In this paper we complete the classification of spin manifolds admitting parallel spinors, in terms of the Riemannian holonomy groups. More precisely, we show that on a given n-dimensional Riemannian manifold, spin structures with parallel spinors are in one to one correspondence with lifts to Spin_n of the Riemannian holonomy group, with fixed points on the spin representation space. In particular, we obtain the first examples of compact manifolds with two different spin structures carrying parallel spinors.
We describe the possible holonomy groups of simply connected irreducible non-locally symmetric pseudo-Riemannian spin manifolds which admit parallel spinors.
We introduce a notion of twisted pure spinor in order to characterize, in a unified way, all the special Riemannian holonomy groups just as a classical pure spinor characterizes the special Kähler holonomy. Motivated by certain curvature identities satisfied by manifolds admitting parallel twisted pure spinors, we also introduce the Clifford monopole equations as a natural geometric generalization of the Seiberg-Witten equations. We show that they restrict to the Seiberg-Witten equations in 4 dimensions, and that they admit non-trivial solutions on manifolds with special Riemannian holonomy.
In this paper we examine the structure of Riemannian manifolds with a special kind of Codazzi tensors. We use them to construct globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with complete Cauchy hypersurfaces for any weakly irreducible holonomy representation with parallel spinors, i.e. with a holonomy group which is a semidirect product between $\R^{n-2}$ and one of $\1, SU(k), Sp(1), G_2$ and $Spin(7)$.
(This is a revised version of the paper) - In the present paper we study the geometry of doubly extended Lie groups with their natural biinvariant metric. We describe the curvature, the holonomy and the space of parallel spinors. This is completely done for all simply connected groups with biinvariantmetric of Lorentzian signature $(1,n-1)$, of signature $(2,n-2)$ and of signature $(p,q)$, where $p+q\leq 6$. Furthermore, some special series with higher signature are discussed.
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…
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 …
We investigate the holonomy group of a linear metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion. In case of the euclidian space and a constant torsion form this group is always semisimple. It does not preserve any non-degenerated 2-form or any spinor. Suitable integral formulas allow us to prove similar properties in case of a compact Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection of skew-symmetric torsion. On the Aloff-Wallach space N(1,1) we construct families of connections admitting parallel spinors. Furthermore, we investigate the geometry of these connections as well as the geometry o…
In this note it is shown that the Maslov Index for pairs of Lagrangian Paths as introduced by Cappell, Lee and Miller appears by parallel transporting elements of (a certain complex line-subbundle of) the symplectic spinorbundle over Euclidean space, when pulled back to an (embedded) Lagrangian submanifold $L$, along closed or non-closed paths therein. In especially, the CLM-Index mod 4 determines the holonomy group of this line bundle w.r.t. the Levi-Civita-connection on $L$, hence its vanishing mod 4 is equivalent to the existence of a trivializing parallel section. Moreover, it is shown tha…
We study the full holonomy group of Lorentzian manifolds with a parallel null line bundle. We prove several results that are based on the classification of the restricted holonomy groups of such manifolds and provide a construction method for manifolds with disconnected holonomy which starts from a Riemannian manifold and a properly discontinuous group of isometries. Most of our examples are quotients of pp-waves with disconnected holonomy and without parallel vector field. Furthermore, we classify the full holonomy groups of solvable Lorentzian symmetric spaces and of Lorentzian manifolds wit…
On a closed connected oriented manifold $M$ we study the space $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$ of all Riemannian metrics which admit a non-zero parallel spinor on the universal covering. Such metrics are Ricci-flat, and all known Ricci-flat metrics are of this form. We show the following: The space $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$ is a smooth submanifold of the space of all metrics, and its premoduli space is a smooth finite-dimensional manifold. The holonomy group is locally constant on $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$. If $M$ is spin, then the dimension of the space of parallel spinors is a locally constant function on $\mathcal…
The existence of a recurrent spinor field on a pseudo-Riemannian spin manifold $(M,g)$ is closely related to the existence of a parallel 1-dimensional complex subbundle of the spinor bundle of $(M,g)$. We characterize the following simply connected pseudo-Riemannian manifolds admitting such subbundles in terms of their holonomy algebras: Riemannian manifolds; Lorentzian manifolds; pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with irreducible holonomy algebras; pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of neutral signature admitting two complementary parallel isotropic distributions.
We describe, by their holonomy groups, all complete simply connected irreducible non-locally symmetric pseudo-Riemannian SpinC manifolds which admit parallel spinors. So we generalize the Riemannian SpinC case and the pseudo-Riemannian Spin one.
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 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 describe, by their holonomy groups, all simply connected irreducible non-locally symmetric pseudo-Riemannian SpinC manifolds which admit parallel spinors. So we generalise the Riemannian case and the pseudo-Riemannian one.
We prove that, for M theory or type II, generic Minkowski flux backgrounds preserving $\mathcal{N}$ supersymmetries in dimensions $D\geq4$ correspond precisely to integrable generalised $G_{\mathcal{N}}$ structures, where $G_{\mathcal{N}}$ is the generalised structure group defined by the Killing spinors. In other words, they are the analogues of special holonomy manifolds in $E_{d(d)} \times\mathbb{R}^+$ generalised geometry. In establishing this result, we introduce the Kosmann-Dorfman bracket, a generalisation of Kosmann's Lie derivative of spinors. This allows us to write down the internal…
The object of this article is to compute the holonomy group of the normal connection of complex parallel submanifolds of the complex projective space. We also give a new proof of the classification of complex parallel submanifolds by using a normal holonomy approach. Indeed, we explain how these submanifolds can be regarded as the unique complex orbits of the (projectivized) isotropy representation of an irreducible Hermitian symmetric space. Moreover, we show how these important submanifolds are related to other areas of mathematics and theoretical physics. Finally, we state a conjecture abou…
The holonomy of the ambient metrics of Nurowski's conformal structures associated to generic real-analytic 2-plane fields on 5-manifolds is investigated. It is shown that the holonomy is always contained in the split real form G_2 of the exceptional Lie group, and is equal to G_2 for an open dense set of 2-plane fields given by explicit conditions. In particular, this gives an infinite-dimensional family of metrics of holonomy equal to split G_2. These results generalize work of Leistner-Nurowski. The inclusion of the holonomy in G_2 is established by proving an ambient extension theorem for p…
The aim of this paper is to calculate the eta invariants and the dimensions of the spaces of harmonic spinors of an infinite family of closed flat manifolds. It consits of some flat manifolds M with cyclic holonomy groups.
The holonomy group of an (n+2)-dimensional simply-connected, indecomposable but non-irreducible Lorentzian manifold (M,h) is contained in the parabolic group $(\mathbb{R} \times SO(n))\ltimes \mathbb{R}^n$. The main ingredient of such a holonomy group is the SO(n)--projection $G:=pr_{SO(n)}(Hol_p(M,h))$ and one may ask whether it has to be a Riemannian holonomy group. In this paper we show that this is always the case, completing our results of the first part math.DG/0305139. We draw consequences for the existence of parallel spinors on Lorentzian manifolds.
For a conformal manifold, we describe a new relation between the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman and Graham and the holonomy of the normal conformal Cartan connection. This relation allows us to prove several results on the vanishing and the rank of the obstruction tensor, for example for conformal structures admitting twistor spinors or normal conformal Killing forms. As our main tool we introduce the notion of a conformal holonomy distribution and show that its integrability is closely related to the exceptional conformal structures in dimensions five and six that were found by Nurow…
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.
In this note we compare the spinor bundle of a Riemannian manifold $(M=M_1\times...\times M_N,g)$ with the spinor bundles of the Riemannian factors $(M_i,g_i)$. We show, that - without any holonomy conditions - the spinor bundle of $(M,g)$ for a special class of metrics is isomorphic to a bundle obtained by tensoring the spinor bundles of $(M_i,g_i)$ in an appropriate way.
Inspired by the recent work of Physicists Hertog-Horowitz-Maeda, we prove two stability results for compact Riemannian manifolds with nonzero parallel spinors. Our first result says that Ricci flat metrics which also admits nonzero parallel spinors are stable (in the direction of changes in conformal structures) as the critical points of the total scalar curvature functional. In fact, we show that the Lichnerowicz Laplacian, which governs the second variation, is the square of a twisted Dirac operator. Our second result, which is a local version of the first one, shows that any metrics of posi…
We investigate parallel submanifolds of a Riemannian symmetric space $N$. The special case of a symmetric submanifold has been investigated by many authors before and is well understood. We observe that there is an intrinsic property of the second fundamental form which distinguishes full symmetric submanifolds from arbitrary full parallel submanifolds of $N$, usually called "1-fullness of $M$". Furthermore, for every parallel submanifold $M$ of $N$ we consider the pullback bundle $TN|M$ with its induced connection, which admits a distinguished parallel subbundle $osc M$, usually called the "s…
In this expository article we discuss the relations between Sasakian geometry, reduced holonomy and supersymmetry. It is well known that the Riemannian manifolds other than the round spheres that admit real Killing spinors are precisely Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, 7-manifolds with a nearly parallel G2 structure, and nearly Kaehler 6-manifolds. We then discuss the relations between the latter two and Sasaki-Einstein geometry.
We compute the full holonomy group of compact Lorentzian manifolds with parallel Weyl tensor, which are neither conformally flat nor locally symmetric, for the case where the fundamental group is contained in a distinguished subgroup G of the isometry group of the universal cover. To prove this, we show that every such compact Lorentzian manifold has to be geodesically complete. Moreover we characterize the identity component of the isometry group for this universal cover and show that G is up to a discrete factor contained in the latter. Concretely, we prove that the identity component of the…
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…
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.
Holonomy groups and holonomy algebras for connections on locally free sheaves over supermanifolds are introduced. A one-to-one correspondence between parallel sections and holonomy-invariant vectors, and a one-to-one correspondence between parallel locally direct subsheaves and holonomy-invariant vector supersubspaces are obtained. As the special case, the holonomy of linear connections on supermanifolds is studied. Examples of parallel geometric structures on supermanifolds and the corresponding holonomies are given. For Riemannian supermanifolds an analog of the Wu theorem is proved. Berger …
We construct new explicit non-singular metrics that are complete on non-compact Riemannian 8-manifolds with holonomy Spin(7). One such metric, which we denote by A_8, is complete and non-singular on R^8. The other complete metrics are defined on manifolds with the topology of the bundle of chiral spinors over S^4, and are denoted by B_8^+, B_8^- and B_8. The metrics on B_8^+ and B_8^- occur in families with a non-trivial parameter. The metric on B_8 arises for a limiting value of this parameter, and locally this metric is the same as the one for A_8. The new Spin(7) metrics are asymptotically …
We study the intrinsic geometry of hypersurfaces in Calabi-Yau manifolds of real dimension 6 and, more generally, SU(2)-structures on 5-manifolds defined by a generalized Killing spinor. We prove that in the real analytic case, such a 5-manifold can be isometrically embedded as a hypersurface in a Calabi-Yau manifold in a natural way. We classify nilmanifolds carrying invariant structures of this type, and present examples of the associated metrics with holonomy SU(3).
The motivation for this paper stems \cite{CR} from the need to construct explicit isomorphisms of (possibly nontrivial) principal $G$-bundles on the space of loops or, more generally, of paths in some manifold $M$, over which I consider a fixed principal bundle $P$; the aforementioned bundles are then pull-backs of $P$ w.r.t. evaluation maps at different points. The explicit construction of these isomorphisms between pulled-back bundles relies on the notion of {\em parallel transport}. I introduce and discuss extensively at this point the notion of {\em generalized gauge transformation between…
Manifolds admitting Killing spinors are Einstein manifolds. Thus, a deformation of a Killing spinor entails a deformation of Einstein metrics. In this paper, we study infinitesimal deformations of Killing spinors on nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-manifolds. Since there is a one-to-one correspondence between nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures and Killing spinors on 7-dimensional spin manifolds, our results imply that infinitesimal deformations of nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures are examined in terms of Killing spinors. Applying the same technique, we identify that the space of …
We consider (compact or noncompact) Lorentzian manifolds whose holonomy group has compact closure. Among other results, we obtain that this property is equivalent to admitting a parallel timelike vector field. We also derive some properties of the space of all such metrics on a given manifold.
We consider cones over manifolds admitting real Killing spinors and instanton equations on connections on vector bundles over these manifolds. Such cones are manifolds with special (reduced) holonomy. We generalize the scalar ansatz for a connection proposed by Harland and Nolle in such a way that instantons are parameterized by constrained matrix-valued functions. Our ansatz reduces instanton equations to a matrix model equations which can be further reduced to Newtonian mechanics with particle trajectories obeying first-order gradient flow equations. Generalizations to Kaehler-Einstein manif…
According to the Markus conjecture, closed flat affine manifolds with parallel volume should be complete. We show it is the case for three-manifolds when the holonomy centralizes an affine transformation preserving the volume. It is notably the case when the holonomy group has non trivial center or when the automorphism group is non discrete.
I discuss geometry and normal forms for pseudo-Riemannian metrics with parallel spinor fields in some interesting dimensions. I also discuss the interaction of these conditions for parallel spinor fields with the condition that the Ricci tensor vanish (which, for pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, is not an automatic consequence of the existence of a nontrivial parallel spinor field).
In this paper we investigate the relationship between the existence of parallel semi-Riemannian metrics of a connection and the reducibility of the associated holonomy group. The question as to whether the holonomy group necessarily reduces in the presence of a specified number of independent parallel semi-Riemannian metrics is completely determined by the the signature of the metrics and the dimension, d, of the manifold, when d not equal to four. In particular, the existence of two independent, parallel semi-Riemannian metrics, one of which having signature (p,q) with p not equal to q, impli…
We determine the holonomy of generalized Killing spinor covariant derivatives of the form $D= \nabla + Ω$ on pseudo-Riemannian reductive homogeneous spaces in a purely algebraic and algorithmic way, where $Ω: TM \rightarrow Λ^*(TM)$ is a left-invariant homomorphism. This is essentially an application of the theory of invariant principal bundle connections defined over homogeneous principal bundles. Moreover, the algorithm allows a computation of the associated Killing superalgebra in certain cases. The procedure is demonstrated by determining the supersymmetries of certain homogeneous M2 duals…
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…
In this paper we establish a one-to-one correspondence between $S^1$-gerbes with connections, on the one hand, and their holonomies, for simply connected manifolds, or their parallel transports, in the general case, on the other hand. This result is a higher-order analogue of the familiar equivalence between bundles with connections and their holonomies for connected manifolds. The holonomy of a gerbe with group $S^1$ on a simply connected manifold $M$ is a group morphism from the thin second homotopy group to $S^1$, satisfying a smoothness condition, where a homotopy between maps from $[0,1]^…
Due to a result by Gallot a Riemannian cone over a complete Riemannian manifold is either flat or has an irreducible holonomy representation. This is false in general for indefinite cones but the structures induced on the cone by holonomy invariant subspaces can be used to study the geometry on the base of the cone. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we will give a survey of general results about semi-Riemannian cones with non irreducible holonomy representation and then, as the main result, we will derive improved versions of these general statements in the case when the cone admits …
We study the geometry and holonomy of semi-Riemannian, time-like metric cones that are indecomposable, i.e., which do not admit a local decomposition into a semi-Riemannian product. This includes irreducible cones, for which the holonomy can be classified, as well as non irreducible cones. The latter admit a parallel distribution of null $k$-planes, and we study the cases $k=1$ and $k=2$ in detail. In these cases, i.e., when the cone admits a distribution of parallel null tangent lines or planes, we give structure theorems about the base manifold. Moreover, in the case $k=1$ and when the base …
We completely explore the system of ODE's which is equivalent to the existence of a parallel $Spin(7)$-structure on the cone over a 7-dimensional 3-Sasakian manifold. The one-dimensional family of solutions of this system is constructed. The solutions of this family correspond to metrics with holonomy SU(4) which generalize the Calabi metrics.
We classify locally homogeneous quasi-Sasakian manifolds in dimension five that admit a parallel spinor $ψ$ of algebraic type $F \cdot ψ= 0$ with respect to the unique connection $\nabla$ preserving the quasi-Sasakian structure and with totally skew-symmetric torsion. We introduce a certain conformal transformation of almost contact metric manifolds and discuss a link between them and the dilation function in 5-dimensional string theory. We find natural conditions implying conformal invariances of parallel spinors. We present topological obstructions to the existence of parallel spinors in the…
In 1981, covariantly constant spinors were introduced into Kaluza-Klein theory as a way of counting the number of supersymmetries surviving compactification. These are related to the holonomy group of the compactifying manifold. The first non-trivial example was provided in 1982 by D=11 supergravity on the squashed S7, whose G2 holonomy yields N=1 in D=4. In 1983, another example was provided by D=11 supergravity on K3, whose SU(2) holonomy yields half the maximum supersymmetry. In 2002, G2 and K3 manifolds continue to feature prominently in the full D=11 M-theory and its dualities. In particu…
Our goal in this paper is to make an attempt to find the largest Lie algebra of vector fields on the indicatrix such that all its elements are tangent to the holonomy group of a Finsler manifold. First, we introduce the notion of the curvature algebra, generated by curvature vector fields, then we define the infinitesimal holonomy algebra by the smallest Lie algebra of vector fields on an indicatrix, containing the curvature vector fields and their horizontal covariant derivatives with respect to the Berwald connection. At the end we introduce the notion of the holonomy algebra of a Finsler ma…
We describe all almost contact metric, almost hermitian and $G_2$-structures admitting a connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion tensor, and prove that there exists at most one such connection. We investigate its torsion form, its Ricci tensor, the Dirac operator and the $\nabla$-parallel spinors. In particular, we obtain solutions of the type II string in dimension $n=5,6$ and 7.
We introduce horizontal holonomy groups, which are groups defined using parallel transport only along curves tangent to a given subbundle $D$ of the tangent bundle. We provide explicit means of computing these holonomy groups by deriving analogues of Ambrose-Singer's and Ozeki's theorems. We then give necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of the horizontal holonomy groups for existence of solutions of two problems on foliated manifolds: determining when a foliation can be either (a) totally geodesic or (b) endowed with a principal bundle structure. The subbundle $D$ plays the role of an…
