Harmonic Sp(2)-invariant G₂-structures on the 7-sphere

(G)-structures (53C10) Special Riemannian manifolds (Einstein, Sasakian, etc.) (53C25) Differential geometry of homogeneous manifolds (53C30) Differential geometric aspects of harmonic maps (53C43)

Abstract: We describe the

10

-dimensional space of

S p (2)

-invariant

G_{2}

-structures on the homogeneous

7

-sphere

S^{7} = S p (2) / S p (1)

as

m a t h b b R^{+} i m e s G l^{+} (3, m a t h b b R)

. In those terms, we formulate a general Ansatz for

G_{2}

-structures, which realises representatives in each of the

7

possible isometric classes of homogeneous

G_{2}

-structures. Moreover, the well-known nearly parallel round and squashed metrics occur naturally as opposite poles in an

S^{3}

-family, the equator of which is a new

S^{2}

-family of coclosed

G_{2}

-structures satisfying the harmonicity condition

d i v T = 0

. We show general existence of harmonic representatives of

G_{2}

-structures in each isometric class through explicit solutions of the associated flow and describe the qualitative behaviour of the flow. We study the stability of the Dirichlet gradient flow near these critical points, showing explicit examples of degenerate and nondegenerate local maxima and minima, at various regimes of the general Ansatz. Finally, for metrics outside of the Ansatz, we identify families of harmonic

G_{2}

-structures, prove long-time existence of the flow and study the stability properties of some well-chosen examples.

Review text

Consider the sphere \(\mathbb{S}^7\) as a homogeneous space \(\mathbb{S}^7 = \mathrm{Sp}(2)/\mathrm{Sp}(1)\) under the natural action of the \(2\times 2\) quaternionic unitary group, \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\). The paper contains a detailed and comprehensive study of the class of \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\)-invariant \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures on the sphere (denoted \(\Omega_+^3(\mathbb{S}^7)^{\mathrm{Sp}(2)}\)) as well as the space of \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\)-invariant Riemannian metrics, \(\operatorname{Sym}^2_+(T^\ast \mathbb{S}^7)^{\mathrm{Sp}(2)}\). Theorem 1 is an explicit identification of \(\Omega^3_+(\mathbb{S}^7)^{\mathrm{Sp}(2)}\) with \(\mathbb{R}^+\times \operatorname{Gl}^+(3,\mathbb{R})\), together with a corresponding identification of \(\operatorname{Sym}^2_+(T^\ast \mathbb{S}^7)^{\mathrm{Sp}(2)}\) with \(\mathbb{R}^+\times (\operatorname{Gl}^+(3,\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SO}(3))\). With respect to the identification in Theorem 1, Theorem 2 concerns \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures identified with the subset \(\{r\}\times \mathrm{SO}(3)\) of \(\mathbb{R}^+\times \operatorname{Gl}^+(3,\mathbb{R})\). Within this family, the authors characterize the coclosed \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures, the nearly parallel \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures, and the locally conformally closed \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures. Theorem 3 identifies the harmonic \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures within each \(\{r\}\times \mathrm{SO}(3)\) class. Theorems 4 and 5 are concerned with the energy functional and a reduced version of the energy functional on the \(\{r\}\times \mathrm{SO}(3)\) class. Specifically, Theorem 4 is a classification of the critical points, and their indices and nullities, with respect to homogeneous deformations. Theorem 5 gives bounds on the indices under the assumption of general deformations. In addition, the authors obtain results for homogeneous \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures which are \textit{not} of the form \(\{r\}\times \mathrm{SO}(3)\). In particular, they find new examples of harmonic \(\mathrm{Ad}(\mathrm{Sp}(1))\)-invariant \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures. Theorem 1 is proved as follows. First, the \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structures are homogeneous, so can be identified with \(\mathrm{Ad}(\mathrm{Sp}(1))\)-invariant elements of \(\Lambda^3 \mathfrak{p}^\ast\) with \(\mathfrak{p}\) a certain subspace of the Lie algebra of \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\). The authors explicitly identify these elements through a representation-theoretic computation. Once the elements are specified, the identification in Theorem 1 is natural. In order to prove Theorem 2, the authors first explicitly compute the full torsion tensor of a general homogeneous \(\mathbf{G}_2\)-structure on \(\mathbb{S}^7\). This is then specialized to the case of \(\{r\}\times \mathrm{SO}(3)\), where the formulas simplify considerably. Theorems 3 and 4 follow via explicit computations paired with the Palais Principle of Symmetric Criticality, see [\textit{R. S. Palais}, Commun. Math. Phys. 69, 19--30 (1979; Zbl 0417.58007)]. Theorem 5 is an immediate consequence of Theorem 4.

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