Balanced HKT metrics and strong HKT metrics on hypercomplex manifolds (Q730687)

A hypercomplex manifold is a manifold equipped with two anti-commuting complex structures \(I\) and \(J\). Then \(K= IJ\) is again a complex structure and the tangent bundle admits an integrable \(\text{GL}(n,{\mathbf H})\)-structure. An HKT metric is a Riemannian metric which is compatible with \(I\), \(J\), \(K\) and which satisfies the additional condition \(Id\omega_I= JD\omega_J= Kd\omega_K\) for the fundamental forms \(\omega_I,\omega_J\) and \(\omega_K\) of \(IJ\) and \(K\), respectively. Such a metric is considered the best analog of the Kähler metric for hypercomplex manifolds. The paper under review considers HKT metrics with some additional constraints. A Hermitian metric is called balanced if the co-differential of its fundamental form vanishes. The author shows that, if an HKT metric is balanced for one of the complex structures, then it is balanced for all of them. Next, it is proven that the integrable \(\text{GL}(n,{\mathbf H})\)-structure of a balanced HKT manifold is actually an \(\text{SL}(n,{\mathbf H})\)-structure. Another type of restriction which the author considers is the strong HKT condition, which means that \(dId\omega_I= 0\). The author shows that a strong HKT metric is equivalent to a differential condition of second-order on the fundamental forms and generalizes the previously known result that a balanced and strong HKT metric on a compact manifold is hyper-Kähler, see \textit{A. Fino}, \textit{M. Patron} and \textit{S. Salamon} [Comment. Math. Helv. 79, No.~2, 317--340 (2004; Zbl 1062.53062)].