Moduli of coassociative submanifolds and semi-flat \(G_{2}\)-manifolds (Q608307)

The SYZ conjecture [\textit{A. Strominger, S.-T. Yau} and \textit{E. Zaslow}, ``Mirror symmetry is T-duality'', Nucl. Phys., B 479, No.~1--2, 243--259 (1996; Zbl 0896.14024)] proposes mirror pairs of Calabi-Yau manifolds which are special Lagrangian torus fibrations over the same base, but with dual fibres. Since \(G_2\)-manifolds (i.e., Riemannian 7-manifolds with holonomy contained in the Lie group \(G_2\)) play a role in \(M\)-theory equivalent to Calabi-Yau manifolds in string theory, it is natural to ask whether there is an analogue of the SYZ conjecture for \(G_2\)-manifolds. Since \(G_2\)-manifolds admitting Calabi-Yau string theory duals are fibred by coassociative submanifolds [\textit{S. Gukov, S.-T. Yau} and \textit{E. Zaslow}, ``Duality and fibrations on G2-manifolds'', Turk. J. Math. 27, No.~1, 61--97 (2003; Zbl 1069.81561)], the author investigates the structure of the moduli space of deformations of a compact coassociative submanifold. He adapts the approach developed by \textit{N. J. Hitchin} in [``The moduli space of special Lagrangian submanifolds'', Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci., IV. Ser. 25, No.~3--4, 503--515 (1997; Zbl 1015.32022)] (where he studies the moduli space of special Lagrangians) and finds that the moduli space \(\mathcal M\) of deformations of a compact coassociative submanifold \(C\) has locally a natural map \(u:{\mathcal M}\to H^2(C,{\mathbb R})\) defined uniquely up to an affine transformation. The \(L^2\) metric on the moduli space is then the metric induced by \(u\). The author shows that, if \(X\) is a compact \(G_2\)-manifold with finite fundamental group, then \(X\) admits no locally trivial fibre bundles \(X\to B\) over a 3-dimensional base. After that, he considers the question for smooth fibres that a coassociative fibration can have, assuming the fibres are compact, and shows the following. Let \(\pi:X\to B\) be a coassociative fibration with compact fibres. Then the base \(B\) can be given a metric such that \(\pi\) is a Riemannian submersion (around non-singular fibres) if and only if the fibres are hyper-Kähler. Moreover, in this case, the base identifies with the moduli space of deformations of a fibre and the base metric \(g_B\) is related to the moduli space \(L^2\) metric \(g_{L^2}\) by \[ g_B={1\over 2 \text{vol}(F)}g_{L^2}. \] A \(G_2\)-manifold \(X\) is said to be semi-flat if there is a \(T^4\)-action on \(X\) preserving the 3-form and such that the orbits are coassociative tori. For a semi-flat \(G_2\)-manifold \(X\), there are a distribution \(V\) on \(X\) tangent to the \(T^4\)-action which is called the vertical distribution, and the corresponding distribution of normals \(V^\perp\) which is called the horizontal distribution. An interesting property is that the horizontal distribution of a semi-flat \(G_2\)-manifold is integrable. The key result is the following: Let \(B\) be an oriented 3-manifold and \(u:B\to\wedge^2{\mathbb R}^4\) a map with the property that \(u\) maps the tangent spaces of \(B\) into maximal positive definite subspaces of \(\wedge^2{\mathbb R}^4\) and let \(\tau\) be a positive constant. Let \(h\) be the pull-back metric on \(B\) defined by \(2h(A,B)\tau dx=u_*(A)\wedge u_*(B)\) with volume element \(d\text{vol}_h\), where \(dx\) stands for the volume element in \(T^4\). Let \(X=B\times({\mathbb R}/{\mathbb Z})^4\) and define \(\phi\in\Omega^3(X,{\mathbb R})\) by \[ \phi=d\text{vol}_h+du, \] where \(u\) is considered as a 2-form on \(X\). Then \((X,\phi)\) is a semi-flat \(G_2\)-manifold if and only if \(u\) is a minimal immersion. Moreover, every semi-flat \(G_2\)-manifold locally has this form. In the final sections, the author studies minimal surfaces in quadrics and shows how to construct minimal 3-manifold cones in \({\mathbb R}^{3,3}\) and hence \(G_2\)-metrics from a real form of the affine Toda equations. The key tool is the notion of a harmonic sequence [\textit{J. Bolton} and \textit{L. M. Woodward}, ``Congruence theorems for harmonic maps from a Riemann surface into \(\mathbb CP^n\) and \(S^n\)'', J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 45, No.~2, 363--376 (1992; Zbl 0763.53059); \textit{E. Hulett}, ``Superconformal harmonic surfaces in de Sitter space-times'', J. Geom. Phys. 55, No.~2, 179--206 (2005; Zbl 1082.83006); \textit{E. Calabi}, ``Minimal immersions of surfaces in Euclidean spheres'', J. Differ. Geom. 1, 111--125 (1967; Zbl 0171.20504)] that yields superminimal and superconformal maps.