Yang-Mills Detour Complexes and Conformal Geometry

Working over a pseudo-Riemannian manifold, for each vector bundle with connection we construct a sequence of three differential operators which is a complex (termed a Yang-Mills detour complex) if and only if the connection satisfies the full Yang-Mills equations. A special case is a complex controlling the deformation theory of Yang-Mills connections. In the case of Riemannian signature the complex is elliptic. If the connection respects a metric on the bundle then the complex is formally self-adjoint. In dimension 4 the complex is conformally invariant and generalises, to the full Yang-Mills setting, the composition of (two operator) Yang-Mills complexes for (anti-)self-dual Yang-Mills connections. Via a prolonged system and tractor connection a diagram of differential operators is constructed which, when commutative, generates differential complexes of natural operators from the Yang-Mills detour complex. In dimension 4 this construction is conformally invariant and is used to yield two new sequences of conformal operators which are complexes if and only if the Bach tensor vanishes everywhere. In Riemannian signature these complexes are elliptic. In one case the first operator is the twistor operator and in the other sequence it is the operator for Einstein scales. The sequences are detour sequences associated to certain Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand sequences.     

A local approach to dimensional reduction: II. Conformal invariance in Minkowski space

We consider the problem of obtaining conformally invariant differential operators in Minkowski space. We show that the conformal electrodynamics equations and the gauge transformations for them can be obtained in the frame of the method of dimensional reduction developed in the first part of the paper. We describe a method for obtaining a large set of conformally invariant differential operators in Minkowski space.     

Conformal groups and conformally equivalent isometry groups

It is shown that if ann dimensional Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian manifold admits a proper conformal scalar, every (local) conformal group is conformally isometric, and that if it admits a proper conformal gradient every (local) conformal group is conformally homothetic. In the Riemannian case there is always a conformal scalar unless the metric is conformally Euclidean. In the case of a Lorentzian 4-manifold it is proved that the only metrics with no conformal scalars (and hence the only ones admitting a (local) conformal group not conformally isometric) are either conformal to the plane wave metric with parallel rays or conformally Minkowskian.     

Conformally Invariant Powers of the Laplacian, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Q</Emphasis>-Curvature,and Tractor Calculus

 We describe an elementary algorithm for expressing, as explicit formulae in tractor calculus, the conformally invariant GJMS operators due to C.R. Graham et alia. These differential operators have leading part a power of the Laplacian. Conformal tractor calculus is the natural induced bundle calculus associated to the conformal Cartan connection. Applications discussed include standard formulae for these operators in terms of the Levi-Civita connection and its curvature and a direct definition and formula for T. Branson's so-called Q-curvature (which integrates to a global conformal invariant) as well as generalisations of the operators and the Q-curvature. Among examples, the operators of order 4, 6 and 8 and the related Q-curvatures are treated explicitly. The algorithm exploits the ambient metric construction of Fefferman and Graham and includes a procedure for converting the ambient curvature and its covariant derivatives into tractor calculus expressions. This is partly based on [12], where the relationship of the normal standard tractor bundle to the ambient construction is described. Received: 24 January 2002 / Accepted: 1 November 2002 Published online: 18 February 2003 Communicated by P. Sarnak     

Conformally invariant differential operators on Minkowski space and their curved analogues

This article describes the construction of a natural family of conformally invariant differential operators on a four-dimensional (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold. Included in this family are the usual massless field equations for arbitrary helicity but there are many more besides. The article begins by classifying the invariant operators on flat space. This is a fairly straightforward task in representation theory best solved through the theory of Verma modules. The method generates conformally invariant operators in the curved case by means of Penrose's local twistor transport.S.E.R.C. Advanced Fellow and Flinders University Visiting Research Fellow     

Building string field theory around non-conformal backgrounds

The main limitations of string field theory arise because its present formulation requires a background representing a classical solution, a background defined by a strictly conformally invariant theory. Here we sketch a construction for a gauge-invariant string field action around non-conformal backgrounds. The construction makes no reference to any conformal theory. Its two-dimensional field-theoretic aspect is based on a generalized BRST operator satisfying a set of Weyl descent equations. Its geometric aspect uses a complex of moduli spaces of two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds having ordinary punctures, and organized by the number of special punctures which goes from zero to infinity. In this complex there is a Batalin-Vilkovisky algebra that includes naturally the operator which adds one special puncture. We obtain a classical field equation that appears to relax the condition of conformal invariance usually taken to define classical string backgrounds.     

A Construction of Critical GJMS Operators Using Wodzicki's Residue

For an even dimensional, compact, conformal manifold without boundary we construct a conformally invariant differential operator of order the dimension of the manifold. In the conformally flat case, this operator coincides with the critical GJMS operator of Graham-Jenne-Mason-Sparling. We use the Wodzicki residue of a pseudo-differential operator of order −2, originally defined by A. Connes, acting on middle dimension forms.     

The Ricci flow approach to homogeneous Einstein metrics on flag manifolds

We give a global picture of the normalized Ricci flow on generalized flag manifolds with two or three isotropy summands. The normalized Ricci flow for these spaces reduces to a parameter-dependent system of two or three ordinary differential equations, respectively. Here, we present a qualitative study of these systems’ global phase portrait, which uses techniques of dynamical systems theory. This study allows us to draw conclusions about the existence and the analytical form of invariant Einstein metrics on such manifolds and seems to offer a better insight to the classification problem of invariant Einstein metrics on compact homogeneous spaces.     

Path integral formulation of the conformal Wess-Zumino-Witten → Toda reductions

The phase space path integral Wess-Zumino-Witten → Toda reductions are formulated in a manifestly conformally invariant way. For this purpose, the method of Batalin, Fradkin, and Vilkovisky, adapted to conformal field theories, with chiral constraints, on compact two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, is used. It is shown that the zero-modes of the Lagrange multipliers produce the Toda potential and the gradients produce the WZW anomaly. This anomaly is crucial for proving the Fradkin-Vilkovisky theorem concerning gauge invariance.     

Weyl geometry

We develop the properties of Weyl geometry, beginning with a review of the conformal properties of Riemannian spacetimes. Decomposition of the Riemann curvature into trace and traceless parts allows an easy proof that the Weyl curvature tensor is the conformally invariant part of the Riemann curvature, and shows the explicit change in the Ricci and Schouten tensors required to insure conformal invariance. We include a proof of the well-known condition for the existence of a conformal transformation to a Ricci-flat spacetime. We generalize this to a derivation of the condition for the existence of a conformal transformation to a spacetime satisfying the Einstein equation with matter sources. Then, enlarging the symmetry from Poincaré to Weyl, we develop the Cartan structure equations of Weyl geometry, the form of the curvature tensor and its relationship to the Riemann curvature of the corresponding Riemannian geometry. We present a simple theory of Weyl-covariant gravity based on a curvature-linear action, and show that it is conformally equivalent to general relativity. This theory is invariant under local dilatations, but not the full conformal group.     

The Global Gravitational Anomaly of the Self-dual Field Theory

We derive a formula for the global gravitational anomaly of the self-dual field theory on an arbitrary compact oriented Riemannian manifold. Along the way, we uncover interesting links between the theory of determinant line bundles of Dirac operators, Siegel theta functions and a functor constructed by Hopkins and Singer. We apply our result to type IIB supergravity and show that in the naive approximation where the Ramond-Ramond fields are treated as differential cohomology classes, the global gravitational anomaly vanishes on all 10-dimensional spin manifolds. We sketch a few other important physical applications.     

Definite signature conformal holonomy: A complete classification

This paper aims to classify the holonomy of the conformal Tractor connection, and relate these holonomies to the geometry of the underlying manifold. The conformally Einstein case is dealt with through the construction of metric cones, whose Riemannian holonomy is the same as the Tractor holonomy of the underlying manifold. Direct calculations in the Ricci-flat case and an important decomposition theorem complete the classification for definitive signature.     

Reduction for locally conformal symplectic manifolds

It is shown how one can do symplectic reduction for locally conformal symplectic manifolds, especially with an action of a Lie group. This generalizes well-known procedures for symplectic manifolds to the slightly larger class of locally conformal symplectic manifolds. The whole setting is very conformally invariant.     

Self-Dual Conformal Gravity

We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a Riemannian four-dimensional manifold (M, g) with anti-self-dual Weyl tensor to be locally conformal to a Ricci-flat manifold. These conditions are expressed as the vanishing of scalar and tensor conformal invariants. The invariants obstruct the existence of parallel sections of a certain connection on a complex rank-four vector bundle over M. They provide a natural generalisation of the Bach tensor which vanishes identically for anti-self-dual conformal structures. We use the obstructions to demonstrate that LeBrun’s anti-self-dual metrics on connected sums of \({\mathbb{CP}^2}\) s are not conformally Ricci-flat on any open set. We analyze both Riemannian and neutral signature metrics. In the latter case we find all anti-self-dual metrics with a parallel real spinor which are locally conformal to Einstein metrics with non-zero cosmological constant. These metrics admit a hyper-surface orthogonal null Killing vector and thus give rise to projective structures on the space of β-surfaces.     

Conformally symmetric semi-Riemannian manifolds

In this paper we introduce the concept of conformal curvature-like tensor on a semi-Riemannian manifold, which is weaker than the notion of conformal curvature tensor defined on a Riemannian manifold. By such kind of conformal curvature-like tensor we give a complete classification of conformally symmetric semi-Riemannian manifolds with generalized non-null stress energy tensor.     

A local approach to dimensional reduction: I. General formalism

We present a formalism for dimensional reduction based on the local properties of invariant cross-sections (“fields”) and differential operators. This formalism does not need an ansatz for the invariant fields and is convenient when the reducing group is non-compact.

In the approach presented here, splittings of some exact sequences of vector bundles play a key role. In the case of invariant fields and differential operators, the invariance property leads to an explicit splitting of the corresponding sequences, i.e. to the reduced field/operator. There are also situations when the splittings do not come from invariance with respect to a group action but from some other conditions, which leads to a “non-canonical” reduction.

In a special case, studied in detail in the second part of this article, this method provides an algorithm for construction of conformally invariant fields and differential operators in Minkowski space.     

The backreaction for conformally invariant fields on a conformally flat background

We study conformally invariant fields within the context of semi-classical gravity. We claim that, generically, conformal flatness implies Friedmann-Robertson-Walker behaviour. A proof is presented here for the case in which the Ricci tensor is of the perfect fluid type. We also rewrite the field equations as a quadratic three dimensional autonomous system of ordinary differential equations, the critical points of which are Minkowski space and de Sitter space. Both these critical points are unstable in the linear as well as in the non-linear theory.This essay received an honorable mention from the Gravity Research Foundation, 1990 —Ed.     

Estimates and extremals for zeta function determinants on four-manifolds

LetA be a positive integral power of a natural, conformally covariant differential operator on tensor-spinors in a Riemannian manifold. Suppose thatA is formally self-adjoint and has positive definite leading symbol. For example,A could be the conformal Laplacian (Yamabe operator)L, or the square of the Dirac operator     

On the computation of the Lichnerowicz–Jacobi cohomology

Lichnerowicz–Jacobi cohomology of Jacobi manifolds is reviewed. The use of the associated Lie algebroid allows to prove that the Lichnerowicz–Jacobi cohomology is invariant under conformal changes of the Jacobi structure. We also compute the Lichnerowicz–Jacobi cohomology for a large variety of examples.