Three Riemannian metrics on the moduli space of 1-instantons over \({\mathbb{C}}{\mathbb{P}}^ 2\) (Q752501)

Three different Riemannian metrics have been proposed for the moduli spaces of Yang-Mills instantons (or self-dual connections) over a 4- manifold. The most straightforward, called type I in this paper, is based on the \(L^ 2\) norm on 1-forms and has been extensively studied by Groisser and Parker. The type II metric is based on the (conformally invariant) \(L^ 2\) norm on 2-forms, and the third, called I-II, is a variant of this. One of the few cases in which a moduli space has been constructed explicitly is that of 1-instantons over \({\mathbb{C}}{\mathbb{P}}^ 2\), with its standard Fubini-Study metric. The moduli space is an open cone over \({\mathbb{C}}{\mathbb{P}}^ 2\). The author gives explicit formulae for all three metrics, and their sectional curvatures, concentrating particularly on the asymptotic behaviour of the curvature in two limits. First, near the vertex of the cone all three metrics have sectional curvatures of mixed sign. Second, near the boundary of the cone, the type I metric (which is incomplete, and can be extended to the closed cone) has positive sectional curvature, while the type II and I-II metrics (which are complete) have negative curvature.