation. This equation is a special case of a so-called first BGG equation. The general theory of such equations singles out a subclass of so-called normal solutions. We prove that non-degerate normal solutions are equivalent to pseudo-Riemannian Einstein metrics in the projective class and observe that this connects to natural projective extensions of the Ein…
The aim of this work is to develop a systematic manner to close overdetermined systems arising from conformal Killing tensors (CKT). The research performs this action for 1-tensor and 2-tensors. This research makes it possible to develop a new general method for any rank of CKT. This method can also be applied to other types of Killing equations, as well as to overdetermined systems constrained by some other conditions. The major methodological apparatus of the research is a decomposition of the section bundles where the covariant derivatives of the CKT land via generalized gradients. This dec…
We show that infinitesimal automorphisms and infinitesimal deformations of parabolic geometries can be nicely described in terms of the twisted de-Rham sequence associated to a certain linear connection on the adjoint tractor bundle. For regular normal geometries, this description can be related to the underlying geometric structure using the machinery of BGG sequences. In the locally flat case, this leads to a deformation complex, which generalizes the is well know complex for locally conformally flat manifolds. Recently, a theory of subcomplexes in BGG sequences has been developed. This appl…
Many interesting geometric structures can be described as regular infinitesimal flag structures, which occur as the underlying structures of parabolic geometries. Among these structures we have for instance conformal structures, contact structures, certain types of generic distributions and partially integrable almost CR-structures of hypersurface type. The aim of this article is to develop for a large class of (semi-)linear overdetermined systems of partial differential equations on regular infinitesimal flag manifolds $M$ a conceptual method to rewrite these systems as systems of the form $\…
We study a Fefferman-type construction based on the inclusion of Lie groups ${\rm SL}(n+1)$ into ${\rm Spin}(n+1,n+1)$. The construction associates a split-signature $(n,n)$-conformal spin structure to a projective structure of dimension $n$. We prove the existence of a canonical pure twistor spinor and a light-like conformal Killing field on the constructed conformal space. We obtain a complete characterisation of the constructed conformal spaces in terms of these solutions to overdetermined equations and an integrability condition on the Weyl curvature. The Fefferman-type construction presen…
Integral formulas for under/overdetermined differential operators via recovery on curves and the finite-dimensional cokernel condition I: General theory
We give a new characterisation of the unparametrised geodesics, or distinguished curves, for affine, pseudo-Riemannian, conformal, and projective geometry. This is a type of moving incidence relation. The characterisation is used to provide a very general theory and construction of quantities that are necessarily conserved along the curves. The formalism immediately yields explicit formulae for these curve first integrals. The usual role of Killing tensors and conformal Killing tensors is recovered as a special case, but the construction shows that a significantly larger class of equation solu…
This is the last part of a series of articles on a family of geometric structures (PACS-structures) which all have an underlying almost conformally symplectic structure. While the first part of the series was devoted to the general study of these structures, the second part focused on the case that the underlying structure is conformally symplectic (PCS-structures). In that case, we obtained a close relation to parabolic contact structures via a concept of parabolic contactification. It was also shown that special symplectic connections (and thus all connections of exotic symplectic holonomy) …
An almost Einstein manifold satisfies equations which are a slight weakening of the Einstein equations; Einstein metrics, Poincare-Einstein metrics, and compactifications of certain Ricci-flat asymptotically locally Euclidean structures are special cases. The governing equation is a conformally invariant overdetermined PDE on a function. Away from the zeros of this the almost Einstein structure is Einstein, while the zero set gives a scale singularity set which may be viewed as a conformal infinity for the Einstein metric. In this article we give a classification of the possible scale singular…
Pseudo-Riemannian metrics with Levi-Civita connection in the projective class of a given torsion free affine connection can be obtained from (and are equivalent to) the maximal rank solutions of a certain overdetermined projectively invariant differential equation often called the metrizability equation. Dropping this rank assumption we study the solutions to this equation given less restrictive generic conditions on its prolonged system. In this setting we find that the solution stratifies the manifold according to the strict signature (pointwise) of the solution and does this in way that loc…
We present a uniform framework generalising and extending the classical theories of projective differential geometry, c-projective geometry, and almost quaternionic geometry. Such geometries, which we call \emph{projective parabolic geometries}, are abelian parabolic geometries whose flat model is an R-space $G\cdot\mathfrak{p}$ in the infinitesimal isotropy representation $\mathbb{W}$ of a larger self-dual symmetric R-space $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$. We also give a classification of projective parabolic geometries with $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$ irreducible which, in addition to the aforementioned class…
