Energy functionals for Calabi-Yau metrics (Q2511228)

The existence of Ricci-flat Kähler metrics on Calabi-Yau manifolds is both of central importance to modern mathematics and physics and ultimately a challenge: Yau's famous proof of the Calabi Conjecture is non-constructive and to date there is no known such Calabi-Yau metric on compact manifolds (a few local models have been explicitly constructed). With the advent of powerful computing, it is therefore natural to attempt a numerical approach. There have been several directions of progress. In [\textit{M. Headrick} and \textit{T. Wiseman}, Classical Quantum Gravity 22, No. 23, 4931--4960 (2005; Zbl 1085.53035)], Headrick-Wiseman used a real-space lattice representation of the Kähler potential and the Monge-Ampere PDEs were numerical solved by a Gauss-Seidel relaxation method. \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [Pure Appl. Math. Q. 5, No. 2, 571--618 (2009; Zbl 1178.32018)] proposed the so-called algebraic metrics starting from a polynomial generalization of the Fubini-Study metric on \(\mathbb{P}^N\). The current paper very nicely gives a new and efficient method by identifying a set of ``energy functionals'' of the space of metrics for a fixed Kähler class which are bounded below. Minimization, which is always much less time-costly than solving non-linear numerics, of this functional then uniquely determines the requisite Ricci-flat metric. The numerical problem is therefore cast into an optimization problem. The authors then apply this method to the well-known examples, such as the Fermat quintic and its one-parametre generalization of Schoen manifolds, demonstrating how the approximations are obtained with exponential accuracy. As an interesting by-product, since variational methods of elliptic PDEs can often be used to establish existence of solutions, rather than assuming Yau's theorem, the authors use their optimization technique to give a heuristic, physicist's proof of the existence of Ricci-flat Calabi-Yau metrics.