arXiv research

Following an idea of Dadok, Harvey and Lawson, we apply the triality property of SO(8) to study the comass of certain self-dual 4-forms on R^8. In particular, we prove that the Cayley 4-form has comass 1 and that any self-dual 4-form realizing the maximal Wirtinger ratio is SO(8)-conjugate to the Cayley 4-form. We also…

We show that the fundamental 4-form on a quaternionic contact manifold of dimension at least eleven is closed if and only if the torsion endomorphism of the Biquard connection vanishes. This condition characterizes quaternionic contact structures which are locally qc homothetic to 3-Sasakian structures.

The paper proves unboundedness of Donaldson-Hitchin functionals on G2 and tG2 forms.

We show that on every Spin(7) manifold there always exists a unique linear connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion preserving a nontrivial spinor and the Spin(7) structure. We express its torsion and the Riemannian scalar curvature in terms of the fundamental 4-form. We present an explicit formula for the Rieman…

We introduce a type of Riemannian geometry in nine dimensions, which can be viewed as the counterpart of selfduality in four dimensions. This geometry is related to a 9-dimensional irreducible representation of ${\bf SO}(3) \times {\bf SO} (3)$ and it turns out to be defined by a differential 4-form. Structures admitti…

The paper explores connections between quaternionic and Cayley calibrations in dimensions 8 and 16.

New criteria for long-time existence of parabolic flow from 11D supergravity.

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 …

This paper presents a series of constructions providing eleven-dimensional bosonic supergravity backgrounds. In particular, we treat Lorentzian manifolds given in terms of twisted products of six-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds and five-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. By considering a representative flux 4-form adap…

We prove that all currently known examples of manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature satisfy a stronger condition: their curvature operator can be modified with a 4-form to become positive-semidefinite.

Let $Gr_k(\H^n)$ be the Grassmannian manifold of Quaternionic $k$-planes in $\H^n$ and let $γ^n_k\to Gr_k(\H^n)$ denote the Stiefel bundle of quaternionic $k$-frames in $\H^n$. Let $σ$ denote the first symplectic Pontrjagin form associated with the universal connection on $γ^n_k$. We show that every 4-form $ω$ on a smo…

Let (M^n,g) be a Riemannian spin manifold. The basic equations in supergravity models of type IIa string theory with 4-form flux involve a 3-form T, a 4-form F, a spinorial covariant derivative \nabla depending on \nabla^g, T, F, and a \nabla-parallel spinor field Ψ. We classify and construct many explicit families of …

We prove that if the fundamental 4-form of an almost-quaternionic Hermitian manifold (M, Q, g) of dimension at least eight satisfies the conformal-Killing equation, then (M, Q, g) is quaternionic-Kahler.

We describe the 8-dimensional Wolf spaces as cohomogeneity one SU(3)-manifolds, and discover perturbations of the quaternion-kaehler metric on the simply-connected 8-manifold G_2/SO(4) that carry a closed fundamental 4-form but are not Einstein.

We generalize Hansen--Strobl's definition of $H$-twisted Courant algebroid such that the twist $H$ of the Jacobi identity is a 4-form in the kernel of the anchor map and is closed under a naturally occurring exterior covariant derivative. We give examples and define a cohomology.

This paper explores 4-planes in Spin(7) manifolds with symplectic structures.

A discussion of torsion of Riemannian G-structures leads to a survey of contributions of Alfred Gray and others on almost Hermitian manifolds, G_2-manifolds, curvature identities, volume expansions, plotting geodesics, and the geometry of nilmanifolds. The paper concludes with a new example of a compact 8-manifold with…

The paper proves rigidity results for certain supergravity backgrounds in 11 dimensions.

This paper develops Yang-Mills flow on Riemannian manifolds with special holonomy. By analogy with the second-named author's thesis, we find that a supremum bound on a certain curvature component is sufficient to rule out finite-time singularities. Assuming such a bound, we prove that the infinite-time bubbling set is …

We show that in analogy to the introduction of Poisson structures twisted by a closed 3-form by Park and Klimcik-Strobl, the study of three dimensional sigma models with Wess-Zumino term leads in a likewise way to twisting of Courant algebroid structures by closed 4-forms H. The presentation is kept pedagogical and acc…

We modify the Laplacian coflow of co-closed G2-structures - $\frac{d}{dt}ψ=Δψ$ where $ψ$ is the closed dual 4-form of a $G_{2}$-structure $\varphi$. The modified flow is now parabolic in the direction of closed forms upto diffeomorphisms. We then prove short time existence and uniqueness of solutions to the modified f…

In this note we propose a method to classify homogeneous nilpotent elements in a real $Z_m$-graded semisimple Lie algebra $g$. Using this we describe the set of orbits of homogeneous elements in a real $Z_2$-graded semisimple Lie algebra. A classification of 4-vectors (resp. 4-forms) on $R^8$ can be given using this me…

Special p-forms are forms which have components φ_{μ_1...μ_p} equal to +1,-1 or 0 in some orthonormal basis. A p-form φ\in Λ^p R^d is called democratic if the set of nonzero components {φ_{μ_1...μ_p}} is symmetric under the transitive action of a subgroup of O(d,Z) on the indices {1,...,d}. Knowledge of these symmetry …

We study 8-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that admit a PSU(3)-structure. We classify these structures by their intrinsic torsion and characterize the corresponding classes via differential equations. Moreover, we consider a connection defined by a 3- and a 4-form that preserves the underlying structure. Finally, we d…

Introduces Lorentzian Cayley form solving geometric puzzle.

We show a relationship between Chern-Simons 1- and 3-forms and harmonic forms on a principal bundle. Doing so requires one to consider an adiabatic limit. For the 3-form case, assume that G is simple and the corresponding Chern-Weil 4-form is exact. Then, the Chern-Simons 3-form on the princpal bundle G-bundle, minus a…

We discuss the construction of Sp(2)Sp(1)-structures whose fundamental form is closed. In particular, we find 10 new examples of 8-dimensional nilmanifolds that admit an invariant closed 4-form with stabiliser Sp(2)Sp(1). Our constructions entail the notion of SO(4)-structures on 7-manifolds. We present a thorough inve…

We answer in the affirmative a question posed by Ivanov and Vassilev on the existence of a seven dimensional quaternionic contact manifold with closed fundamental 4-form and non-vanishing torsion endomorphism. Moreover, we show an approach to the classification of seven dimensional solvable Lie groups having an integra…

Abelian gerbes and twisted bundles describe the topology of the NS-NS 3-form gauge field strength H. We review how they have been usefully applied to study and resolve global anomalies in open string theory. Abelian 2-gerbes and twisted nonabelian gerbes describe the topology of the 4-form field strength G of M-theory.…

The purpose of this note is to define tri-moment maps for certain manifolds that carry closed non-degenerate 4-forms and an $Sp(1)^n$-action. Examples include quaternionic vector spaces and flag manifolds. We show how this map can be used ro reduce such manifolds to the ones with fewer symmetries. The images of such ma…

Wintgen ideal surfaces in E^4 form an important family of surfaces, namely surfaces with circular ellipse of curvature. Obviously, Wintgen ideal surfaces satisfy the pointwise equality K+K_N=H^2. In the present study we consider the Wintgen ideal surfaces in n-dimensional Euclidean space E^4. We have shown that Wintgen…

In this paper, we give the categorification of Leibniz algebras, which is equivalent to 2-term sh Leibniz algebras. They reveal the algebraic structure of omni-Lie 2-algebras introduced in \cite{omniLie2} as well as twisted Courant algebroids by closed 4-forms introduced in \cite{4form}. We also prove that Dirac struct…

We study holonomy algebras generated by an algebraic element of the Clifford algebra, or equivalently, the holonomy algebras of certain spin connections in flat space. We provide series of examples in arbitrary dimensions and establish general properties of the holonomy algebras under some mild conditions on the genera…

This is a survey on the construction of a canonical or "octonionic Kähler" 8-form, representing one of the generators of the cohomology of the four Cayley-Rosenfeld projective planes. The construction, in terms of the associated even Clifford structures, draws a parallel with that of the quaternion Kähler 4-form. We po…

The paper extends Huber's theorem to higher dimensions with specific geometric constraints.

We consider an instanton,$\textbf{A}$,with $L^{2}$-curvature $F_{\textbf{A}}$ on the cylindrical manifold $Z=\mathbf{R}\times M$,where $M$ is a closed Riemannian $n$-manifold, $n\geq 4$.We assume $M$ admits a $3$-form $P$ and a $4$-form $Q$ satisfy $dP=4Q$ and $d\ast{Q}=(n-3)\ast P$.Manifolds with these forms include n…

Ansatze are constructed under which the solutions of 11D supergravity must be stationary points of a parabolic flow on a Riemannian manifold $M^{10-p}$. This parabolic flow turns out to be the Ricci flow coupled to a scalar field, a $(3-p)$-form, and a $4$-form. This allows the introduction of techniques from parabolic…

New method proves $h$-principles for stable forms on manifolds.

In the $3$-gauge theory, a $3$-connection is given by a $1$-form $A$ valued in the Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$, a $2$-form $B$ valued in the Lie algebra $\mathfrak h$ and a $3$-form $C$ valued in the Lie algebra $\mathfrak l$, where $(\mathfrak g,\mathfrak h, \mathfrak l)$ constitutes a differential $2$-crossed modu…

Under the relation of $0$-concordance, the set of knotted 2-spheres in $S^4$ forms a commutative monoid $\mathcal{M}_0$ with the operation of connected sum. Sunukjian has recently shown that $\mathcal{M}_0$ contains a submonoid isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^{\ge 0}$. In this note, we show that $\mathcal{M}_0$ contains a su…

We classify symmetric backgrounds of eleven-dimensional supergravity up to local isometry. In other words, we classify triples (M,g,F), where (M,g) is an eleven-dimensional lorentzian locally symmetric space and F is an invariant 4-form, satisfying the equations of motion of eleven-dimensional supergravity. The possibl…

We study the spinorial Killing equation of supergravity involving a torsion 3-form $\T$ as well as a flux 4-form $\F$. In dimension seven, we construct explicit families of compact solutions out of 3-Sasakian geometries, nearly parallel $\G_2$-geometries and on the homogeneous Aloff-Wallach space. The constraint $\F \c…

We consider $G_2$ structures with torsion coupled with $G_2$-instantons, on a compact $7$-dimensional manifold. The coupling is via an equation for $4$-forms which appears in supergravity and generalized geometry, known as the Bianchi identity. The resulting system of partial differential equations can be regarded as a…

We show how the theory of invariant principal bundle connections for reductive homogeneous spaces can be applied to determine the holonomy of generalised Killing spinor covariant derivatives of the form $D= \nabla + Ω$ in a purely algebraic and algorithmic way, where $Ω: TM \rightarrow Λ^*(TM)$ is a left-invariant homo…

IIn this article, we study the instanton equation on the cylinder over a closed manifold $X$ which admits non-zero smooth $3$-form $P$ and $4$-form $Q$. Our results are (1) if $X$ is a \textbf{good} manifold, i.e., $P,Q$ satisfying $d\ast_{X}P=d\ast_{X}Q=0$, then the instanton with integrable curvature decays exponenti…

In this paper we show that a parallel differential form $Ψ$ of even degree on a Riemannian manifold allows to define a natural differential both on $Ω^\ast(M)$ and $Ω^\ast(M, TM)$, defined via the Frölicher-Nijenhuis bracket. For instance, on a Kähler manifold, these operators are the complex differential and the Dolbe…

The squashed 7-sphere $S^{7}$ is a 7-sphere with an Einstein metric given by the canonical variation and its cone $\mathbb{R}^{8} - \{ 0 \}$ has full holonomy ${\rm Spin}(7)$. There is a canonical calibrating 4-form $Φ$ on $\mathbb{R}^{8} - \{ 0 \}$. A minimal 3-submanifold in $S^{7}$ is called associative if its cone …

Investigates second-order conditions for Cayley forms in eight dimensions.