Twistor geometry of a pair of second order ODEs

DOI10.1007/S00220-013-1729-7MaRDI QIDQ356702zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Maciej Dunajski, Paul Tod, Stephen Casey

Publication date 26 July 2013

Published in Communications in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1203.4158

zbMATH Keywords

conformal structuredifferential geometryFinsler structurepath geometrysecond-order ODEstorsionfree ODE systemtwistor geometryWiłczynski invariants

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geometric methods in ordinary differential equations (34A26) Twistor methods in differential geometry (53C28) Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Differential geometric methods, including holonomy, Berry and Hannay phases, Aharonov-Bohm effect, etc. in quantum theory (81Q70) Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R25)

Abstract: We discuss the twistor correspondence between path geometries in three dimensions with vanishing Wilczynski invariants and anti-self-dual conformal structures of signature $(2,2)$. We show how to reconstruct a system of ODEs with vanishing invariants for a given conformal structure, highlighting the Ricci-flat case in particular. Using this framework, we give a new derivation of the Wilczynski invariants for a system of ODEs whose solution space is endowed with a conformal structure. We explain how to reconstruct the conformal structure directly from the integral curves, and present new examples of systems of ODEs with point symmetry algebra of dimension four and greater which give rise to anti--self--dual structures with conformal symmetry algebra of the same dimension. Some of these examples are $(2,2)$ analogues of plane wave space--times in General Relativity. Finally we discuss a variational principle for twistor curves arising from the Finsler structures with scalar flag curvature.

Review text

After a brief survey of definition for used notations, the paper deals with the path geometry as an equivalent class of systems of second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) \[ Y= F(X, Y, Z, Y', Z'),\quad Z= G(X, Y, Z, Y', Z'), \] where \(F\), \(G\) are arbitrary functions on an open set in \(\mathbb{R}^5\) of class \(C^5\). An idea that allows the reconstruction of a system of ODEs with vanishing invariants for a given conformal structure, the Ricci-flat case in particular, is presented; thereby several important results are established and illustrated by examples. The authors continue really their presentation of results on the development of twistor theory, which has been studied in [the second and the third author, J. Geom. Phys. 56, No. 9, 1790--1809 (2006; Zbl 1096.53028); the second author and \textit{S. West}, Commun. Math. Phys. 272, No. 1, 85--118 (2007; Zbl 1147.53022)]. The article consists of nine sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Systems of ODEs and their invariants, (3) Twistor correspondence, (4) From ASD conformal structures to systems of ODEs, (5) Wiłczynski invariants, (6) Symmetries of torsion-free path geometries, (7) Examples, (8) Finsler structures with scalar flag curvature, (9) Conclusions and outlook. Proofs of the few results are omitted; reference is made to previously published papers. The analysis involved is mostly interesting but the detailed statements are too complicated to reproduce.

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Cited in

(27)

• Gauge theory on projective surfaces and anti-self-dual Einstein metrics in dimension four
• The Cayley cubic and differential equations
• Almost every path structure is not variational
• Twistor theory of dancing paths
• Symmetry gaps for higher order ordinary differential equations
• An example of the geometry of a 5th-order ODE: the metric on the space of conics in \(\mathbb{CP}^2\)
• Einstein metrics, projective structures and the \(\mathrm{SU}(\infty)\) Toda equation
• Some examples of projective and \(c\)-projective compactifications of Einstein metrics
• Spinor and twistor geometry in Einstein gravity and Finsler modifications
• Ricci-flat spacetimes admitting higher rank Killing tensors
• Strongly essential flows on irreducible parabolic geometries
• Finsler metrizable isotropic sprays and Hilbert's fourth problem
• On the Einstein-Weyl and conformal self-duality equations
• Self-dual conformal gravity
• Metrisability of Painlevé equations
• Twistor theory at fifty: from contour integrals to twistor strings
• Metrisability of three-dimensional path geometries
• The gap phenomenon in parabolic geometries
• Conformal geodesics on gravitational instantons
• Webs and the Plebański equation
• Torsion-free path geometries and integrable second order ODE systems
• On uniqueness of submaximally symmetric vector ordinary differential equations of C-class
• Admissible transformations and Lie symmetries of linear systems of second-order ordinary differential equations
• Conformally related vacuum gravitational waves and their symmetries
• On equivalence of systems of differential equations
• Conformal structures with G₂-symmetric twistor distribution
• Ordinary differential equations described by their Lie symmetry algebra

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