Geometry of quaternionic Kähler connections with torsion (Q1602439)

The author studies quaternionic Kähler connections with torsion (QKT) on the tangent bundles to a manifold \(M\). In this case it is assumed that locally \(M\) is endowed by a triple of almost complex structures which together with the identity automorphism of tangent spaces form the quaternion algebra and these structures are glued globally into a rank 3-subbundle \(Q\) of \(\text{End}(TM)\). It is also assumed that there is a Riemannian metric on \(M\) which is Hermitian with respect to all these almost complex structures. These two conditions distinguish so-called almost quaternionic Hermitian manifolds. A metric connection on the tangent bundle \(TM\) is called quaternionic Kähler if it preserves the subbundle \(Q\) and its torsion is totally skew-symmetric and is a \((1,2)+(2,1)\)-form with respect to any almost complex structure from \(Q\). Such manifolds appear as the target spaces of \((4,0)\) supersymmetric two-dimensional sigma models with the Wess-Zumino term. In particular, in this paper the author finds conditions for the existence of QKT connections and proves that it is unique if it exists, proves that the QKT persist in a conformal class of metrics and finds many new examples of such connections. In the four-dimensional case he gives a local description of homogeneous QKT structures and finds closed relations of Einstein-like QKT manifolds with the Einstein-Weyl geometry.