Quaternionic Kähler and Spin(7) metrics arising from quaternionic contact Einstein structures

DOI10.1007/S10231-012-0276-8MaRDI QIDQ2436020zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Stefan Ivanov, Luis Ugarte, Dimiter Vassilev, Luis C. de Andrés, Marisa Fernández, José A. Santisteban

Publication date 21 February 2014

Published in Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata. Serie Quarta (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.2745

Einstein metrics qc conformal curvature qc conformal flatness quaternionic contact structures quaternionic Kähler structures and \(\mathrm{Spin}(7)\)-holonomy metrics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Hyper-Kähler and quaternionic Kähler geometry, ``special geometry (53C26)

Abstract: We construct left invariant quaternionic contact (qc) structures on Lie groups with zero and non-zero torsion and with non-vanishing quaternionic contact conformal curvature tensor, thus showing the existence of non-flat quaternionic contact manifolds. We prove that the product of the real line with a seven dimensional manifold, equipped with a certain qc structure, has a quaternionic Kaehler metric as well as a metric with holonomy contained in Spin(7). As a consequence we determine explicit quaternionic Kaehler metrics and Spin(7)-holonomy metrics which seem to be new. Moreover, we give explicit non-compact eight dimensional almost quaternion hermitian manifolds with either a closed fundamental four form or fundamental two forms defining a differential ideal that are not quaternionic Kaehler.

Review text

A quaternionic contact (qc) structure arises as the conformal boundary at infinity of a quaternion-Kähler (QK) structure, see [\textit{O. Biquard}, Asymptotically symmetric Einstein metrics. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (2000; Zbl 0967.53030)]. It is defined, on a smooth manifold \(M\) of dimension \(4n+3\), by a distribution \(H=\operatorname{Ker} \eta \subset TM\) of dimension \(4n\), where \(\eta\) is an \(\mathbb{R}^3\)-valued one-form on \(M\) whose differential makes \(H\) quaternionic. Examples include the quaternionic Heisenberg Lie group and the sphere \(S^{4n+3}\); more generally one can take suitable deformations of QK manifolds or hypersurfaces in the latter. This paper provides a number of explicit local examples, in particular left-invariant qc structures on Lie groups of dimension seven, some qc conformal to the Heisenberg group, others that are not. The other purpose is to relate qc geometry to other \(G\)-structures. By following a well-trodden path, the authors find QK- and \(\mathrm{Spin}(7)\)-holonomy metrics in dimension eight on products \(M\times \mathbb{R}\), by taking qc \(7\)-manifolds \(M\) and solving flow equations of Hitchin type. Building on this, they define `hypo \(\mathrm{Sp}(n)\mathrm{Sp}(1)\)-structures' and prove that the product \(M\times \mathbb{R}\), when \(M\) is qc Einstein and \(\dim M>7\), admits a QK structure. The case \(\dim M=7\) is analogous, but one also needs to assume \(M\) has constant qc scalar curvature. For the definitions of the various qc curvatures see [\textit{S. Ivanov} and \textit{D. Vassilev}, J. Math. Pures Appl. (9) 93, No. 3, 277--307 (2010; Zbl 1194.53044)]. The same school of thought leads, in the end of the paper, to examples of quaternion Hermitian \(8\)-manifolds that have closed fundamental form and are not Einstein (cf. the notion of `harmonic' \(\mathrm{Sp}(2)\mathrm{Sp}(1)\)-structure in [\textit{D. Conti} and \textit{T. Madsen}, Preprint, \url{arXiv:1308.4083}]), or that satisfy the somewhat complementary `ideal' condition.

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