In this paper we announce a gluing theorem for conformal structures with anti-self-dual (ASD) Weyl tensor that applies in geometrical situations that are more general than those considered by previous authors. By adapting a method proposed by Floer, sufficient conditions are given for the existence of ASD conformal structures on `generalized connected sums' of non-compact ASD 4-manifolds with cylindrical ends. The gluing theorem applies in particular to give results about connected sums of ASD orbifolds along (isolated) singular points.
We give new and rather general gluing theorems for anti-self-dual (ASD) conformal structures, following the method suggested by Floer. The main result is a gluing theorem for pairs of conformally ASD manifolds `joined' across a common piece (union of connected components) of their boundaries. This theorem genuinely operates in the b-category (in the sense of Melrose) and in general the boundary of the joined manifold can be non-empty. The resulting metric is a conformally ASD b-metric or, in more traditional language, a complete conformally ASD metric with cylindrical asymptotics. We also stud…
We consider the diffeological pseudo-bundles of exterior algebras, and the Clifford action of the corresponding Clifford algebras, associated to a given finite-dimensional and locally trivial diffeological vector pseudo-bundle, as well as the behavior of the former three constructions (exterior algebra, Clifford action, Clifford algebra) under the diffeological gluing of pseudo-bundles. Despite these being our main object of interest, we dedicate significant attention to the issues of compatibility of pseudo-metrics, and the gluing-dual commutativity condition, that is, the condition ensuring …
Although our main interest here is developing an appropriate analog, for diffeological vector pseudo-bundles, of a Riemannian metric, a significant portion is dedicated to continued study of the gluing operation for pseudo-bundles introduced in arXiv:1509.03023. We give more details regarding the behavior of this operation with respect to gluing, also providing some details omitted from arXiv:1509.03023, and pay more attention to the relations with the spaces of smooth maps. We also show that a usual smooth vector bundle over a manifold that admits a finite atlas can be seen as a result of a d…
We prove a gluing theorem for solutions of Hitchin's self-duality equations with logarithmic singularities on a rank-2 vector bundle over a noded Riemann surface representing a boundary point of Teichmüller moduli space.
In 1978, Gibbons-Pope and Page proposed a physical picture for the Ricci flat Kähler metrics on the K3 surface based on a gluing construction. In this construction, one starts from a flat torus with $16$ orbifold points, and resolves the orbifold singularities by gluing in $16$ small Eguchi-Hanson manifolds which all have the same orientation. This construction was carried out rigorously by Topiwala, LeBrun-Singer, and Donaldson. In 1981, Page asked whether the above construction can be modified by reversing the orientations of some of the Eguchi-Hanson manifolds. This is a subtle question: if…
We analyze the indicial roots of the self-dual deformation complex on a cylinder $(\mathbb{R} \times Y^3, dt^2 + g_Y)$, where $Y^3$ is a space of constant curvature. An application is the optimal decay rate of solutions on a self-dual manifold with cylindrical ends having cross-section $Y^3$. We also resolve a conjecture of Kovalev-Singer in the case where $Y^3$ is a hyperbolic rational homology 3-sphere, and show that there are infinitely many examples for which the conjecture is true, and infinitely many examples for which the conjecture is false. Applications to gluing theorems are also dis…
In this short note we prove that any complete four dimensional anti-self-dual (or self-dual) quasi-Einstein manifolds is either Einstein or locally conformally flat. This generalizes a recent result of X. Chen and Y. Wang.
We show the existence of strictly almost-Kahler anti-self-dual metrics on certain 4-manifolds by deforming scalar-flat Kahler metrics. On the other hand, we prove the non-existence of such metrics on certain other 4-manifolds by means of Seiberg-Witten theory. In the process, we provide a simple new proof of the fact that any almost-Kahler anti-self-dual 4-manifold must have a non-trivial Seiberg-Witten invariant.
In this note we prove that a (anti-)self dual quasi Yamabe soliton with positive sectional curvature is rotationally symmetric. This generalizes a recent result of G. Huang and H. Li in dimension four. Whence, (anti-) self dual gradient Yamabe solitons with positive sectional curvature is rotationally symmetric. We also prove that half conformally flat gradient Yamabe soliton has a special warped product structure provided that the potential function has no critical point.
Recently, Atiyah and LeBrun proved versions of the Gauss-Bonnet and Hirzebruch signature Theorems for metrics with edge-cone singularities in dimension four, which they applied to obtain an inequality of Hitchin-Thorpe type for Einstein edge-cone metrics. Interestingly, many natural examples of edge-cone metrics in dimension four are anti-self-dual (or self-dual depending upon choice of orientation). On such a space there is an important elliptic complex called the anti-self-dual deformation complex, whose index gives crucial information about the local structure of the moduli space of anti-se…
An index theorem for the anti-self-dual deformation complex on anti-self-dual orbifolds with cyclic quotient singularities is proved. We present two applications of this theorem. The first is to compute the dimension of the deformation space of the Calderbank-Singer scalar-flat Kahler toric ALE spaces. A corollary of this is that, except for the Eguchi-Hanson metric, all of these spaces admit non-toric anti-self-dual deformations, thus yielding many new examples of anti-self-dual ALE spaces. For our second application, we compute the dimension of the deformation space of the canonical Bochner-…
We prove that a $4$-dimensional simply connected, compact critical metric of the volume functional with harmonic anti-self dual Weyl tensor and boundary isometric to a standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^{3}$ is isometric to a geodesic ball in a simply connected space form $\mathbb{R}^{4}$, $\mathbb{H}^{4}$ or $\mathbb{S}^{4}.$
In this note we prove that any four-dimensional half conformally flat gradient steady Ricci soliton must be either Bryant's soliton or Ricci flat. We also classify four-dimensional half conformally flat gradient shrinking Ricci solitons with bounded curvature.
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.
We give a classification of toric anti-self-dual conformal structures on compact 4-orbifolds with positive Euler characteristic. Our proof is twistor theoretic: the interaction between the complex torus orbits in the twistor space and the twistor lines induces meromorphic data, which we use to recover the conformal structure. A compact anti-self-dual orbifold can also be constructed by adding a point at infinity to an asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) scalar-flat Kähler orbifold. We use this observation to classify ALE scalar-flat Kähler 4-orbifolds whose isometry group contain a 2-torus.
We provide the first examples of geometric transition from hyperbolic to anti-de Sitter structures in dimension four, in a fashion similar to Danciger's three-dimensional examples. The main ingredient is a deformation of hyperbolic 4-polytopes, discovered by Kerckhoff and Storm, eventually collapsing to a 3-dimensional ideal cuboctahedron. We show the existence of a similar family of collapsing anti-de Sitter polytopes, and join the two deformations by means of an opportune half-pipe orbifold structure. The desired examples of geometric transition are then obtained by gluing copies of the poly…
In this article, we prove that a quotient of a K3 surface by a free Z_2+Z_2 action does not admit any metric of positive scalar curvature. This shows that the scalar flat anti self-dual metrics (SF-ASD) on this manifold can not be obtained from a family of metrics for which the scalar curvature changes sign, contrary to the previously known constructions of this kind of metrics on manifolds of b+=0.
Donaldson-Friedman constructed anti-self-dual classes on $K3\#3\overline{\mathbb{CP}_{2}}$ using twistor space. We show that some of these conformal classes have almost-Kähler representatives.
An index theorem for the anti-self-dual deformation complex on anti-self-dual orbifolds with singularities conjugate to ADE-type is proved. In 1988, Claude Lebrun gave examples of scalar-flat Kähler ALE metrics with negative mass, on the total space of the bundle $\mathcal{O}(-n)$ over $S^2$. A corollary of this index theorem is that the moduli space of anti-self-dual ALE metrics near each of these metrics has dimension at least $4n-12$, and thus for $n \geq 4$ the LeBrun metrics admit a plethora of non-trivial anti-self-dual deformations.
We show that any hyperbolic Inoue surface (or Inoue-Hirzebruch surface of even type) admits anti-self-dual bihermitian structures. The same result also holds for any of its small deformations as far as its anti-canonical system is non-empty. Similar results are obtained for parabolic Inoue surfaces. Our method also yields anti-self-dual hermitian metrics on any half Inoue surface. We use the twistor method of Donaldson-Friedman for the proof.
It is known that the almost-Kaehler anti-self-dual metrics on a given 4-manifold sweep out an open subset in the moduli space of anti-self-dual metrics. However, we show here by example that this subset is not generally closed, and so need not sweep out entire connected components in the moduli space. Our construction hinges on an unexpected link between harmonic functions on certain hyperbolic 3-manifolds and self-dual harmonic 2-forms on associated 4-manifolds.
Uhlenbeck's compactness theorem can be used to analyze sequences of connections with anti-self dual curvature on principal SU(2) bundles over oriented 4-dimensional manifolds. The theorems in this paper give an extension of Uhlenbeck's theorem for sequences of solutions of certain SL(2,C) analogs of the anti-self dual equations.
In [29], Plebanski reformulated the anti-self-dual Einstein equations with non-zero scalar curvature as a first order PDE for a connection in an SO(3)-bundle over the four-manifold. The aim of this article is to place this differential equation in a new framework, in which it is both elliptic and a stationary point of a parabolic flow. To do this, we exploit a link with definite connections (introduced in [12]) to draw an analogy with instantons and the Yang-Mills flow. This picture leads to a natural conjecture, analogous to one made by Donaldson concerning hyperkähler 4-manifolds [9]. It als…
This is the second of two papers that describe a compactness theorem for sequences of solutions of certain SL(2;C) analogs of the anti-self dual equations on oriented, 4-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. This paper proves theorems that characterize the singular locus of limits of sequences of solutions to the equations.
We prove an energy identity for anti-self-dual connections on the product C\timesΣof the complex plane and a Riemann surface. The energy is a multiple of a basic constant that is determined from the values of a corresponding Chern-Simons functional on flat connections and its ambiguity under gauge transformations. For SU(2)-bundles this identity supports the conjecture that the finite energy anti-self-dual instantons correspond to holomorphic bundles over CP^1\timesΣ. Such anti-self-dual instantons on SU(n)- and SO(3)-bundles arise in particular as bubbles in adiabatic limits occurring in the …
We review the subject of four dimensional anti-self-dual conformal structures with signature (+ + - -). Both local and global questions are discussed. Most of the material is well known in the literature and we present it in a way which underlines the connection with integrable systems. Some of the results - e.g. the Lax pair characterisation of the scalar-flat Kahler condition and a twistor construction of a conformal structure with twisting null Killing vector - are new.
Given a projective structure on a surface $N$, we show how to canonically construct a neutral signature Einstein metric with non-zero scalar curvature as well as a symplectic form on the total space $M$ of a certain rank $2$ affine bundle $M \to N$. The Einstein metric has anti-self-dual conformal curvature and admits a parallel field of anti-self-dual planes. We show that locally every such metric arises from our construction unless it is conformally flat. The homogeneous Einstein metric corresponding to the flat projective structure on $\mathbb{RP}^2$ is the non-compact real form of the Fubi…
