(Semi-)Riemannian geometry of (para-)octonionic projective planes (Q838016)

The main theorems of the paper under review hold for four manifolds: the octonionic projective plane \({\mathbb O}P^2\), the octonionic projective plane of indefinite signature \({\mathbb O}P^{(1,1)}\), the para-octonionic projective plane \({\mathbb O}'P^2\), and the hyperbolic dual \({\mathbb O}H^2\) of the octonionic projective plane. These manifolds are studied by means of the reduced homogeneous coordinates, which in particular are used to construct (semi-)Riemannian metrics. One proves that the aforementioned projective planes are simply connected, homogeneous, and symmetric. The Riemannian curvature tensors are computed as well. A theorem of the paper establishes the fact that the four projective planes are special Osserman manifolds with a non-trivial eigenvalue of multiplicity 7, in the sense of \textit{E. García-Río, D. N. Kupeli}, and \textit{R. Vázquez-Lorenzo} [Osserman manifolds in semi-Riemannian geometry. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 1777. Berlin: Springer (2002; Zbl 1005.53040)].