Diagram involutions and homogeneous Ricci-flat metrics (Q2038395)

This paper brings a systematic construction of Ricci-flat indefinite metrics on a large class of homogeneous spaces with focus on the case of left-invariant metrics on nilpotent Lie groups. This construction applies to Lie groups corresponding to nice Lie algebras. The authors consider involutions of the nice diagram that satisfy what they call the arrow-breaking condition; loosely speaking, this means they are as far as possible from being automorphisms of the diagram. They prove that arrow-breaking involutions produce Ricci-flat indefinite metrics on all the nice nilpotent Lie algebras of dimension \(\leq 7\) except one. They also prove that every nilpotent Lie algebra of dimension \(\leq 6\) admits a Ricci-flat pseudo-Riemannian metric. The authors show that an arrow-breaking involution always exists when \(\dim z(\mathfrak g)\geq (\dim \mathfrak g- 3)/2\), which always holds on two-step nilpotent Lie algebras associated to graphs.They apply the construction to produce infinite families of Ricci-flat metrics on Lie algebras associated to graphs and on the nilradicals of parabolic subalgebras of split simple Lie algebras. In the last situation, the metrics do not extend to an invariant metric on the ambient space.