Toric moment mappings and Riemannian structures (Q1938035)

This paper studies the space of Riemannian \(G\)-reductions in six dimensions via the symplectic geometry of the coadjoint orbits of \(\mathrm{SO}(6)\). Let \((M, g)\) be a Riemannian manifold of dimension \(N\). A smooth 2-form \(\omega\) determines a skew-symmetric endomorphism \(\mathfrak F\) of each tangent space via \[ \omega(X, Y)=g(\mathfrak FX, Y). \] Let \(H\) be the largest non-trivial subgroup of \(\mathrm{SO}(N)\) which preserves \(\mathfrak F\), then \(\mathfrak F\) determines a reduction of the structure group \(\mathrm{SO}(N)\) to \(H\). In the case \(N=6\), \(\Lambda^2T_pM\cong\Lambda^2\mathbb R^6\cong\mathfrak{so}(6)\), and we may identify the Riemannian structure defined by the 2-form with a smooth section of the fibre bundle \(M\times_{\mathrm{SO}(6)} \mathcal O\), where \(\mathcal O\) is a coadjoint orbit. By carefully studying the symplectic actions of \(\mathrm{SO}(6)\), the author is then able to give a direct and precise interpretation of the phenomena involving symplectic fibrations of coadjoint orbits such as symplectic quotients in terms of the compatibility conditions for some specific Riemannian structures in six dimensions. For example, the author successfully interprets the well-known Klein correspondence in projective geometry from this point of view. In the last section of this article, the author applies his techniques to Iwasawa manifolds and characterizes various types of Riemannian structures on them by specific constraints on their intrinsic torsion.