Compact flat manifolds with holonomy group

In this paper we construct a family of compact flat manifolds, for all dimensions , with holonomy group isomorphic to and first Betti number zero.

     

Affine manifolds with diagonal holonomy

As first defined by Smillie, an affine manifold with diagonal holonomy is a manifold equipped with an atlas such that the changes of charts are restrictions of elements of the subgroup of Aff ( \mathbbRⁿ{\mathbb{R}^n}) formed by diagonal matrices. Refining Smillie’s theorem, Benoist proved that if a compact manifold M is split into manifolds with corners corresponding to complete simplicial fans of a fixed frame by its hypersurfaces with normal crossing, then the product of M and a torus of suitable dimension is a finite cover of an affine manifold with diagonal holonomy, and conversely. Motivated by the result of Benoist, we introduce a “Benoist manifold” and a natural definition of complexity for them. In particular, we study some properties of “Benoist manifolds”.     

Extrinsic hyperspheres in manifolds with special holonomy

We describe extrinsic hyperspheres and totally geodesic hypersurfaces in manifolds with special holonomy. In particular we prove the nonexistence of extrinsic hyperspheres in quaternion-Kähler manifolds. We develop a new approach to extrinsic hyperspheres based on the classification of special Killing forms.     

The eta invariant and equivariant bordism of flat manifolds with cyclic holonomy group of odd prime order

We study the eta invariants of compact flat spin manifolds of dimension n with holonomy group \mathbbZ_p{\mathbb{Z}_p}, where p is an odd prime. We find explicit expressions for the twisted and relative eta invariants and show that the reduced eta invariant is always an integer, except in a single case, when p = n = 3. We use the expressions obtained to show that any such manifold is trivial in the appropriate reduced equivariant spin bordism group.     

Codazzi spinors and globally hyperbolic manifolds with special holonomy

In this paper, we describe the structure of Riemannian manifolds with a special kind of Codazzi spinors. We use them to construct globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with complete Cauchy surface for any weakly irreducible holonomy representation with parallel spinors, t.m. with a holonomy group , where is trivial or a product of groups SU(k), Sp(l), G ₂ or Spin (7).      

Properties of manifolds with skew-symmetric torsion and special holonomy

In this paper we provide examples of hypercomplex manifolds which do not carry HKT structures, thus answering a question in Grantcharov and Poon (Comm. Math. Phys. 213 (2000) 19). We also prove that the existence of an HKT structure is not stable under small deformations. Similarly we provide examples of compact complex manifolds with vanishing first Chern class which do not admit a Hermitian structure whose Bismut connection has restricted holonomy in SU(n), thus providing a counter-example to the conjecture in Gutowski et al. (Deformations of generalized calibrations and compact non-Kähler manifolds with vanishing first Chern class, math.DG/0205012, Asian J. Math., to appear). Again we prove that such a property is not stable under small deformations.     

Hyperbolic cone-manifold structures with prescribed holonomy I: punctured tori

We consider the relationship between hyperbolic cone-manifold structures on surfaces, and algebraic representations of the fundamental group into a group of isometries. A hyperbolic cone-manifold structure on a surface, with all interior cone angles being integer multiples of 2π, determines a holonomy representation of the fundamental group. We ask, conversely, when a representation of the fundamental group is the holonomy of a hyperbolic cone-manifold structure. In this paper we prove results for the punctured torus; in the sequel, for higher genus surfaces. We show that a representation of the fundamental group of a punctured torus is a holonomy representation of a hyperbolic cone-manifold structure with no interior cone points and a single corner point if and only if it is not virtually abelian. We construct a pentagonal fundamental domain for hyperbolic structures, from the geometry of a representation. Our techniques involve the universal covering group [(PSL₂\mathbb R)\tilde]{\widetilde{{\it PSL}_2{\mathbb R}}} of the group of orientation-preserving isometries of \mathbb H²{{\mathbb H}^2} and Markoff moves arising from the action of the mapping class group on the character variety.     

Hyperbolic cone-manifold structures with prescribed holonomy II: higher genus

We consider the relationship between hyperbolic cone-manifold structures on surfaces, and algebraic representations of the fundamental group into a group of isometries. A hyperbolic cone-manifold structure on a surface, with all interior cone angles being integer multiples of 2??, determines a holonomy representation of the fundamental group. We ask, conversely, when a representation of the fundamental group is the holonomy of a hyperbolic cone-manifold structure. In this paper we build upon previous work with punctured tori to prove results for higher genus surfaces. Our techniques construct fundamental domains for hyperbolic cone-manifold structures, from the geometry of a representation. Central to these techniques are the Euler class of a representation, the group ${\widetilde{PSL_{2}\mathbb{R}}}$ , the twist of hyperbolic isometries, and character varieties. We consider the action of the outer automorphism and related groups on the character variety, which is measure-preserving with respect to a natural measure derived from its symplectic structure, and ergodic in certain regions. Under various hypotheses, we almost surely or surely obtain a hyperbolic cone-manifold structure with prescribed holonomy.     

Topological structure of complete Riemannian manifolds with cyclic holonomy groups

Let M be a complete m-dimensional Riemannian manifold with cyclic holonomy group, let X be a closed flat manifold homotopy equivalent to M, and let L→X be a nontrivial line bundle over X whose total space is a flat manifold with cyclic holonomy group. We prove that either M is diffeomorphic to X×Rm-dimX or M is diffeomorphic to L×Rm-dimX−1.     

Eta invariants for flat manifolds

Using a formula from Donnelly (Indiana Univ Math J 27(6):889–918, 1978), we prove that for a family of seven dimensional flat manifolds with cyclic holonomy groups the η invariant of the signature operator is an integer number. We also present an infinite family of flat manifolds with integral η invariant. The main motivation is a paper of Long and Reid (Geom Topol 4:171–178, 2000).     

Minimal coverings of manifolds with balls

For a closed manifold M, denote by C(M) the minimal number of balls which suffice to cover M. It is shown that C(M) coincides with the Ljusternik-Schnirelmann category cat M if the latter is not too low compared with the dimension of M. In this case it follows in particular that C(M) is an invariant of the homotopy type of M. One of the applications of this result is the following: Let M be a closed manifold of sufficiently high category. Then cat(M×S¹)=cat M+1. This is a partial affirmative answer to a long-standing conjecture.