Geometric flows and Strominger systems (Q1706079)

Let \(X\) be a \(3\)-dimensional complex manifold, equipped with a nowhere vanishing holomorphic \((3,0)\)-form \(\Omega\) and a holomorphic vector bundle \(E \to X\). The \textit{Strominger system} is the system of differential equations on pairs of an Hermitian metric \(\omega\) on \(X\) and an Hermitian metric \(H\) on \(E\) given by \[ F \wedge \omega^2 = 0,\quad F^{2,0} = F^{0,2} = 0,\quad d^\dagger \omega= i (\partial - \overline \partial) \log \|\Omega\|_\omega,\quad i \partial \overline \partial \omega =\frac{\alpha'}{4}\left(\text{Tr} R \wedge R - \text{Tr} F \wedge F\right), \] where \(R\) and \(F\) are the curvatures of \(\omega\) and \(H\), respectively, and \(\alpha'\) is a fixed positive parameter, called \textit{string tension} in the physics literature. This system is of considerable interest in physics and in mathematics. In fact it can be considered as a non-Kähler generalisation of a Calabi-Yau metric coupled to an Hermite-Einstein connection. Aiming to study the Strominger systems by means of geometric flows, in this paper the authors introduce the \textit{anomaly flow}, that is the flow of pairs \((\omega(t), H(t))\) of one-parameter families of metrics on \(X\) and \(E\) subjected to the differential equations \[ \partial_t\left(\|\Omega\|_\omega \omega^2\right) = i \partial \overline \partial \omega - \frac{\alpha'}{4} \left(\text{Tr} R \wedge R - \text{Tr} F \wedge F\right) ,\quad H^{-1} \partial_t H = - \Lambda F . \] Then they prove that if an anomaly flow is such that the initial metric \(\omega_0\) satisfies the balanced condition \(d(\|\Omega\|_{\omega_0} \omega_0^2) = 0\) and the pairs \((\omega(t), H(t))\) exist for all \(t\) and converge to some \((\omega_\infty, H_\infty)\), then the limit pair is a solution to the Strominger system. Finally, using Hamilton's version of the Nash-Moser implicit function theorem, they exhibit a natural condition on the initial metric \(\omega_0\) that guarantees the existence of solutions to the anomaly flow equations for short times.