The Laplacian coflow on almost-abelian Lie groups (Q1756473): Difference between revisions

A $G_2$-structure on a seven-dimensional manifold $M$ is determined by a $3$-form $\varphi$ on $M$ with pointwise stabilizer isomorphic to the exceptional group $G_2 \subset SO(7)$. This form induces a natural Riemannian metric $g_\varphi$, an orientation, and a Hodge star operator $\star_\varphi$ on $M$. The Laplacian coflow has been proposed by \textit{S. Karigiannis} et al. [Differ. Geom. Appl. 30, No. 4, 318--333 (2012; Zbl 1256.53043)]. For an initial coclosed $G_2$-form $\varphi_0$ with $\star_{\varphi_0} \varphi_0= \phi_0$, it is given by \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t} \phi(t)= -\Delta_t \phi(t), \quad d \phi(t)=0, \quad \phi(0)=\phi_0, \] where $\phi(t)$ is the Hodge dual $4$-form of a $G_2$-structure $\varphi(t)$ with respect to the Riemannian metric $g_{\varphi(t)}$. There is no general result about the short-time existence of this coflow. In the paper under review, the authors find explicit solutions of the Laplacian coflow of $G_2$-structures on some seven-dimensional almost-abelian Lie groups (i.e., solvable Lie groups with a codimension-one abelian normal subgroup). They prove that the corresponding solution is ancient under suitable assumptions on the initial data (Theorems 3.3 and 3.5). Moreover, the authors construct new examples of solitons for the Laplacian coflow that are not eigenforms of the Laplacian (Theorem 4.2) and find a solution for the Laplacian coflow, which is not a soliton and which has a bounded interval of existence (Remark 4.6).