arXiv research

Geometric structures on surfaces relate to 2-plane distributions in 5D.

A diffeomorphism of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds is called sectional curvature preserving if it preserves the sectional curvature of all the nondegenerate 2-planes. We consider a similar condition for degenerate 2-planes and we prove that the diffeomorphism is conformal (when the condition is fulfilled for weakly degene…

It is shown that coassociative cones in R^7 that are r-oriented and ruled by 2-planes are equivalent to CR-holomorphic curves in the oriented Grassmanian of 2-planes in R^7. The geometry of these CR-holomorphic curves is studied and related to holomorphic curves in S^6. This leads to an equivalence between associative …

The axiom of θ-holomorphic 2-planes is introduced. It is proved, that if an almost Hermitian manifold satisfies this axiom for a fixed θ, 0< θ< π/2, then it is a real space form.

We consider the question whether an orientable 5-manifold can be equipped with a rank two distribution of Cartan type and what 2-plane bundles can be realized. We obtain a complete answer for open manifolds. In the closed case, we settle the topological part of this problem and present partial results concerning its ge…

Cayley cones in the octonions $\mathbb{O}$ that are ruled by oriented 2-planes are equivalent to pseudoholomorphic curves in the Grassmannian of oriented 2-planes G(2,8). The well known twistor fibration $G(2,8) -> S^6$ is used to prove the existence of immersed higher-genus pseudoholomorphic curves in $\gro$. Equivale…

In the geometry of generic 2-plane fields on 5-manifolds, the local equivalence problem was solved by Cartan who also constructed the fundamental curvature invariant. For generic 2-plane fields or $(2,3,5)$-distributions determined by a single function of the form $F(q)$, the vanishing condition for the curvature invar…

We study the geometry of Engel structures, which are 2-plane fields on 4-manifolds satisfying a generic condition, that are compatible with other geometric structures. A \em{Lagrangian} Engel structure is an Engel 2-plane field on a symplectic 4-manifold for which the 2-planes are Lagrangian with respect to the symplec…

It is known that for every smooth great circle fibration of the 3-sphere, the distribution of tangent 2-planes orthogonal to the fibres is a contact structure, in fact a tight one, but we show here that, beginning with the 5-sphere, there exist smooth great circle fibrations of all odd-dimensional spheres for which the…

Study contact structures on projective spaces, proving infinite non-isotopic structures.

We study the geometry of Engel structures, which are 2-plane fields on 4-manifolds satisfying a generic condition, that are compatible with other geometric structures. A complex Engel structure is an Engel 2-plane field on a complex surface for which the 2-planes are complex lines. We solve the equivalence problems for…

The Grassmannian $V_2(\mathbb{R}^{n+2})$ of oriented 2-planes in $\mathbb R^{n+2}$ where $n\ge3$ carries a homogeneous parabolic contact structure of Grassmannian type. The main result of this article is that on $V_2(\mathbb{R}^{n+2})$ lives an elliptic complex of invariant differential operators of length 3 which star…

Analytic torsion defined for rank 2 distributions on 5-manifolds.

Given any smooth fibration of the unit 3-sphere by great circles, we show that the distribution of 2-planes orthogonal to the great circle fibres is a tight contact structure, a fact well known in the special case of the Hopf fibrations. The proof expresses hypothesis and conclusion as differential inequalities involvi…

For a closed oriented 3-manifold Y, we define an absolute grading on the Heegaard Floer homology groups of Y by homotopy classes of oriented 2-plane fields. We show that this absolute grading refines the relative one and that it is compatible with the maps induced by cobordisms. We also prove that if ξ is a contact str…

The paper discusses Gauss maps for Möbius surfaces in spheres and their applications to Willmore surfaces.

A Riemannian manifold is said to be almost positively curved if the sets of points for which all $2$-planes have positive sectional curvature is open and dense. We show that the Grassmannian of oriented $2$-planes in $\mathbb{R}^7$ admits a metric of almost positive curvature, giving the first example of an almost posi…

Proves conjecture about geodesic foliations in Riemannian planes.

In 1998, R. Gompf defined a homotopy invariant $θ_G$ of oriented 2-plane fields in 3-manifolds. This invariant is defined for oriented 2-plane fields $ξ$ in a closed oriented 3-manifold $M$ when the first Chern class $c_1(ξ)$ is a torsion element of $H^2(M;\mathbb{Z})$. In this article, we define an extension of the Go…

The sectional curvature of a compact Riemannian manifold M can be seen as a random variable on the Grassmann bundle of 2-planes in TM endowed with the Fubini-Study volume density. In this article we calculate the moments of this random variable by integrating suitable local Riemannian invariants and discuss the distrib…

Maps from 2-planes to projective spaces using quaternions and octonions.

Nurowski showed that any generic 2-plane field $D$ on a 5-manifold $M$ determines a natural conformal structure $c_D$ on $M$; these conformal structures are exactly those (on oriented $M$) whose normal conformal holonomy is contained in the (split, real) simple Lie group $G_2$. Graham and Willse showed that for real-an…

The Whitney-Graustein theorem states that regular closed curves in the 2-plane are classified, up to regular homotopy, by their rotation number. Here we give a simple proof based on contact geometry.

Given a generic 2-plane field on a 5-dimensional manifold we consider its (3,2)-signature conformal metric [g] as defined in math.DG/0406400. Every conformal class [g] obtained in this way has very special conformal holonomy: it must be contained in the split-real-form of the exceptional group G_2. In this note we show…

The abstract discusses metrics with positive biorthogonal curvature on 5-manifolds.

New classification of conformal structures with maximal $G_2$ symmetry.

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…

We recreate an unpublished proof of William Thurston from the early 1970's that any smooth 2-plane field on a manifold of dimension at least 4 is homotopic to the tangent plane field of a foliation.

In "The Gel'fand-Kalinin-Fuks class and characteristic classes of transversely symplectic foliations", arXiv:0910.3414, (October 2009) by D.Kotschick and S.Morita, the relative Gel'fand-Kalinin-Fuks cohomology groups of the formal Hamiltonian vector fields without constant vector fields on 2n-plane were characterized b…

Conditions, related to Kulkarni's equivalence problem are considered for indefinite Riemannian and Kaehlerian manifolds. Corresponding theorems are obtained for the values of the Ricci tensor on isotropic vectors as well as for the values of the curvature tensor on degenerate holomorphic 2-planes.

We present a sketch of the proof of the following theorems: (1) Every 3-manifold has only finitely many homotopy classes of 2-plane fields which carry tight contact structures. (2) Every closed atoroidal 3-manifold carries finitely many isotopy classes of tight contact structures.

The study examines stationary integral varifolds near multiplicity 2 planes, proving regularity under specific conditions.

We classify 4-dimensional austere submanifolds in Euclidean space ruled by 2-planes. The algebraic possibilities for second fundamental forms of an austere 4-fold M were classified by Bryant, falling into three types which we label A, B, and C. We show that if M is 2-ruled of Type A, then the ruling map from M into the…

In 1989, Y. Eliashberg proved that two overtwisted contact structures on a closed oriented 3-manifold are isotopic if and only if they are homotopic as 2-plane fields. We provide an alternative proof of this theorem using the convex surface theory and bypasses.

We consider a closed orientable Riemannian 3-manifold $(M,g)$ and a vector field $X$ with unit norm whose integral curves are geodesics of $g$. Any such vector field determines naturally a 2-plane bundle contained in the kernel of the contact form of the geodesic flow of $g$. We study when this 2-plane bundle remains i…

We prove that for a mean curvature flow of a compact symplectic surface in a compact Kaehler-Einstein surface, the tangent cone at the first blow-up time consists of a finite union of more than two 2-planes in $R^4$ which are complex in a complex structure on $R^4$.

In joint work with Yang Huang, we defined a canonical absolute grading on Heegaard Floer homology by homotopy classes of oriented 2-plane fields. A similar grading was defined on embedded contact homology by Michael Hutchings. In this paper we show that the isomorphism between these homology theories defined by Colin-G…

Investigate the local geometry of smooth surfaces in 4-space via contact with 2-planes and apparent contours.

In this paper, we first introduce the concept of $ξ$-submanifold which is a natural generalization of self-shrinkers for the mean curvature flow and also an extension of $λ$-hypersurfaces to the higher codimension. Then, as the main result, we prove a rigidity theorem for Lagrangian $ξ$-submanifold in the complex $2$-p…

As a means to better understanding manifolds with positive curvature, there has been much recent interest in the study of non-negatively curved manifolds which contain points at which all 2-planes have positive curvature. We show that there are generalisations of the well-known Eschenburg spaces and quotients of $\sph^…

As a means to better understanding manifolds with positive curvature, there has been much recent interest in the study of non-negatively curved manifolds which contain either a point or an open dense set of points at which all 2-planes have positive curvature. We study infinite families of biquotients defined by Eschen…

We use the generalized Pontryagin-Thom construction to analyze the effect of attaching a bypass on the homotopy class of the contact structure. In particular, given a 3-dimensional contact manifold with convex boundary, we show that the bypass triangle attachment changes the homotopy class of the contact structure rela…

We classify the connected pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature $(p,q)$ with $q\ge5$ so that at each point of $M$ the skew-symmetric curvature operator has constant rank 2 and constant Jordan normal form on the set of spacelike 2 planes and so that the skew-symmetric curvature operator is not nilpotent for at least …

New Ricci curvature means derived from plane curvatures.

We say that a topological $n$-manifold $N$ is a cubical $n$-manifold if it is contained in the $n$-skeleton of the canonical cubulation $\mathcal{C}$ of ${\mathbb{R}}^{n+k}$ ($k\geq1$). In this paper, we prove that any closed, oriented cubical $2$-manifold has a transverse field of 2-planes in the sense of Whitehead an…

The paper characterizes Pfaffian embeddings from 2,3,5-manifolds to 7-dimensional isotropic spaces.

Lie groups with bi-invariant distance are products of abelian and compact groups.

We consider a $4$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ equip\-ped with a circulant structure $q$, which is an isometry with respect to the metric $g$ and $q^{4}=\id$, $q^{2}\neq \pm \id$. For such a manifold $(M, g, q)$ we obtain some assertions for the sectional curvatures of $2$-planes. We construct an example of such…