A canonical compatible metric for geometric structures on nilmanifolds (Q2503102)

From the author's summary: Let \(N\) be a nilpotent Lie group endowed with an invariant geometric structure \(\gamma\) (cf. symplectic, complex, hypercomplex or any of their `almost' versions). A left invariant Riemannian metric on \(N\) is said to be compatible with \((N, \gamma)\) if the corresponding inner product \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) on the Lie algebra of \(N\) satisfies an orthogonality condition involving only \(\gamma\) and \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\). The aim of this paper is the search for the `best' invariant Riemannian metric on \(N\) compatible with a given invariant geometric structure. The author defines a left-invariant Riemannian metric on \(N\) compatible with \(\gamma\) to be minimal, if it minimizes the norm of the invariant part of the Ricci tensor among all compatible metrics with the same scalar curvature. The author proves that minimal metrics (if any) are unique up to isometry and scaling, they develop soliton solutions for the `invariant Ricci' flow and are characterized as the critical points of a natural variational problem. The uniqueness allows the author to distinguish two geometric structures with Riemannian data, giving rise to a great deal of invariants. The approach of the author proposes to vary Lie brackets rather than inner products; his tool is the moment map for the action of a reductive Lie group on the algebraic variety of all Lie algebras, which coincide in this setting with the Ricci operator. This gives to him the possibility to use strong results from geometric invariant theory.