Almost Hermitian structures with parallel torsion (Q2469958)

This paper consists of a detailed study of six-dimensional almost Hermitian manifolds admitting a (unique) Hermitian connection \(\nabla^c\) with totally skew-symmetric torsion, simply called the characteristic connection. Algebraic preliminaries allow to clarify that an almost Hermitian manifold \((M^6,g,J)\) does admit the characteristic connection if and only if it belongs to the Gray-Hervella class \({\mathcal W}_1\oplus{\mathcal W}_3\oplus{\mathcal W}_4\). Assuming the existence of \(\nabla^c\), the author regards its torsion form as a map \(T^c:{\mathcal R}\to\Lambda^3(\mathbb R^6)\), such that \(T_c(e\cdot a)= a^{-1}T^c(e)\), \({\mathcal R}\) denoting the bundle of adapted frames, with structure group U(3). At each point of \(M^6\), \(T^c\) determines a U(3)-orbit in \(\Lambda^3(\mathbb R^3)\) and, if \(T^c\) is parallel, the orbit is constant on each connected component. The author gives a complete classification of the groups which are realized as \(\text{Iso}_0(T^c)\), namely, as the connected component of the identity in the isotropy group of \(T^c\). The explicit expression of \(T^c\) with respect to an adapted local frame is given, also. In particular, SU(2), SO(3), the maximal torus in \(\text{U}(2)_0\) and the maximal torus in SU(2) occur in the classification. Then, the author describes the geometry of the almost Hermitian structures related to the mentioned groups, thus obtaining several interesting examples and local classification theorems. We only mention the first main result. Given an almost Hermitian manifold \((M^6,g,J)\) such that \(\text{Hol}(\nabla^c) \subset \text{SU}(2) \subset \text{Iso}(T^c)\), there exists an \(S^2\)-family of almost Hermitian structures \((g,\overline{J})\) having the same characteristic connection as \((g,J)\). In particular, there exists a generalized Hopf structure on \(M^6\). Then, applying a structure theorem due to Vaisman, the author proves that any compact regular generalized Hopf manifold with \(\text{Hol}(\nabla^c) \subset \text{SU}(2)\) turns out to be the total space of a flat principal \(S^1\)-bundle over a Sasaki manifold \(X^5\) which admits a characteristic connection \(\nabla^{\prime c}\) with \(\text{Hol}(\nabla^{\prime c}) \subset \text{SU}(2)\).