Desingularization of coassociative 4-folds with conical singularities (Q841093)

This work is motivated by results and techniques in previous publications of the author on coassociative 4-folds such as [Commun. Anal. Geom. 15, No.~5, 891--946 (2007; Zbl 1151.53048); Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 99, No.~2, 386--424 (2009; Zbl 1189.53049)]. The idea is to construct a smooth family of compact, nonsingular, coassociative 4-folds parametrized by the interval \((0,\tau)\), \(\tau>0\) that converges to a singular one as \(t\in (0,\tau)\) approaches \(0\), in the sense of currents in geometric measure theory. The author points out that there are analogies between this work and that of D. D. Joyce presented in a series of papers on special Lagrangian submanifolds with conical singularities, especially [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 26, No.~1, 1--58 (2004; Zbl 1068.53039)]. Work of Kovalyev [Coassociative \(K3\) fibrations of compact \(G_2-\)manifolds. Preprint. \url{arxiv:math.DG/0511150}] that describes the construction of fibrations for a family of compact 7-manifolds, the singular fibers of which are coassociative 4-folds with conical singularities, is also cited. The author discusses the nature of the convergence and supplies definitions, as in previous work. Coassociative submanifolds were introduced by \textit{R. Harvey} and \textit{H. B. Lawson} [Acta Math. 148, 47--152 (1982; Zbl 0584.53021)]. In the present work an equivalent definition is preferred, whereby a 4-dimensional submanifold \(N\) of \(\mathbb R^7\)is coassociative if and only if a certain \(3\)-form \(\varphi\) (the form preserved by the Lie group \(G_2\)) is identically \(0\) on \(N\) and an orientation is chosen (the \(4\)-form \(\star\varphi > 0\) on \(N\)).