Nonlinear connections for curved twistor spaces (Q1060444)

Flat twistor space is a four-dimensional complex vector space defined via spinors in complexified Minkowski space. A curved twistor space, a four- dimensional complex manifold, is defined similarly from a complex four- dimensional manifold supporting, via the Einstein equations, an (anti-) selfdual electromagnetic or gravitational field. The main result is the construction of a non-linear, holomorphic connection on the space of (1,0) vector fields - i.e., the holomorphic vector fields which span only the holomorphic part of all tangent spaces - on curved twistor space. The connection can be represented locally by a system of nonlinear partial differential equations. The connection is homogeneous of degree one in the vector field and its curvature vanishes; it is torsionless only when the twistor space is flat. As an example, the connection is explicitly computed on a twistor space representing a gravitational field with infinitesimal anti-self-dual Riemann curvature. One can also find a very nice review about nonlinear connections on complex manifolds and their relation to parallel propagation.