\(\mathrm{Spin}(9)\) geometry of the octonionic Hopf fibration (Q367147)

The authors study the transitive action of \(\mathrm{Spin}(9)\) on the octonionic Hopf fibration \(S^{15}\to S^8\). They use it to prove that any global vector field on \(S^{15}\) tangent to the fibers of the fibration \(S^{15}\to S^8\) vanishes at some point. The authors also study 16-dimensional compact manifolds possessing a locally, non-globally, conformally parallel \(\mathrm{Spin}(9)\) metric. In particular, they prove that the Riemannian universal covering of such manifold is the Riemannian cone over \(S^{15}\) and they find a canonical \(8\)-dimensional foliation. Finally, they characterize compact Riemannian manifolds with locally, non-globally, conformally parallel \(\mathrm{Spin}(9)\) metric in terms of existence of a certain fibre bundle structure over a circle with special fibers and structure group. They also give some examples of such manifolds.