Einstein manifolds, self-dual Weyl curvature, and conformally Kähler geometry (Q2043293)

A key goal of this paper is to study the moduli space of Einstein metrics for one specific class of 4-manifolds. Four-dimensional Einstein metrics display such a remarkably well-balanced combination of local flexibility and global rigidity that their geometry often seems to be optimally adapted to the manifold where they reside. \textit{P. Wu} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2021, No. 2, 1043--1054 (2021; Zbl 1473.53072)] observes that the self-dual Weyl curvature \(W^+: \Lambda^+ \to \Lambda^+\) of any conformally Kähler, Einstein metric on any del Pezzo surface satisfies \(\det(W^+)>0\). One main purpose of this article is to provide an entirely different proof of Wu's beautiful result. This together with previous results implies that any simply-connected compact oriented Einstein 4-manifold with \(\det(W^+)>0\) is orientedly diffeomorphic to a del Pezzo surface. And a converse result holds. The method of proof used here is quite different from Wu's, both approaches are deeply indebted to the pioneering work of \textit{A. Derdzinski} [Compos. Math. 49, 405--433 (1983; Zbl 0527.53030)]. The method developed here also naturally yields results about other 4-manifolds with harmonic self-dual Weyl curvature. The author also proves a generalization of Wu's result that does not explicitly require \(\det(W^+)\) for a compact oriented Riemannian 4-manifold whose self-dual Weyl curvature \(W^+\) is harmonic.