Let V be the pseudo-Euclidean vector space of signature (p,q), p>2 and W a module over the even Clifford algebra Cl^0 (V). A homogeneous quaternionic manifold (M,Q) is constructed for any spin(V)-equivariant linear map Π: \wedge^2 W \to V. If the skew symmetric vector valued bilinear form Πis nondegenerate then (M,Q) is endowed with a canonical pseudo-Riemannian metric g such that (M,Q,g) is a homogeneous quaternionic pseudo-Kähler manifold.
The construction is shown to have a natural mirror in the category of supermanifolds. In fact, for any spin(V)-equivariant linear map Π: Sym^2 W \to V a homogeneous quaternionic supermanifold (M,Q) is constructed and, moreover, a homogeneous quaternionic pseudo-Kähler supermanifold (M,Q,g) if the symmetric vector valued bilinear form Πis nondegenerate.
An explicit classification of homogeneous quaternionic Kaehler structures by real tensors is derived and we relate this to the representation-theoretic description found by Fino. We then show how the quaternionic hyperbolic space HH(n) is characterised by admitting homogeneous structures of a particularly simple type. In the process we study the properties of different homogeneous models for HH(n).
We show that pseudo-Riemannian almost quaternionic homogeneous spaces with index 4 and an H-irreducible isotropy group are locally isometric to a pseudo-Riemannian quaternionic Kähler symmetric space if the dimension is at least 16. In dimension 12 we give a non-symmetric example.
We provide a new, self-contained proof of the classification of homogeneous 3-Sasakian manifolds, which was originally obtained by Boyer, Galicki and Mann. In doing so, we construct an explicit one-to-one correspondence between simply connected homogeneous 3-Sasakian manifolds and simple complex Lie algebras via the theory of root systems. We also discuss why the real projective spaces are the only non-simply connected homogeneous 3-Sasakian manifolds and derive the famous classification of homogeneous positive quaternionic Kähler manifolds due to Wolf and Alekseevskii from our results.
Geodesic orbit spaces (or g.o. spaces) are defined as those homogeneous Riemannian spaces $(M=G/H,g)$ whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter subgroups of $G$. The corresponding metric $g$ is called a geodesic orbit metric. We study the geodesic orbit spaces of the form $(\Sp(n)/\Sp(n_1)\times \cdots \times \Sp(n_s), g)$, with $0<n_1+\cdots +n_s\leq n$. Such spaces include spheres, quaternionic Stiefel manifolds, Grassmann manifolds and quaternionic flag manifolds. The present work is a contribution to the study of g.o. spaces $(G/H,g)$ with $H$ semisimple.
In this note, we describe the geometry of the quaternionic Heisenberg groups from a Riemannian viewpoint. We show, in all dimensions, that they carry an almost $3$-contact metric structure which allows us to define the metric connection that equips these groups with the structure of a naturally reductive homogeneous space. It turns out that this connection, which we shall call the canonical connection because of its analogy to the $3$-Sasaki case, preserves the horizontal and vertical distributions and even the quaternionic contact structure of the quaternionic Heisenberg groups. We focus on t…
In this paper we completely classify the homogeneous two-spheres, especially, the minimal homogeneous ones in the quaternionic projective space $\textbf{HP}^n$. According to our classification, more minimal constant curved two-spheres in $\textbf{HP}^n$ are obtained than Ohnita conjectured in the paper "Homogeneous harmonic maps into projective space, Tokyo J Math, 1990, 13(1): 87-116".
Motivated by the quaternionic geometry corresponding to the homogeneous complex manifolds endowed with (holomorphically) embedded spheres, we introduce and initiate the study of the `quaternionic-like manifolds'. These contain, as particular subclasses, the CR quaternionic and the $ρ$-quaternionic manifolds. Moreover, the notion of `heaven space' finds its adequate level of generality in this setting: (essentially) any real analytic quaternionic-like manifold admits a (germ) unique heaven space, which is a $ρ$-quaternionic manifold. We, also, give a natural construction of homogeneous complex …
We consider invariant Einstein metrics on the quaternionic Stiefel manifolds $V_p\mathbb{H} ^n$ of all orthonormal $p$-frames in $\mathbb{H}^n$. This manifold is diffeomorphic to the homogeneous space $\mathrm{Sp}(n) / \mathrm{Sp}(n-p)$ and its isotropy representation contains equivalent summands. We obtain new Einstein metrics on $V_p\mathbb{H}^n \cong \mathrm{Sp}(n)/\mathrm{Sp}(n-p)$, where $n = k_1 + k_2 + k_3$ and $p = n-k_3$. We view $V_p\mathbb{H}^n$ as a total space over the generalized Wallach space $\mathrm{Sp}(n) / (\mathrm{Sp}(k_1) \times \mathrm{Sp}(k_2) \times \mathrm{Sp}(k_3))$ a…
Given a quaternionic manifold $M$ with a certain $\mathrm{U}(1)$-symmetry, we construct a hypercomplex manifold $M'$ of the same dimension. This construction generalizes the quaternionic Kähler/hyper-Kähler-correspondence. As an example of this construction, we obtain a compact homogeneous hypercomplex manifold which does not admit any hyper-Kähler structure. Therefore our construction is a proper generalization of the quaternionic Kähler/hyper-Kähler-correspondence.
We conclude the classification of cohomogeneity one actions on symmetric spaces of rank one by classifying cohomogeneity one actions on quaternionic hyperbolic spaces up to orbit equivalence. As a by-product of our proof, we produce uncountably many examples of inhomogeneous isoparametric families of hypersurfaces with constant principal curvatures in quaternionic hyperbolic spaces.
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), QKT-connection. We study the geometry of QKT-connections. We find conditions to the existence of a QKT-connection and prove that if it exists it is unique. Studying conformal transformations we obtain a lot of (compact) examples of QKT manifolds. We present a (local) description of 4-dimensional homogeneous QKT structures relying on the known result of naturally reductive homogeneous Riemannian manifolds. We con…
The algebraic and geometric properties of a novel generalization of Clifford's classical C4 point-circle configuration are analysed. A connection with the integrable quaternionic discrete Schwarzian Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation is revealed.
We show that every $3$-$(α,δ)$-Sasaki manifold of dimension $4n + 3$ admits a locally defined Riemannian submersion over a quaternionic Kähler manifold of scalar curvature $16n(n+2)αδ$. In the non-degenerate case ($δ\neq 0$) we describe all homogeneous $3$-$(α,δ)$-Sasaki manifolds fibering over symmetric Wolf spaces (case $αδ> 0$) and over their the noncompact dual symmetric spaces (case $αδ< 0$). If $αδ> 0$, this yields a complete classification of homogeneous $3$-$(α,δ)$-Sasaki manifolds; for $αδ< 0$, we provide a general construction of homogeneous $3$-$(α,δ)$-Sasaki manifolds fibering over…
The moduli space of the Calabi-Yau three-folds, which play a role as superstring ground states, exhibits the same {\em special geometry} that is known from nonlinear sigma models in $N=2$ supergravity theories. We discuss the symmetry structure of special real, complex and quaternionic spaces. Maps between these spaces are implemented via dimensional reduction. We analyze the emergence of {\em extra} and {\em hidden} symmetries. This analysis is then applied to homogeneous special spaces and the implications for the classification of homogeneous quaternionic spaces are discussed.
We classify the effective and transitive actions of a Lie group $G$ on an n-dimensional non-degenerate hyperboloid (also called real pseudo-hyperbolic space), under the assumption that $G$ is a closed, connected Lie subgroup of $SO_0(n-r,r+1)$, the connected component of the indefinite special orthogonal group. Assuming additionally that $G$ acts completely reducible on $\mathbb R^{n+1}$, we also obtain that any $G$-homogeneous Einstein pseudo-Riemannian metric on a real, complex or quaternionic pseudo-hyperbolic space, or on a para-complex or para-quaternionic projective space is homothetic t…
We study geometric first order differential operators on quaternionic Kähler manifolds. Their principal symbols are related to the enveloping algebra and Casimir elements for $\Sp(1)\Sp(n)$. This observation leads to anti-symmetry of the principal symbols and Bochner-Weitzenböck formulas for operators. As an application, we estimate the first eigenvalues of them.
We construct examples of complete quaternionic Kähler manifolds with an end of finite volume, which are not locally homogeneous. The manifolds are aspherical with fundamental group which is up to an infinite cyclic extension a semi-direct product of a lattice in a semi-simple group with a lattice in a Heisenberg group. Their universal covering is a cohomogeneity one deformation of a symmetric space of non-compact type.
We define an (equivariant) quaternionic analytic torsion for antiselfdual vector bundles on quaternionic Kaehler manifolds, using ideas by Leung and Yi. We compute this torsion for vector bundles on quaternionic homogeneous spaces with respect to any isometry in the component of the identity, in terms of roots and Weyl groups.
The symmetry dimension of a geometric structure is the dimension of its symmetry algebra. We investigate symmetries of almost quaternionic structures of quaternionic dimension $n$. The maximal possible symmetry is realized by the quaternionic projective space $\mathbb{H}P^n$, which is flat and has the symmetry algebra $\mathfrak{sl}(n+1,\mathbb{H})$ of dimension $4n^2+8n+3$. For non-flat almost quaternionic manifolds we compute the next biggest (submaximal) symmetry dimension. We show that it is equal to $4n^2-4n+9$ for $n>1$ (it is equal to 8 for $n=1$). This is realized both by a quaternioni…
In this paper we introduce two definitions for algebraic and geometric multiplicities of a quaternion right eigenvalue. This definitions are equivalent to the classical ones. However, differently from the usual definitions, the notions of root subspace and Jordan form of a quaternion matrix are not required and all the properties can be proved easily.
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 an overview of some recent results in hypersymplectic and para-quaternionic Kahler geometry, and introduce the notion of split three-Sasakian manifold. In particular, we discuss the twistor spaces and Swann bundles of para-quaternionic Kahler manifolds. These are used to classify examples with a fully homogeneous action of a semi-simple Lie group, and to construct distinct para-quaternionic Kahler metrics from indefinite real analytic conformal manifolds. We also indicate how the theory of toric varieties gives rise to constructions of hypersymplectic manifolds.
BPS solutions of 5-dimensional supergravity correspond to certain gradient flows on the product M x N of a quaternionic-Kaehler manifold M of negative scalar curvature and a very special real manifold N of dimension n >=0. Such gradient flows are generated by the `energy function' f = P^2, where P is a (bundle-valued) moment map associated to n+1 Killing vector fields on M. We calculate the Hessian of f at critical points and derive some properties of its spectrum for general quaternionic-Kaehler manifolds. For the homogeneous quaternionic-Kaehler manifolds we prove more specific results depen…
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a geometric structure called pseudo-conformal quaternionic CR structure on a (4n+3)-dimensional mamnifold and then exhibit a quaternionic analogue of Chern-Moser's CR structure and uniformization.
We study symmetry properties of quaternionic Kähler manifolds obtained by the HK/QK correspondence. To any Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ of infinitesimal automorphisms of the initial hyper-Kähler data we associate a central extension of $\mathfrak{g}$, acting by infinitesimal automorphisms of the resulting quaternionic Kähler manifold. More specifically, we study the metrics obtained by the one-loop deformation of the $c$-map construction, proving that the Lie algebra of infinitesimal automorphisms of the initial projective special Kähler manifold gives rise to a Lie algebra of Killing fields of …
The purpose of this paper is to describe certain natural 4-vector fields on quaternionic flag manifolds, which geometrically determine the Bruhat cell decomposition. This structure naturally descends from the symplectic group, where it is related to the dressing action given by the Iwasawa decomposition of the general linear group over the quaternions.
We classify all complete projective special real manifolds with reducible cubic potential, obtaining four series. For two of the series the manifolds are homogeneous, for the two others the respective automorphism group acts with co-homogeneity one. Complete projective special real manifolds give rise to complete quaternionic Kähler manifolds via the supergravity q-map, which is the composition of the supergravity c-map and r-map. We develop curvature formulas for manifolds in the image of the q-map. Applying the q-map to one of the above series of projective special real manifolds, we obtain …
The structure of nearly Kähler manifolds was studied by Gray in several papers. More recently, a relevant progress on the subject has been done by Nagy. Among other results, he proved that a strict and complete nearly Kähler manifold is locally a Riemannian product of homogeneous nearly Kähler spaces, twistor spaces over quaternionic K{ähler manifolds and six-dimensional nearly Kähler manifolds, where the homogeneous nearly Kähler factors are also 3-symmetric spaces. In the present paper, using the lists of $3$-symmetric spaces given by Wolf & Gray, we display the exhaustive list of irreducibl…
In this paper, we study the heat kernel associated to the intrinsic sublaplacian on a quaternionic contact manifold considered as a subriemannian manifold. More precisely, we explicitly compute the first two coefficients $c_0$ and $c_1$ appearing in the small time asymptotics expansion of the heat kernel on the diagonal. We show that the second coefficient $c_1$ depends linearly on the qc scalar curvature $κ$. Finally we apply our results to compact qc-Einstein manifolds and prove the spectral invariance of geometric quantities in the subriemannian setting.
On the seven dimensional Euclidean sphere $\mathbb{S}^7$ we compare two subriemannian structures with regards to various geometric and analytical properties. The first structure is called trivializable and the underlying distribution $\mathcal{H}_T$ is induced by a Clifford module structure of $\mathbb{R}^8$. More precisely, $\mathcal{H}_T$ is rank $4$, bracket generating of step two and generated by globally defined vector fields. The distribution $\mathcal{H}_{Q}$ of the second structure is of rank 4 and step two as well and obtained as the horizontal distribution in the quaternionic Hopf fi…
For homogeneous reductive spaces G/H with reductive complements decomposable into an orthogonal sum \mathfrak{m}=\mathfrak{m}_1 \oplus \mathfrak{m}_2 \oplus \mathfrak{m}_3 of three Ad(H)-invariant irreducible mutually inequivalent submodules we establish simple conditions under which an invariant metric f-structure (f,g) belongs to the classes G_1 f, NKf, and Kill f of generalized Hermitian geometry. The statements obtained are then illustrated with four examples. Namely we consider invariant metric f-structures on the manifolds of oriented flags SO(n)/SO(2)\times SO(n-3) (n>=4), the Stiefel m…
A hypercomplex manifold is a manifold equipped with a triple of complex structures $I, J, K$ satisfying the quaternionic relations. We define a quaternionic analogue of plurisubharmonic functions on hypercomplex manifolds, and interpret these functions geometrically as potentials of HKT (hyperkähler with torsion) metrics, and prove a quaternionic analogue of A.D. Aleksandrov and Chern-Levine-Nirenberg theorems.
Contact path geometries are curved geometric structures on a contact manifold comprising smooth families of paths modeled on the family of all isotropic lines in the projectivization of a symplectic vector space. Locally such a structure is equivalent to the graphs in the space of independent and depedent variables of the family of solutions of a system of an odd number of second order ODE's subject to a single maximally non-integrable constraint. A subclass of contact path geometries is distinguished by the vanishing of an invariant contact torsion. For this subclass the equivalence problem i…
We prove that under some purely algebraic conditions every locally homogeneous structure modelled on some homogeneous space is induced by a locally homogeneous structure modelled on a different homogeneous space.
We construct infinite families of regular normal Cartan geometries with nonvanishing curvature and essential automorphisms on closed manifolds for many higher rank parabolic model geometries. To do this, we use particular elements of the kernel of the Kostant Laplacian to construct homogeneous Cartan geometries of the desired type, giving a global realization of an elegant local construction due to Kruglikov and The, and then modify these homogeneous geometries to make their base manifolds compact. As a demonstration, we apply the construction to quaternionic contact structrures of mixed signa…
We prove that the supergravity r- and c-maps preserve completeness. As a consequence, any component H of a hypersurface {h=1} defined by a homogeneous cubic polynomial such that -d^2 h is a complete Riemannian metric on H defines a complete projective special Kahler manifold and any complete projective special Kahler manifold defines a complete quaternionic Kahler manifold of negative scalar curvature. We classify all complete quaternionic Kahler manifolds of dimension less or equal to 12 which are obtained in this way and describe some complete examples in 16 dimensions.
We study locally homogeneous rigid geometric structures on surfaces. We show that a locally homogeneous projective connection on a compact surface is flat. We also show that a locally homogeneous unimodular affine connection on a two dimensional torus is complete and, up to a finite cover, homogeneous. Let $\nabla$ be a unimodular real analytic affine connection on a real analytic compact connected surface $M$. If $\nabla$ is locally homogeneous on a nontrivial open set in $M$, we prove that $\nabla$ is locally homogeneous on all of $M$.
Unit tangent bundles $UM$ of semi-Riemannian manifolds $M$ are shown to be examples of dynamical Legendrian contact structures, which were defined in recent work [25] of Sykes-Zelenko to generalize leaf spaces of 2-nondegenerate CR manifolds. In doing so, Sykes-Zelenko extended the classification in Porter-Zelenko [20] of regular, 2-nondegenerate CR structures to those that can be recovered from their leaf space. The present paper treats dynamical Legendrian contact structures associated with 2-nondegenerate CR structures which were called "strongly regular" in Porter-Zelenko, named "L-contact…
In this paper, we completely classify homogeneous production functions with an arbitrary number of inputs whose production hypersurfaces are flat. As an immediate consequence, we obtain a complete classification of homogeneous production functions with two inputs whose production surfaces are developable.
A Riemannian manifold is called geometrically formal if the wedge product of harmonic forms is again harmonic, which implies in the compact case that the manifold is topologically formal in the sense of rational homotopy theory. A manifold admitting a Riemannian metric of positive sectional curvature is conjectured to be topologically formal. Nonetheless, we show that among the homogeneous Riemannian metrics of positive sectional curvature a geometrically formal metric is either symmetric, or a metric on a rational homology sphere.
BGG-sequences offer a uniform construction for invariant differential operators for a large class of geometric structures called parabolic geometries. For locally flat geometries, the resulting sequences are complexes, but in general the compositions of the operators in such a sequence are nonzero. In this paper, we show that under appropriate torsion freeness and/or semi-flatness assumptions certain parts of all BGG sequences are complexes. Several examples of structures, including quaternionic structures, hypersurface type CR structures and quaternionic contact structures are discussed in de…
We investigate geometric properties of homogeneous parabolic geometries with generalized symmetries. We show that they can be reduced to a simpler geometric structures and interpret them explicitly. For specific types of parabolic geometries, we prove that the reductions correspond to known generalizations of symmetric spaces. In addition, we illustrate our results on an explicit example and provide a complete classification of possible non--trivial cases.
We present a new simple proof of the fact that certain group manifolds as well as certain homogeneous spaces G/H of dimension 4n admit a quaternionic triple of integrable complex structures that are covariantly constant with respect to the same torsionful Bismut connection, i.e. exhibit the HKT geometry. The key observation is that different complex structures are interrelated by automorphisms of the Lie algebra. To construct the quaternion triples, one only needs to construct the proper automorphisms, which is a more simple problem.
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…
We provide examples of homogeneous spaces which are neither symmetric spaces nor real cohomology spheres, yet have the property that every invariant metric is geometrically formal. We also extend the known obstructions to geometric formality to some new classes of homogeneous spaces and of biquotients, and to certain sphere bundles.
We use geometric algebra techniques to give a synthetic and computationally efficient approach to Fierz identities in arbitrary dimensions and signatures, thus generalizing previous work. Our approach leads to a formulation which displays the underlying real, complex or quaternionic structure in an explicit and conceptually clear manner and is amenable to implementation in various symbolic computation systems. We illustrate our methods and results with a few examples which display the basic features of the three classes of pin representations governing the structure of such identities in vario…
The Ricci flow is a parabolic evolution equation in the space of Riemannian metrics of a smooth manifold. To some extent, Einstein equations give rise to a similar hyperbolic evolution. The present text is an introductory exposition to Bianchi-Ricci and Bianchi-Einstein flows, that is, the restricted finitely dimensional dynamical systems, obtained by considering homogeneous metrics.
