On twisted contact groupoids and on integration of twisted Jacobi manifolds

We introduce the concept of twisted contact groupoids, as an extension either of contact groupoids or of twisted symplectic ones, and we discuss the integration of twisted Jacobi manifolds by twisted contact groupoids. We also investigate the very close relationships which link homogeneous twisted Poisson manifolds with twisted Jacobi manifolds and homogeneous twisted symplectic groupoids with twisted contact ones. Some examples for each structure are presented.     

How the Curvature Generates the Holonomy of a Connection in an Arbitrary Fibre Bundle

For an arbitrary fibre bundle with a connection, the holonomy group of which is a Lie transformation group, it is shown how the parallel displacement along a null-homotopic loop can be obtained from the curvature by integration. The result also sheds some new light on the situation for vector bundles and principal fibre bundles. The Theorem of Ambrose–Singer is derived as a corollary in our general setting. The curvature of the connection is interpreted as a differential 2-form with values in the holonomy algebra bundle, the elements of which are special vector fields on the fibres of the given bundle. Received: May 16, 2006; Revised: July 30, 2006; Accepted: August 2, 2006     

Conformal holonomy of C-spaces, Ricci-flat, and Lorentzian manifolds

The main result of this paper is that a Lorentzian manifold is locally conformally equivalent to a manifold with recurrent lightlike vector field and totally isotropic Ricci tensor if and only if its conformal tractor holonomy admits a 2-dimensional totally isotropic invariant subspace. Furthermore, for semi-Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary signature we prove that the conformal holonomy algebra of a C-space is a Berger algebra. For Ricci-flat spaces we show how the conformal holonomy can be obtained by the holonomy of the ambient metric and get results for Riemannian manifolds and plane waves.     

The geometry of a bi-Lagrangian manifold

This is a survey on bi-Lagrangian manifolds, which are symplectic manifolds endowed with two transversal Lagrangian foliations. We also study the non-integrable case (i.e., a symplectic manifold endowed with two transversal Lagrangian distributions). We show that many different geometric structures can be attached to these manifolds and we carefully analyze the associated connections. Moreover, we introduce the problem of the intersection of the two leaves, one of each foliation, through a point and show a lot of significative examples.     

Symplectic, complex and Kähler structures on four-dimensional generalized symmetric spaces

We obtain the full classification of invariant symplectic, (almost) complex and Kähler structures, together with their paracomplex analogues, on four-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian generalized symmetric spaces. We also apply these results to build some new examples of five-dimensional homogeneous K-contact, Sasakian, K-paracontact and para-Sasakian manifolds.     

Quasi-K?hler manifolds with trivial Chern Holonomy

In this paper we study almost complex manifolds admitting a quasi-K?hler Chern-flat metric (Chern-flat means that the holonomy of the Chern connection is trivial). We prove that in the compact case such manifolds are all nilmanifolds. Some partial classification results are established and we prove that a quasi-K?hler Chern-flat structure can be tamed by a symplectic form if and only if the ambient space is isomorphic to a flat torus.     

Riemannian, Symplectic and Weak Holonomy

Much of the early work of Alfred Gray was concerned with the investigation of Riemannian manifolds with special holonomy, one of the most vivid fields of Riemannian geometry in the 1960s and the following decades. It is the purpose of the present article to give a brief summary and an appreciation of Gray's contributions in this area on the one hand, and on the other hand to describe some of the more recent developments in the theory of non-Riemannian or,more specifically, symplectic holonomy groups. Namely, we show that the Merkulov twistor space of a connection on a symplectic manifold M whose holonomy group is irreducible and properly contained in Sp(V) consists of maximal totally geodesic Lagrangian submanifolds of M.     

On homogeneous connections with exotic holonomy

In Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 53 (1991), 33–88, Bryant gave examples of torsion free connections on four-manifolds whose holonomy is exotic, i.e. is not contained on Berger's classical list of irreducible holonomy representations. The holonomy in Bryant's examples is the irreducible four-dimensional representation of S1(2, #x211D;) (G1(2, #x211D;) resp.) and these connections are called H ₃-connections (G ₃-connections resp.).In this paper, we give a complete classification of homogeneous G ₃-connections. The moduli space of these connections is four-dimensional, and the generic homogeneous G ₃-connection is shown to be locally equivalent to a left-invariant connection on U(2). Thus, we prove the existence of compact manifolds with G ₃-connections. This contrasts a result in by Schwachhöfer (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 345 (1994), 293–321) which states that there are no compact manifolds with an H ₃-connection.     

On the rigidity of the coisotropic Maslov index on certain rational symplectic manifolds

We revisit the definition of the Maslov index of loops in coisotropic submanifolds tangent to the characteristic foliation of this submanifold. This Maslov index is given by the mean index of a certain symplectic path which is a lift of the holonomy along the loop. We prove a Maslov index rigidity result for stable coisotropic submanifolds in a broad class of ambient symplectic manifolds. Furthermore, we establish a nearby existence theorem for the same class of ambient manifolds.     

On the affine group of a normal homogeneous manifold

A very important class of homogeneous Riemannian manifolds are the so-called normal homogeneous spaces, which have associated a canonical connection. In this study, we obtain geometrically the (connected component of the) group of affine transformations with respect to the canonical connection for a normal homogeneous space. The naturally reductive case is also treated. This completes the geometric calculation of the isometry group of naturally reductive spaces. In addition, we prove that for normal homogeneous spaces the set of fixed points of the full isotropy is a torus. As an application of our results it follows that the holonomy group of a homogeneous fibration is contained in the group of (canonically) affine transformations of the fibers; in particular, this holonomy group is a Lie group (this is a result of Guijarro and Walschap).     

Spin Structures on Flat Manifolds

The aim of this paper is to present some results about spin structures on flat manifolds. We prove that any finite group can be the holonomy group of a flat spin manifold. Moreover, we shall give some methods of constructing spin structures related to the holonomy representation.     

Ambient connections realising conformal Tractor holonomy

For a conformal manifold we introduce the notion of an ambient connection, an affine connection on an ambient manifold of the conformal manifold, possibly with torsion, and with conditions relating it to the conformal structure. The purpose of this construction is to realise the normal conformal Tractor holonomy as affine holonomy of such a connection. We give an example of an ambient connection for which this is the case, and which is torsion free if we start the construction with a C-space, and in addition Ricci-flat if we start with an Einstein manifold. Thus, for a C-space this example leads to an ambient metric in the weaker sense of Čap and Gover, and for an Einstein space to a Ricci-flat ambient metric in the sense of Fefferman and Graham. Current address for first author: Erwin Schr?dinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics (ESI), Boltzmanngasse 9, 1090 Vienna, Austria Current address for second author: Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Bundesstra?e 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany     

Odd symplectic flag manifolds

We define the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds, which are smooth projective varieties equipped with an action of the odd symplectic group, analogous to the usual symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds. Contrary to the latter, which are the flag manifolds of the symplectic group, the varieties we introduce are not homogeneous. We argue nevertheless that in many respects the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds behave like homogeneous varieties; in support of this claim, we compute the automorphism group of the odd symplectic Grassmannians and we prove a Borel-Weil-type theorem for the odd symplectic group.     

Pseudo-Riemannian 3-manifolds with prescribed distinct constant Ricci eigenvalues

We study three-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifolds having distinct constant principal Ricci curvatures. These spaces are described via a system of differential equations, and a simple characterization is proved to hold for the locally homogeneous ones. We then generalize the technique used in [O. Kowalski, F. Prüfer, On Riemannian 3-manifolds with distinct constant Ricci eigenvalues, Math. Ann. 300 (1994) 17-28] for Riemannian manifolds and construct explicitly homogeneous and non-homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian metrics in R³, having the prescribed principal Ricci curvatures.     

Symplectic obstructions to the existence of ω-compatible Einstein metrics

It is shown that the existence of an ω-compatible Einstein metric on a compact symplectic manifold (M,ω) imposes certain restrictions on the symplectic Chern numbers. Examples of symplectic manifolds which do not satisfy these restrictions are given. The results offer partial support to a conjecture of Goldberg.     

Conformally parallel G 2 structures on a class of solvmanifolds

Starting from a 6-dimensional nilpotent Lie group N endowed with an invariant SU(3) structure, we construct a homogeneous conformally parallel G₂-metric on an associated solvmanifold. We classify all half-flat SU(3) structures that endow the rank-one solvable extension of N with a conformally parallel G₂ structure. By suitably deforming the SU(3) structures obtained, we are able to describe the corresponding non-homogeneous Ricci-flat metrics with holonomy contained in G₂. In the process we also find a new metric with exceptional holonomy. Received: 20 September     

Non-zero contact and Sasakian reduction

We complete the reduction of Sasakian manifolds with the non-zero case by showing that Willett's contact reduction is compatible with the Sasakian structure. We then prove the compatibility of the non-zero Sasakian (in particular, contact) reduction with the reduction of the Kähler (in particular, symplectic) cone. We provide examples obtained by toric actions on Sasakian spheres and make some comments concerning the curvature of the quotients.     

Structure groups and holonomy in infinite dimensions

We give a theorem of reduction of the structure group of a principal bundle P with regular structure group G. Then, when G is in the classes of regular Lie groups defined by T. Robart in [Can. J. Math. 49 (4) (1997) 820-839], we define the closed holonomy group of a connection as the minimal closed Lie subgroup of G for which the previous theorem of reduction can be applied. We also prove an infinite dimensional version of the Ambrose-Singer theorem: the Lie algebra of the holonomy group is spanned by the curvature elements.     

Metric nonlinear connections

For a system of second order differential equations we determine a nonlinear connection that is compatible with a given generalized Lagrange metric. Using this nonlinear connection, we can find the whole family of metric nonlinear connections that can be associated with a system of SODE and a generalized Lagrange metric. For the particular case when the system of SODE and the metric structure are Lagrangian, we prove that the canonical nonlinear connection of the Lagrange space is the only nonlinear connection which is metric and compatible with the symplectic structure of the Lagrange space. For this particular case, the metric tensor determines the symmetric part of the canonical nonlinear connection, while the symplectic structure determines the skew-symmetric part of the nonlinear connection.