Non-degenerate para-complex structures in 6D with large symmetry groups (Q1674876)

The authors study the automorphism group of non-degenerate almost para-complex structures on six-dimensional manifolds. Recall that an almost product structure on a manifold \(M\) is an endomorphism of the tangent bundle such that \(J^2=1\), with \(J \neq \pm 1\). An almost product structure is called almost para-complex when the ranks of the \(\pm1\)-eigenspaces of \(J\) are equal. The authors consider the case when \(M\) is connected of dimension 6, and the (Nijenhuis tensor of the) almost product structure \(J\) is non-degenerate, namely, \(N_J : \wedge^2 TM \to TM\) is an epimorphism. (Note that this implies that \(J\) is actually almost para-complex.) Their first result shows that the automorphism group \(\mathrm{Aut}(M,J)\) has dimension at most \(14\), and equality holds only when \(\mathrm{Aut}(M,J)\) is the exceptional Lie group \(\mathrm{G}_2^*\), see Theorem 1. The second-largest symmetry dimension is \(10\), and equality holds for two possibilities: the connected component of \(\mathrm{Aut}(M,J)\) is either \(\mathrm{Sp}(4,\mathbb{R})\) or \(\mathrm{SO}_+(2,3)\), see Theorem 2. In all the previous cases, \(M\) is a globally homogeneous space, and it admits a strictly nearly para-Kähler structure. Finally, Theorem 3 shows that, whenever the symmetry algebra has dimension greater than \(8\), then the structure \(J\) is locally homogeneous.