Almost Robinson geometries

Local differential geometry of Lorentz metrics, indefinite metrics (53B30) (G)-structures (53C10) Conformal structures on manifolds (53C18) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50)

Abstract: We investigate the geometry of almost Robinson manifolds, Lorentzian analogues of almost Hermitian manifolds, defined by Nurowski and Trautman as Lorentzian manifolds of even dimension equipped with a totally null complex distribution of maximal rank. Associated to such a structure, there is a congruence of null curves, which, in dimension four, is geodesic and non-shearing if and only if the complex distribution is involutive. Under suitable conditions, the distribution gives rise to an almost Cauchy-Riemann structure on the leaf space of the congruence. We give a comprehensive classification of such manifolds on the basis of their intrinsic torsion. This includes an investigation of the relation between an almost Robinson structure and the geometric properties of the leaf space of its congruence. We also obtain conformally invariant properties of such a structure, and we finally study an analogue of so-called generalised optical geometries as introduced by Robinson and Trautman.

Review text

Almost Robinson structures are the Lorentzian analogues of the classical almost Hermitian structures. The authors describe some geometric properties of an almost Robinson structure in terms of its intrinsic torsion. This approach is analogous to well-known description of \textit{A. Gray} and \textit{L. M. Hervella} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 123, 35--58 (1980; Zbl 0444.53032)] in the almost Hermitian setting. The main results of this fundamental work contain an invariant description of the module of intrinsic torsions of an almost Robinson structure. Since an almost Robinson manifold defines (in particular) an optical geometry, the authors study an analogue of so-called generalized optical geometries as introduced by \textit{I. Robinson} and \textit{A. Trautman} [Lett. Math. Phys. 10, 179--182 (1985; Zbl 0583.53030)]. The list of references contains 119 papers on the subject of the present article.

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