Geometric construction of the \(r\)-map: From affine special real to special Kähler manifolds (Q1048103)

Projective (or local) very special real geometry is the scalar geometry of five-dimensional supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. It is locally the geometry of a nondegenerate hypersurface \(\mathcal{H} \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) defined by a homogeneous cubic polynomial \(h\). In relation with string compactifications, the polynomial \(h\) could be, for instance, the cubic form \[ h([\alpha]) = \int_{X} \alpha \wedge \alpha \wedge \alpha \] on the second cohomology of a Calabi-Yau 3-fold \(X\). In the paper under review, the authors give an intrinsic definition of (affine very) special real manifolds and realize any such manifold \(M\) as a domain in affine space equipped with a metric which is the Hessian of a cubic polynomial. It is proved that the tangent bundle \(N = TM\) carries a canonical structure of an (affine) special Kähler manifold. This gives an intrinsic description of the \(r\)-map as the map \(M \rightarrow N = TM\). From the viewpoint of physics, this map corresponds to the dimensional reduction of rigid vector multiplets from \(5\) to \(4\) space-time dimensions. This construction is generalized to the case when \(M\) is any Hessian manifold.