arXiv research

The paper characterizes ambient metrics using conformal completion and null infinity properties.

Given an $n$-dimensional manifold $N$ with an affine connection $D$, we show that the associated Patterson-Walker metric $g$ on $T^*N$ admits a global and explicit Fefferman-Graham ambient metric. This provides a new and large class of conformal structures which are generically not conformally Einstein but for which th…

The conformal Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction is one of the most fundamental constructions in conformal geometry. It embeds a manifold with a conformal structure into a pseudo-Riemannian manifold whose Ricci tensor vanishes up to a certain order along the original manifold. Despite the general existence re…

We present three large classes of examples of conformal structures for which the equations for the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric to be Ricci-flat are linear PDEs, which we solve explicitly. These explicit solutions enable us to discuss the holonomy of the corresponding ambient metrics. Our examples include conformal …

In this paper we relate the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction for conformal manifolds to the approach to conformal geometry via the canonical Cartan connection. We show that from any ambient metric that satisfies a weakening of the usual normalisation condition, one can construct the conformal standard tract…

Extends Weyl geometry from conformal to Weyl manifolds using ambient metrics.

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…

We present conformal structures in signature (3,2) for which the holonomy of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric is equal to the non-compact exceptional Lie group G_{2(2)}. We write down the resulting 8-parameter family of G_{2(2)}-metrics in dimension seven explicitly in an appropriately chosen coordinate system on th…

Modified construction for conformal structures with twistor spinors.

This paper studies the relation between two notions of holonomy on a conformal manifold. The first is the conformal holonomy, defined to be the holonomy of the normal tractor connection. The second is the holonomy of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric of the conformal manifold. It is shown that the infinitesimal confo…

An extension of the ambient metric construction of Fefferman-Graham to infinite order in even dimensions is described. The main ingredients are the introduction of "inhomogeneous ambient metrics" with asymptotic expansions involving the logarithm of a defining function homogeneous of degree 2, and an invariant procedur…

We provide an explicit formula for the Fefferman-Graham-ambient metric of an $n$-dimensional conformal $pp$-wave in those cases where it exists. In even dimensions we calculate the obstruction explicitly. Furthermore, we describe all 4-dimensional $pp$-waves that are Bach-flat, and give a large class of Bach-flat examp…

The (Fefferman-Graham) ambient obstruction tensor is a conformally invariant symmetric trace-free 2-tensor on even-dimensional Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. The conformal deformation complex is a differential complex related to infinitesimal deformations of conformal structure. We construct a conformally …

Researchers create a family of conformally covariant operators.

Given any two Einstein (pseudo-)metrics, with scalar curvatures suitably related, we give an explicit construction of a Poincaré-Einstein (pseudo-)metric with conformal infinity the conformal class of the product of the initial metrics. We show that these metrics are equivalent to ambient metrics for the given conforma…

This is the second in a series of papers where we prove a conjecture of Deser and Schwimmer regarding the algebraic structure of ``global conformal invariants''; these are defined to be conformally invariant integrals of geometric scalars. The conjecture asserts that the integrand of any such integral can be expressed …

We prove existence and uniqueness of weighted ambient metric for manifolds with density.

It is shown that the variational derivative of the integral of Branson's Q-curvature is the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman-Graham. A classification of irreducible conformally invariant tensors modulo quadratic and higher degree terms in curvature is established.

For a finite reflection subgroup $G\leq O(n+1,1,\mR)$ of the conformal group of the sphere with standard conformal structure $(S^n,[g_0])$, we geometrically derive differential-difference Dunkl version of the series of conformally invariant differential operators with symbols given by powers of Laplace operator. The co…

In his 1910 "Five Variables" paper, Cartan solved the equivalence problem for the geometry of $(2, 3, 5)$ distributions and in doing so demonstrated an intimate link between this geometry and the exceptional simple Lie groups of type $\textrm{G}_2$. He claimed to produce a local classification of all such (complex) dis…

This paper constructs a family of conformally invariant differential operators acting on spinor densities with leading part a power of the Dirac operator. The construction applies for all powers in odd dimensions, and only for finitely many powers in even dimensions. These operators arise naturally as obstructions to f…

Study of conformally compact metrics and Lovelock tensors in even dimensions.

We establish fundamental results for a parabolic flow of Riemannian metrics introduced by Bahuaud-Helliwell in arXiv:1010:4287v1 which is based on the Fefferman-Graham ambient obstruction tensor. First, we obtain local $L^2$ smoothing estimates for the curvature tensor and use them to prove pointwise smoothing estimate…

Green functions play an important role in conformal geometry. In this paper, we explain how to compute explicitly the logarithmic singularities of the Green functions of the conformal powers of the Laplacian. These operators include the Yamabe and Paneitz operators, as well as the conformal fractional powers of the Lap…

Frank and Lieb gave a new, rearrangement-free, proof of the sharp Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequalities by exploiting their conformal covariance. Using this they gave new proofs of sharp Sobolev inequalities for the embeddings $W^{k,2}(\mathbb{R}^n)\hookrightarrow L^{\frac{2n}{n-2k}}(\mathbb{R}^n)$. We show that their …

This thesis explores Weyl geometry and quantum anomalies in holography and gauge theories.

An important tool in the study of conformal geometry, and the AdS/CFT correspondence in physics, is the Fefferman-Graham expansion of conformally compact Einstein metrics. We show that conformally compact metrics satisfying a generalization of the Einstein equation, Poincare-Lovelock metrics, also have Fefferman-Graham…

We construct polynomial conformal invariants, the vanishing of which is necessary and sufficient for an $n$-dimensional suitably generic (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold to be conformal to an Einstein manifold. We also construct invariants which give necessary and sufficient conditions for a metric to be conformally relate…

This paper consists of two parts. In the first part we show that in odd dimension, as well as in even dimension below the critical weight (i.e. half the dimension), the logarithmic singularities of Schwartz kernels and Green kernels of conformal invariant pseudodifferential operators are linear combinations of Weyl con…

Study of 0-instantons on hyperbolic manifolds, proving invariants and energy formulas.

Compact formulas for Yang-Mills conditions on conformal manifolds.

We study an asymptotic Dirichlet problem for Weyl structures on asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds. By the bulk-boundary correspondence, or more precisely by the Fefferman-Graham theorem on Poincaré metrics, this leads to a natural extension of the notion of Branson's $Q$-curvature to Weyl structures on even-dimension…

Tractor Calculus is a powerful tool for analyzing Weyl invariance; although fundamentally linked to the Cartan connection, it may also be arrived at geometrically by viewing a conformal manifold as the space of null rays in a Lorentzian ambient space. For dimension d conformally flat manifolds we show that the (d+2)-di…

We look at several problems in even dimensional conformal geometry based around the de Rham complex. A leading and motivating problem is to find a conformally invariant replacement for the usual de Rham harmonics. An obviously related problem is to find, for each order of differential form bundle, a ``gauge'' operator …

It is postulated that quantum gravity is a sum over causal structures coupled to matter via scale evolution. Quantized causal structures can be described by studying simple matrix models where matrices are replaced by an algebra of quantum mechanical observables. In particular, previous studies constructed quantum grav…

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…

Proves existence and uniqueness of weighted metrics for smooth spaces.

New proof of stability for expanding Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes with smoothness at the boundary.

In this article we introduce local gauge conditions under which many curvature tensors appearing in conformal geometry, such as the Weyl, Cotton, Bach, and Fefferman-Graham obstruction tensors, become elliptic operators. The gauge conditions amount to fixing an $n$-harmonic coordinate system and normalizing the determi…

Fefferman and Graham showed some time ago that four dimensional conformal geometries could be analyzed in terms of six dimensional, ambient, Riemannian geometries admitting a closed homothety. Recently it was shown how conformal geometry provides a description of physics manifestly invariant under local choices of unit…

This paper provides details of the construction, properties and some applications of the ambient metric associated to a conformal class of metrics on a smooth manifold. Existence and uniqueness of formal expansions defining such metrics are considered. Equivalence with the expansions of associated Poincare metrics is e…

We simplify and extend a 6D conformal gravity theory to 8D, linking it to Q-curvature.

The paper embeds CR manifolds into twistor spaces and constructs neutral hyperkähler metrics.

For a conformal manifold we introduce the notion of an ambient connection, an affine connection on an ambient manifold of the conformal manifold, possibly with torsion, and with conditions relating it to the conformal structure. The purpose of this construction is to realise the normal conformal tractor holonomy as aff…

We give a geometric derivation of Branson's Q-curvature in terms of the ambient metric associated with conformal structures; it naturally follows from the ambient metric construction of conformally invariant operators and can be applied to a large class of invariant operators. This procedure can be also applied to CR g…

These notes are based on my lectures at IMA summer program "Symmetries and Overdetermined Systems of Partial Differential Equations." Here I try to explain basic ideas of the ambient metric construction by studying the Szego kernel of the sphere.

Extended solitons show constant curvature on compact manifolds.

Generative models use Riemannian manifolds to improve latent space interpretation.