Linear perturbations of quaternionic metrics (Q981714)

Quaternionic Kähler (QK) manifolds play an important role in string and supergravity theories because the hypermultiplet moduli spaces appearing in string theory backgrounds with 8 superchargers fall into this class. In the present work, the authors study general aspects of QK manifolds and their twistor spaces, and provide a general formalism for describing linear perturbations of 4d-dimensional QK manifolds with \(d+1\) commuting isometries. For this purpose, the authors build on their previous study of linear deformations of hyper-Kähler (HK) manifolds obtainable by the Legendre transform method [Lett. Math. Phys. 87, No. 3, 225--265 (2009; Zbl 1169.53035)]. A key fact for this study is the (local) one-to-one correspondence between \(4d\)-dimensional QK manifolds \(\mathcal{M}\) and \(4d+4\)-dimensional ``hyper-Kähler cones'' (HKC) \(\mathcal{S}\), i.e., \(4d+4\)-dimensional HK manifolds with a homotheic Killing vector and an isometric \(SU(2)\) action rotating the three complex structures. In particular, Swann's construction produces \(\mathcal{S}\) as a \(\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}^2\) bundle over \(\mathcal{M}\), twisted by \(SU(2)\) part of the spin connection on \(\mathcal{M}\) [\textit{A. Swann}, Math. Ann. 289, No. 3, 421--450 (1991; Zbl 0711.53051)]. The converse relation goes under the name of ``superconformal quotient'' in the physics literature. Moreover, any isotropy of \(\mathcal{M}\) can be lifted to a tri-holomorphic isometry of \(\mathcal{S}\). Therefore, the formalism of the authors previous study (op.cit) is directly applicable to the Swann bundle \(\mathcal{S}\), with a suitable restriction to ensure the hyper-Kähler cone (or ``superconformal invariance'') property. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Quaternionic-Kähler Geometry and Twistors -- 2.1 Bottom-up: from QK to HLC, 2.2 Top down: from HKC to QK, 2.3 Patchwork construction of twistor spaces of HK manifolds -- a summary, 2.4 Conditions for superconformal invariance, 2.5 Homogeneous symplectic vs. contact geometry; 3. Quaternionic Geometry with Commuting Isometries -- 3.1 Tri-holomorphic isometries and superconformal invariance, 3.2 Superconformal quotient, 3.3 Contact twistor lines; 4. The Perturbative Hypermultiplet Moduli Space -- 4.1 Tree-level geometry, 4.2 One-loop correction, 4.3 Superconformal quotient; 5. Linear Deformations of \(\mathcal{O}(2)\) Quaternionic-Kähler Spaces -- 5.1 Linear deformations of \(\mathcal{O}(2)\) hyper-Kähler cones, 5.2 Perturbed contact twistor lines; Appendices -- A. Infinitesimal \(SU(2)\) Transformations, B. An alternative Formulation for Hypermultiplet Moduli Spaces, C. Deformed Superconformal Quotient.