Associative submanifolds of the Berger space (Q6598524)

This paper explores the geometry of associative submanifolds of the Berger space \(B=SO(5)/SO(3)\). This compact homogeneous space has a number of attractive features: within the context of \(G_2\) geometry for example, it is a distinguished nearly parallelel manifold. Section 2 is a nicely written review of all of its features.\N\NThe authors use the key idea of viewing \(B\) as the space of Veronese surfaces in \(S^4\). They prove that associative submanifolds in \(B\) are circle bundles over surfaces of any possible genus (Theorem 3.12). Then they explain how precisely ruled associative submanifolds correspond to pseudo-holomorphic curves in \(\operatorname{Gr}^+_2(TS^4)\) (Theorem 3.4), thus cleverly combining techniques from representation theory, exterior differential systems, minimal surfaces, twistor theory and special holonomy.\N\NSection 4 studies the \(SO(3)\)-action on the Grassmannian of associative \(3\)-planes induced by the isotropy action on \(B\), and classifies all possibilities with non-trivial stabiliser (Theorems 4.9-4.12).\N\NThe paper, albeit ostensibly lengthy, is very sharp. References are carefully selected.