Special metric structures and closed forms

arXivmath/0502443MaRDI QIDQ6475149FDOQ6475149

Authors: Frederik Witt 

Publication date: 21 February 2005

Abstract: The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate metrics which are induced by a differential form and arise as a critical point of Hitchin's variational principle. Firstly, we investigate metrics associated with the structure group PSU(3) acting in its adjoint representation. We derive various obstructions to the existence of a topological reduction to PSU(3). For compact manifolds, we also find sufficient conditions if the PSU(3)-structure lifts to an SU(3)-structure. We give a Riemannian characterisation of topological PSU(3)-structures through an invariant spinor valued 1-form and show that the PSU(3)-structure is integrable if and only if the spinor valued 1-form defines a co-closed Rarita-Schwinger field. Moreover, we construct non-symmetric (compact) examples. Secondly, we consider even or odd forms which can be naturally interpreted as spinors for a spin structure on $Toplus{T}^{\ast }$. As such, the forms we consider induce a reduction from $Spin(7,7)$ to $G_{2}imes{G}_2$. We give a topological classification of $G_{2}imes{G}_2$-structures. We prove that the condition for being a critical point is equivalent to the supersymmetry equations on spinors in supergravity theory of type IIA/B with NS-NS background fields. Examples are systematically constructed by the device of T-duality.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

(G)-structures (53C10) Special Riemannian manifolds (Einstein, Sasakian, etc.) (53C25) String and superstring theories in gravitational theory (83E30) Supergravity (83E50) Variational problems concerning extremal problems in several variables; Yang-Mills functionals (58E15)

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