Quaternionic Kähler and \(\mathrm{Spin}(7)\) metrics arising from quaternionic contact Einstein structures (Q2436020)

A quaternionic contact (qc) structure arises as the conformal boundary at infinity of a quaternion-Kähler (QK) structure, see [\textit{O. Biquard}, Asymptotically symmetric Einstein metrics. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (2000; Zbl 0967.53030)]. It is defined, on a smooth manifold \(M\) of dimension \(4n+3\), by a distribution \(H=\operatorname{Ker} \eta \subset TM\) of dimension \(4n\), where \(\eta\) is an \(\mathbb{R}^3\)-valued one-form on \(M\) whose differential makes \(H\) quaternionic. Examples include the quaternionic Heisenberg Lie group and the sphere \(S^{4n+3}\); more generally one can take suitable deformations of QK manifolds or hypersurfaces in the latter. This paper provides a number of explicit local examples, in particular left-invariant qc structures on Lie groups of dimension seven, some qc conformal to the Heisenberg group, others that are not. The other purpose is to relate qc geometry to other \(G\)-structures. By following a well-trodden path, the authors find QK- and \(\mathrm{Spin}(7)\)-holonomy metrics in dimension eight on products \(M\times \mathbb{R}\), by taking qc \(7\)-manifolds \(M\) and solving flow equations of Hitchin type. Building on this, they define `hypo \(\mathrm{Sp}(n)\mathrm{Sp}(1)\)-structures' and prove that the product \(M\times \mathbb{R}\), when \(M\) is qc Einstein and \(\dim M>7\), admits a QK structure. The case \(\dim M=7\) is analogous, but one also needs to assume \(M\) has constant qc scalar curvature. For the definitions of the various qc curvatures see [\textit{S. Ivanov} and \textit{D. Vassilev}, J. Math. Pures Appl. (9) 93, No. 3, 277--307 (2010; Zbl 1194.53044)]. The same school of thought leads, in the end of the paper, to examples of quaternion Hermitian \(8\)-manifolds that have closed fundamental form and are not Einstein (cf. the notion of `harmonic' \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\mathrm{Sp}(1)\)-structure in [\textit{D. Conti} and \textit{T. Madsen}, Preprint, \url{arXiv:1308.4083}]), or that satisfy the somewhat complementary `ideal' condition.