Threefolds with holomorphic normal projective connections (Q1889449)

The uniformization theorem implies that every compact complex curve admits a covering by local coordinates that are mutually related by projective transformations. An infinitesimal version of this result says that every such curve admits a flat holomorphic normal projective connection. For surfaces, \textit{S.~Kobayashi} and \textit{T.~Ochiai} [Math. Ann. 249, 75--94 (1980; Zbl 0412.32026); ibid. 255, 519--521 (1981; Zbl 0439.32011)] showed that \({\mathbb{CP}}_2\), étale quotients of complex tori, and manifolds covered by the ball in \({\mathbb{C}}^2\) are precisely the compact complex Kähler surfaces that admit a holomorphic normal projective connection (and, in fact, admit a flat connection). In this article, the authors consider the corresponding question for threefolds and show that there is one more family of compact complex manifolds admitting a (flat) holomorphic normal projective connection, namely étale quotients of smooth modular families of false elliptic curves. Together with the evident extensions of the two-dimensional cases to dimension three, not only does this provide somewhat unexpected further examples admitting such connections, but the authors also prove that these are the only examples amongst projective threefolds. The more general case of Kähler threefolds is currently out of reach because the Mori theory employed by the authors is only sufficiently developed in the projective case. Without the Kähler condition, there are certainly many further examples provided by the twistor spaces of real fourfolds with flat conformal structure.