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.     

Conformal Einstein spaces

We study conformal transformations in four-dimensional manifolds. In particular, we present a new set of two necessary and sufficient conditions for a space to be conformal to an Einstein space. The first condition defines the class of spaces conformal to C spaces, whereas the last one (the vanishing of the Bach tensor) gives the particular subclass ofC spaces which are conformally related to Einstein spaces.This work has been partly supported bym a grand from the National Science Foundation.     

Conformal C and Empty Spaces of Petrov Type N

Conformal Einstein spaces are of particular interest in General Relativity and Quantum Gravity. We present a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a Petrov type N space-time to be conformally related to an empty space. The conditions are developed in two stages: first, we give necessary and sufficient conditions in Newman-Penrose, spinor, and tensor notation for a space to be conformal to a C-space; second, we establish the sufficiency of a set of additional tensorial conditions for a conformal C-space to be conformal to an empty space.     

Laplacian eigenvalue functionals and metric deformations on compact manifolds

In this paper, we investigate critical points of the eigenvalues of the Laplace operator considered as functionals on the space of Riemannian metrics or a conformal class of metrics on a compact manifold. We introduce a natural notion of the critical metric of such a functional and obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a metric to be critical. We derive specific consequences concerning possible locally maximizing metrics. We also characterize critical metrics of the ratio of two consecutive eigenvalues.     

Ambient Metrics for n-Dimensional pp-Waves

We provide an explicit formula for the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric of an n-dimensional conformal pp-wave in those cases where it exists. In even dimensions we calculate the obstruction explicitly. Furthermore, we describe all 4-dimensional pp-waves that are Bach-flat, and give a large class of Bach-flat examples which are conformally Cotton-flat, but not conformally Einstein. Finally, as an application, we use the obtained ambient metric to show that even-dimensional pp-waves have vanishing critical Q-curvature.     

Gravity/CFT correspondence for three-dimensional Einstein gravity with a conformal scalar field

We study the three-dimensional Einstein gravity conformally coupled to a scalar field. Solutions of this theory are geometries with vanishing scalar curvature. We consider solutions with a constant scalar field which corresponds to an infinite Newton?s constant. There is a class of solutions with possible curvature singularities which asymptotic symmetries are given by two copies of the Virasoro algebra. We argue that the central charge of the corresponding CFT is infinite. Furthermore, we construct a family of Schwarzschild solutions which can be conformally mapped to the Martínez–Zanelli solution of Einstein?s equations with a negative cosmological constant coupled to conformal scalar field.     

Perfect fluid metrics conformal to the Schwarzschild exterior spacetime

We construct perfect fluid spacetimes by performing a conformal transformation on a non-conformally flat vacuum solution, namely the Schwarzschild exterior metric. It should be noted that conformally Ricci flat perfect fluid solutions, except those that are conformally flat, are rarely reported explicitly. In this article it is demonstrated that perfect fluid metrics conformal to the Schwarzschild exterior line element are necessarily static. The Einstein field equations for the static case reduce to a fully determined system of three differential equations in three unknowns and the conformal factor is uniquely determined in closed form. The solution is analysed for physical plausibility by establishing the positivity of the energy density and pressure profiles graphically. Additionally, the solution is observed to be causal in an appropriate limit and both the energy density and pressure is shown to be decreasing outwards towards the boundary. Finally, the weak, strong and dominant energy conditions are found to be satisfied in the region under investigation. Accordingly, the most common elementary physical conditions are met and the model is seen to be suitable for a core-envelope stellar model.     

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.     

Unique continuation results for Ricci curvature and applications

Unique continuation results are proved for metrics with prescribed Ricci curvature in the setting of bounded metrics on compact manifolds with boundary, and in the setting of complete conformally compact metrics on such manifolds. Related to this issue, an isometry extension property is proved: continuous groups of isometries at conformal infinity extend into the bulk of any complete conformally compact Einstein metric. Relations of this property with the invariance of the Gauss–Codazzi constraint equations under deformations are also discussed.     

On the isotropy subalgebras of Lie algebras of conformal vector fields

The conformal isotropy algebra of a point m in an n-manifold with a metric of arbitrary signature is shown to be locally reducible, by a conformal change of the metric, to a homothetic algebra near m iff, by choice of a chart, its constituent vector fields are simultaneously linearisable at m and, for n≥3, a necessary and sufficient condition for this in terms of the first and second derivatives of these fields at m is given. The implications for the Riemannian case and the Lorentzian case are investigated. In contrast to the former, a Lorentzian manifold admitting a conformal vector field that is not linearisable at some point need not be conformally flat. Relevant four-dimensional examples are provided.     

Growth conditions, Riemannian completeness and Lorentzian causality

The stationary-Randers correspondence (SRC) provides a deep connection between the property of standard stationary spacetimes being globally hyperbolic, and the completeness of certain Finsler metrics of Randers type defined on the fibres. In order to establish further results, we investigate pointwise conformal transformations of certain Riemannian metrics on the fibres and growth conditions on the corresponding conformal factors. In general, a conformal transformation may map a complete Riemannian metric onto a complete or incomplete metric. We prove a theorem for the growth of the conformal factor such that the conformally transformed Riemannian metric is also complete. As an application, we establish novel relations between the completeness of Riemannian metrics, growth conditions on conformal factors and the Cauchy hypersurface condition on the fibres of a standard stationary spacetime. These results also imply new conditions for the completeness of Randers-type metrics by the application of the SRC.     

A remark on the rigidity of Poincaré–Einstein manifolds

In this paper, we give an optimal inequality relating the relative Yamabe invariant of a certain compactification of a conformally compact Poincaré–Einstein manifold with the Yamabe invariant of its boundary at infinity. As an application, we obtain an elementary proof (without any additional assumption) of the rigidity of the hyperbolic space as the only conformally compact Poincaré–Einstein manifold with the round sphere as its conformal infinity.

     

Perturbed beta–gamma systems and complex geometry

We consider the equations, arising as the conformal invariance conditions of the perturbed curved beta–gamma system. These equations have the physical meaning of Einstein equations with a B-field and a dilaton on a Hermitian manifold, where the B-field 2-form is imaginary and proportional to the canonical form associated with Hermitian metric. We show that they decompose into linear and bilinear equations and lead to the vanishing of the first Chern class of the manifold where the system is defined. We discuss the relation of these equations to the generalized Maurer–Cartan structures related to BRST operator. Finally we describe the relations of the generalized Maurer–Cartan bilinear operation and the Courant/Dorfman brackets.     

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.     

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.     

Uniqueness of the Functional Determinant

The functional determinant of the conformal laplacian and the square of the Dirac operator are known to be extremized at the standard round metric of the four-sphere among all conformal metrics (up to gauge equivalence). In this article we show that this is the unique critical point, thus extending the work of Onofri and Osgood, Phillips and Sarnak for the functional determinant on S ² which characterized the constant curvature metric as the unique critical point of the determinant. In addition, we introduce a new symmetric two-tensor field which is defined on any conformally flat four-manifold and can be viewed as a fourth order generalization of the Einstein gravitational tensor. As a consequence we prove a Pohozaev identity for manifolds with boundary which admit conformal Killing vector fields. Received: 30 October 1996 / Accepted: 21 March 1997     

New cohomogeneity one metrics with Spin(7) holonomy

We construct new explicit non-singular metrics that are complete on non-compact Riemannian 8-manifolds with holonomy Spin(7). One such metric, which we denote by , is complete and non-singular on . The other complete metrics are defined on manifolds with the topology of the bundle of chiral spinors over S⁴, and are denoted by , and . The metrics on and occur in families with a non-trivial parameter. The metric on arises for a limiting value of this parameter, and locally this metric is the same as the one for . The new Spin(7) metrics are asymptotically locally conical (ALC): near infinity they approach a circle bundle with fibres of constant length over a cone whose base is the squashed Einstein metric on . We construct the covariantly constant spinor and calibrating 4-form. We also obtain an L²-normalisable harmonic 4-form for the manifold, and two such 4-forms (of opposite dualities) for the manifold.     

Cohomogeneity-one Einstein–Weyl structures: a local approach

We analyse in a systematic way the (non-) compact n-dimensional Einstein–Weyl spaces equipped with a cohomogeneity-one metric. In that context, with no compactness hypothesis for the manifold on which lives the Einstein–Weyl structure, we prove that, as soon as the (n−1)-dimensional space is a homogeneous reductive Riemannian space with a unimodular group of left-acting isometries G:

• •there exists a Gauduchon gauge such that the Weyl-form is co-closed and its dual is a Killing vector for the metric;
• •in that gauge, a simple constraint on the conformal scalar curvature holds;
• •a non-exact Einstein–Weyl structure may exist only if the (n−1)-dimensional homogeneous space G/H contains a non-trivial subgroup H′ that commutes with the isotropy subgroup H;
• •the extra isometry due to this Killing vector corresponds to the right-action of one of the generators of the algebra of the subgroup H′.

The first two results are well known when the Einstein–Weyl structure lives on a compact manifold, but our analysis gives the first hints on the enlargement of the symmetry due to the Einstein–Weyl constraint.We also prove that the subclass with G compact, a one-dimensional subgroup H′ and the (n−2)-dimensional space G/(H×H′) being an arbitrary compact symmetric Kähler coset space, corresponds to n-dimensional Riemannian locally conformally Kähler metrics. The explicit family of structures of cohomogeneity-one under SU(n/2) being, thanks to our results, invariant under U(1)×SU(n/2), it coincides with the one first studied by Madsen; our analysis allows us to prove most of his conjectures.     

Conformal Einstein spaces in N-dimensions: Part II

This paper generalizes the main result of “Conformal Einstein spaces in N-dimensions” published in Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 20(2) (2001). We present necessary and sufficient tensorial conditions for a certain class of semi-Riemannian manifolds to be conformally related to Einstein spaces.     

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.