\(SU(3)\)-structures on submanifolds of a Spin(7)-manifold (Q2482645)

In the article under review, local \(SU(3)\)-structures on an oriented submanifold of a \(Spin (7)\)-manifold are determined and their classes are characterized in terms of the second fundamental form of the immersion and the type of the \(Spin (7)\)-structure. An \(8\)-dimensional manifold \(M^8\) which admits a reduction of the structure group of the tangent bundle to the Lie group \(Spin (7)\) is called a manifold with \(Spin(7)\) structure or, simply, a \(Spin(7)\)-manifold. Analogously, a \(6\)-dimensional manifold \(M^6\) which admits a reduction of the structure group to \(U(3)\) is called a manifold with \(U(3)\) structure. \(Spin(7)\)-manifolds can be characterized by the existence of a smooth \(4\)-form \(\Phi\), called the fundamental \(4\)-form or Cayley form, which induces a Riemannian metric and an orientation in a nonlinear way. \textit{M. Fernández} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl., IV. Ser. 143, 101--122 (1986; Zbl 0602.53025)] showed that four possible classes of \(Spin(7)\)-manifolds can be found, depending on how many of the two irreducible components of the torsion tensor \(\nabla \Phi\) vanish. \textit{A. Gray} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 141, 465--504 (1969; Zbl 0182.24603)] showed that a \(6\)-dimensional submanifold \(M^6\) of a manifold \(M^8\) with \(Spin(7)\) structure inherits naturally a \(U(3)\) structure which can be classified in \(16\) different types (as described in [\textit{A. Gray} and \textit{L. M. Hervella}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl., IV. Ser. 123, 35--58 (1980; Zbl 0444.53032)]). If \(M^8\) is a parallel \(Spin(7)\)-manifold, A. Gray gave conditions in terms of the shape operator of \(M^6\) characterizing types of almost Hermitian structures on \(M^6\). In this work, the authors consider a \(6\)-manifold \(M^6\) immersed into a 8-manifold \(M^8\) with \(Spin(7)\) structure and study locally defined \(SU(3)\) structures on \(M^6\). They obtain several relations connecting the torsion of the \(Spin(7)\) structure on \(M^8\), the torsion of the induced local \( SU(3)\) structure on \(M^6\) and the second fundamental form of the immersion of \(M^6\) in \(M^8\). As a consequence, for each of the \(4\) classes of \(Spin(7)\) structures, they are able to obtain the relations between the various classes of local \(SU(3)\) structures and the second fundamental form of the immersion. The last part of the paper is devoted to find applications of the previous results to explicit examples of \(6\)-manifolds \(M^6\) immersed in the octonions, \(M^8 = \mathbb O\). For example, in studying submanifolds of \(\mathbb O\) with balanced Hermitian structure, \textit{R. L. Bryant} [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 185--232 (1982; Zbl 0526.53055)] considered submanifolds \(M^6\subset \mathbb O\) (foliated by a parallel asymptotic ruling) which are a product of a Cayley plane with a minimal surface in the orthogonal 4-plane. Here, the authors investigate the existence of local holomorphic \(SU(3)\) structures for this type of submanifolds and they show that the product of a Cayley plane in \(\mathbb O\) with a minimal surface lying in the orthogonal Cayley plane admits a holomorphic local \(SU(3)\) structure precisely when the minimal surface actually lies in a \(3\)-plane.