arXiv research

Study shows some biquotients have non-biquotient tangent bundles.

New method calculates signatures of biquotients.

A closed manifold is called a biquotient if it is diffeomorphic to K\G/H for some compact Lie group G with closed subgroups K and H such that K acts freely on G/H. Biquotients are a major source of examples of Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature. We prove several classification results for biquoti…

New findings on biquotient bundles lacking inverses in various dimensions.

We classify all biquotients whose rational cohomology rings are generated by one element. As a consequence we show that the Gromoll-Meyer 7-sphere is the only exotic sphere which can be written as a biquotient.

We classify all compact simply connected biquotients of dimension 4 and 5. In particular, all pairs of groups $(G,H)$ and embeddings $H\rightarrow G\times G$ giving rise to a particular biquotient are classified.

We classify all compact simply connected biquotients of dimension 6 and 7. For each $6$-dimensional biquotient, all pairs of groups $(G,H)$ and homomorphisms $H\rightarrow G\times G$ giving rise to it are classified.

We classify all compact simply connected biquotients of the form $G/\!\!/ SU(2)^2$ for $G =SU(4), SO(7), Spin(7)$, or $G = \mathbf{G}_2\times SU(2)$. In particular, we show there are precisely $2$ inhomogeneous reduced biquotients in the first and last case, and $10$ in the middle cases.

We show that any normal metric on a closed biquotient with finite fundamental group has positive Ricci curvature.

One of the main methods of constructing new spaces with positive or almost positive curvature is the study of biquotients first studied in detail by Eschenburg. We classify orbifold biquotients of the Lie Group $SU(3)$, and construct a new example of a 5-dimensional orbifold with almost positive curvature. Furthermore,…

We construct symplectic structures on roughly half of all equal rank biquotients of the form $G//T$, where $G$ is a compact simple Lie group and $T$ a torus, and investigate Hamiltonian Lie group actions on them. For the Eschenburg flag, this action has similar properties as Tolman's and Woodward's examples of Hamilton…

We show there are precisely 15 inhomogeneous biquotients of the form $Sp(3)// Sp(1)^2$ and show that at least 8 of them admit metrics of quasi-positive curvature.

We classify simply connected rationally elliptic manifolds of dimension five and those of dimension six with small Betti numbers from the point of view of their rational cohomology structure. We also prove that a geometrically formal rationally elliptic six dimensional manifold, whose second Betti number is two, is rat…

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 s…

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…

These are notes of a talk I gave in a seminar at the University of Pennsylvania summarizing results in the Habilitation by Jost Eschenburg on "Freie isometrische Aktionen auf kompakten Lie-Gruppen mit positiv gekruemmten Orbitraeumen". Due to the fact that it is published in a not easily accesible journal (and is writt…

Suppose $φ_3:Sp(1)\rightarrow Sp(2)$ denotes the unique irreducible $4$-dimensional representation of $Sp(1) = SU(2)$ and consider the two subgroups $H_1, H_2\subseteq Sp(3)$ with $H_1 = \{\operatorname{diag}(φ_3(q_1), q_1): q_1 \in Sp(1)\}$ and $H_2 = \{\operatorname{diag}(φ_3(q_2),1):q_2\in Sp(1)\}$. We show that the…

We characterise simply-connected biquotients which potentially admit metrics of holonomy G_2. We prove that there are at most three real homotopy types of rationally elliptic such manifolds---all of them being formal. In the course of this examination we classify rationally elliptic homotopy types and characterise 7-di…

Let $M^n$, $n \in \{4,5,6\}$, be a compact, simply connected $n$-manifold which admits some Riemannian metric with non-negative curvature and an isometry group of maximal possible rank. Then any smooth, effective action on $M^n$ by a torus $T^{n-2}$ is equivariantly diffeomorphic to an isometric action on a normal biqu…

The known manifolds of positive sectional curvature are either homogeneous spaces or biquotients, i.e. quotients of a compact Lie group by a group acting on the left and right simultaneously. The full isometry group of the homogeneous metrics of positive curvature were determined by K.Shankar. Here we determine the iso…

An $n$-dimensional manifold $M$ is said to be rationally $4$-periodic if there is an element $e\in H^4(M;\mathbb{Q})$ with the property that cupping with $e$, $\cdot \cup e:H^\ast(M;\mathbb{Q})\rightarrow H^{\ast + 4}(M;\mathbb{Q})$ is injective for $0< \ast \leq \dim M-4$ and surjective when $0\leq \ast < \dim M-4$. W…

We prove that any base space of Riemannian submersion from a compact Lie group (with bi-invariant metric) must have a basic property previously known for normal biquotients; namely, any zero-curvature plane exponentiates to a flat.

Gromoll and Meyer have represented a certain exotic 7-sphere $Σ^7$ as a biquotient of the Lie group $G = Sp(2)$. We show for a 2-parameter family of left invariant metrics on $G$ that the induced metric on $Σ^7$ has strictly positive sectional curvature at all points outside four subvarieties of codimension $\geq 1$ wh…

We study the topology of closed, simply-connected, 6-dimensional Riemannian manifolds of positive sectional curvature which admit isometric actions by $SU(2)$ or $SO(3)$. We show that their Euler characteristic agrees with that of the known examples, i.e. $S^6$, $\mathbb{CP}^3$, the Wallach space $SU(3)/T^2$ and the bi…

We discuss the question of geometric formality for rationally elliptic manifolds of dimension $6$ and $7$. We prove that a geometrically formal six-dimensional biquotient with $b_{2}=3$ has the real cohomology of a symmetric space. We also show that a rationally hyperbolic six-dimensional manifold with $b_2\leq 2$ and …

We show that any closed biquotient with finite fundamental group admits metrics of positive Ricci curvature. Also, let M be a closed manifold on which a compact Lie group G acts with cohomogeneity one, and let L be a closed subgroup of G which acts freely on M. We show that the quotient N := M/L carries metrics of nonn…

We examine several classes of manifolds which have the same cohomology ring as an Eschenburg space (a family of biquotients which is a main source of manifolds with positive curvature). One family are the 3-sphere bundles over CP^2. Another are the circle bundles over a base, which itself is one of the family of CP^1 b…

The authors examine topological properties of the 7-dimensional Eschenburg biquotients diag(z^k1,z^k2,z^k3)\SU(3)/diag(z^l1,z^l2,z^l3). A subfamily of these spaces carry a 3-Sasakian metric. The authors show that among this subfamily there exist many 3-Sasakian spaces which are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic. In ad…