Quaternionic Kähler and Spin(7) metrics arising from quaternionic contact Einstein structures

We construct left-invariant quaternionic contact (qc) structures on Lie groups with zero and non-zero torsion and with non-vanishing quaternionic contact conformal curvature tensor, thus showing the existence of non-flat quaternionic contact manifolds. We prove that the product of the real line with a seven-dimensional manifold, equipped with a certain qc structure, has a quaternionic Kähler metric as well as a metric with holonomy contained in Spin(7). As a consequence, we determine explicit quaternionic Kähler metrics and Spin(7)-holonomy metrics, which seem to be new. Moreover, we give explicit non-compact eight dimensional almost quaternion hermitian manifolds that are not quaternionic Kähler with either a closed fundamental four form or fundamental two forms defining a differential ideal.     

Weyl connections and the local sphere theorem for quaternionic contact structures

We apply the theory of Weyl structures for parabolic geometries developed by Čap and Slovák (Math Scand 93(1):53–90, 2003) to compute, for a quaternionic contact (qc) structure, the Weyl connection associated to a choice of scale, i.e. to a choice of Carnot–Carathéodory metric in the conformal class. The result of this computation has applications to the study of the conformal Fefferman space of a qc manifold, cf. (Geom Appl 28(4):376–394, 2010). In addition to this application, we are also able to easily compute a tensorial formula for the qc analog of the Weyl curvature tensor in conformal geometry and the Chern–Moser tensor in CR geometry. This tensor was first discovered via different methods by Ivanov and Vasillev (J Math Pures Appl 93:277–307, 2010), and we also get an independent proof of their Local Sphere Theorem. However, as a result of our derivation of this tensor, its fundamental properties—conformal covariance, and that its vanishing is a sharp obstruction to local flatness of the qc structure—follow as easy corollaries from the general parabolic theory.     

Conformal paracontact curvature and the local flatness theorem

A curvature-type tensor invariant called para contact (pc) conformal curvature is defined on a paracontact manifold. It is shown that a paracontact manifold is locally paracontact conformal to the hyperbolic Heisenberg group or to a hyperquadric of neutral signature iff the pc conformal curvature vanishes. In the three dimensional case the corresponding result is achieved through employing a certain symmetric (0,2) tensor. The well known result of Cartan–Chern–Moser giving necessary and sufficient condition a CR-structure to be CR equivalent to a hyperquadric in \mathbbCⁿ⁺¹{\mathbb{C}^{n+1}} is presented in-line with the paracontact case. An explicit formula for the regular part of a solution to the sub-ultrahyperbolic Yamabe equation on the hyperbolic Heisenberg group is shown.     

Curvature tensors in riemannian manifold—II

In a recent paper author and Mishra [1] have studied the recurrent properties of conformal curvature tensor, conharmonic curvature tensor, concircular curvature tensor and projective curvature tensor in a Riemannian manifold. In another paper author and Mishra [2] have defined a new curvature tensor and obtained its relativistic significance. In this paper the geometrical properties of the new tensor in a Riemannian manifold have been discussed.     

Some Results on Contact Metric Manifolds

If the sectional curvatures of plane sections containing the characteristic vector field of a contact metric manifold M are non-vanishing, then we prove that a second order parallel tensor on M is a constant multiple of the associated metric tensor. Next, we prove for a contact metric manifold of dimension greater than 3 and whose Ricci operator commutes with the fundamental collineation that, if its Weyl conformal tensor is harmonic, then it is Einstein. We also prove that, if the Lie derivative of the fundamental collineation along the characteristic vector field on a contact metric 3-manifold M satisfies a cyclic condition, then M is either Sasakian or locally isometric to certain canonical Lie-groups with a left invariant metric. Next, we prove that if a three-dimensional Sasakian manifold admits a non-Killing projective vector field, it is of constant curvature 1. Finally, we prove that a conformally recurrent Sasakian manifold is locally isometric to a unit sphere.     

Hyper-Hermitian Quaternionic Kähler Manifolds

We call a quaternionic Kähler manifold with nonzero scalar curvature, whosequaternionic structure is trivialized by a hypercomplex structure, ahyper-Hermitian quaternionic Kähler manifold. We prove that every locallysymmetric hyper-Hermitian quaternionic Kähler manifold is locally isometricto the quaternionic projective space or to the quaternionic hyperbolic space.We describe locally the hyper-Hermitian quaternionic Kähler manifolds withclosed Lee form and show that the only complete simply connected suchmanifold is the quaternionic hyperbolic space.     

M-Eigenvalues of the Riemann Curvature Tensor of Conformally Flat Manifolds

We investigate the M-eigenvalues of the Riemann curvature tensor in the higher dimensional conformally flat manifold. The expressions of Meigenvalues and M-eigenvectors are presented in this paper. As a special case,M-eigenvalues of conformal flat Einstein manifold have also been discussed,and the conformal the invariance of M-eigentriple has been found. We also reveal the relationship between M-eigenvalue and sectional curvature of a Riemannian manifold. We prove that the M-eigenvalue can determine the Riemann curvature tensor uniquely. We also give an example to compute the Meigentriple of de Sitter spacetime which is well-known in general relativity.     

Covariant derivative of the curvature tensor of pseudo-Kählerian manifolds

It is well known that the curvature tensor of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold can be decomposed with respect to the pseudo-orthogonal group into the sum of the Weyl conformal curvature tensor, the traceless part of the Ricci tensor and of the scalar curvature. A similar decomposition with respect to the pseudo-unitary group exists on a pseudo-Kählerian manifold; instead of the Weyl tensor one obtains the Bochner tensor. In the present paper, the known decomposition with respect to the pseudo-orthogonal group of the covariant derivative of the curvature tensor of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold is refined. A decomposition with respect to the pseudo-unitary group of the covariant derivative of the curvature tensor for pseudo-Kählerian manifolds is obtained. This defines natural classes of spaces generalizing locally symmetric spaces and Einstein spaces. It is shown that the values of the covariant derivative of the curvature tensor for a non-locally symmetric pseudo-Riemannian manifold with an irreducible connected holonomy group different from the pseudo-orthogonal and pseudo-unitary groups belong to an irreducible module of the holonomy group.     

Generalized Einstein tensor for a Weyl manifold and its applications

It is well known that the Einstein tensor G for a Riemannian manifold defined by G βα = R βα 1/2 Rδβα , R βα = g βγ R γα where R γα and R are respectively the Ricci tensor and the scalar curvature of the manifold, plays an important part in Einstein's theory of gravitation as well as in proving some theorems in Riemannian geometry. In this work, we first obtain the generalized Einstein tensor for a Weyl manifold. Then, after studying some properties of generalized Einstein tensor, we prove that the conformal invariance of the generalized Einstein tensor implies the conformal invariance of the curvature tensor of the Weyl manifold and conversely. Moreover, we show that such Weyl manifolds admit a one-parameter family of hypersurfaces the orthogonal trajectories of which are geodesics. Finally, a necessary and sufficient condition in order that the generalized circles of a Weyl manifold be preserved by a conformal mapping is stated in terms of generalized Einstein tensors at corresponding points.     

On the equivalence of quaternionic contact structures

Following the Cartan’s original method of equivalence supported by methods of parabolic geometry, we provide a complete solution for the equivalence problem of quaternionic contact structures, that is, the problem of finding a complete system of differential invariants for two quaternionic contact manifolds to be locally diffeomorphic. This includes an explicit construction of the corresponding Cartan geometry and detailed information on all curvature components.     

The Sharp Lower Bound of the First Eigenvalue of the Sub-Laplacian on a Quaternionic Contact Manifold

The main technical result of the paper is a Bochner type formula for the sub-Laplacian on a quaternionic contact manifold. With the help of this formula we establish a version of Lichnerowicz’s theorem giving a lower bound of the eigenvalues of the sub-Laplacian under a lower bound on the Sp(n)Sp(1) components of the qc-Ricci curvature. It is shown that in the case of a 3-Sasakian manifold the lower bound is reached iff the quaternionic contact manifold is a round 3-Sasakian sphere. Another goal of the paper is to establish a priori estimates for square integrals of horizontal derivatives of smooth compactly supported functions. As an application, we prove a sharp inequality bounding the horizontal Hessian of a function by its sub-Laplacian on the quaternionic Heisenberg group.     

The Yamabe problem on quaternionic contact manifolds

By constructing normal coordinates on a quaternionic contact manifold M, we can osculate the quaternionic contact structure at each point by the standard quaternionic contact structure on the quaternionic Heisenberg group. By using this property, we can do harmonic analysis on general quaternionic contact manifolds, and solve the quaternionic contact Yamabe problem on M if its Yamabe invariant satisfies λ(M) < λ(ℍ ⁿ ). Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 53C17, 53D10, 35J70     

Tightness in contact metric 3-manifolds

This paper begins the study of relations between Riemannian geometry and global properties of contact structures on 3-manifolds. In particular we prove an analog of the sphere theorem from Riemannian geometry in the setting of contact geometry. Specifically, if a given three dimensional contact manifold (M,ξ) admits a complete compatible Riemannian metric of positive 4/9-pinched curvature then the underlying contact structure ξ is tight; in particular, the contact structure pulled back to the universal cover is the standard contact structure on S ³. We also describe geometric conditions in dimension three for ξ to be universally tight in the nonpositive curvature setting.     

Conformally Osserman manifolds of dimension 16 and a Weyl–Schouten theorem for rank-one symmetric spaces

A Riemannian manifold is called Osserman (conformally Osserman, respectively), if the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator of its curvature tensor (Weyl tensor, respectively) are constant on the unit tangent sphere at every point. The Osserman Conjecture asserts that any Osserman manifold is either flat or rank-one symmetric. We prove that both the Osserman Conjecture and its conformal version, the Conformal Osserman Conjecture, are true, modulo a certain assumption on algebraic curvature tensors in ${\mathbb {R}^{16}}$ . As a consequence, we show that a Riemannian manifold having the same Weyl tensor as a rank-one symmetric space is conformally equivalent to it.     

Traceless component of the conformal curvature tensor in Kähler manifold

We investigate the traceless component of the conformal curvature tensor defined by (2.1) in Kähler manifolds of dimension ? 4, and show that the traceless component is invariant under concircular change. In particular, we determine Kähler manifolds with vanishing traceless component and improve some theorems (for example, [4, pp. 313–317]) concerning the conformal curvature tensor and the spectrum of the Laplacian acting on p (0 ? p ? 2)-forms on the manifold by using the traceless component.     

Screen conformal lightlike submanifolds of semi-Riemannian manifolds

Since the induced objects on a lightlike submanifold depend on its screen distribution which, in general, is not unique and hence we can not use the classical submanifold theory on a lightlike submanifold in the usual way. Therefore, in present paper, we study screen conformal lightlike submanifolds of a semi-Riemannian manifold, which are essential for the existence of unique screen distribution. We obtain a characterization theorem for the existence of screen conformal lightlike submanifolds of a semi-Riemannian manifold. We prove that if the differential operator D^s is a metric Otsuki connection on transversal lightlike bundle for a screen conformal lightlike submanifold then semi-Riemannian manifold is a semi-Euclidean space. We also obtain some characterization theorems for a screen conformal totally umbilical lightlike submanifold of a semi-Riemannian space form. Further, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for a screen conformal lightlike submanifold of constant curvature to be a semi-Euclidean space. Finally, we prove that for an irrotational screen conformal lightlike submanifold of a semi-Riemannian space form, the induced Ricci tensor is symmetric and the null sectional curvature vanishes.     

On the bochner conformal curvature of Kähler-Norden manifolds

Using the one-to-one correspondence between Kähler-Norden and holomorphic Riemannian metrics, important relations between various Riemannian invariants of manifolds endowed with such metrics were established in my previous paper [19]. In the presented paper, we prove that there is a strict relation between the holomorphic Weyl and Bochner conformal curvature tensors and similarly their covariant derivatives are strictly related. Especially, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for the holomorphic Weyl conformal curvature tensor of a Kähler-Norden manifold to be holomorphically recurrent.     

A Schur type lemma for the mean Berwald curvature in Finsler geometry

In this short paper, we study a symmetric covariant tensor in Finsler geometry, which is called the mean Berwald curvature. We first investigate the geometry of the fibres as the submanifolds of the tangent sphere bundle on a Finsler manifold. Then we prove that if the mean Berwald curvature is isotropic along fibres, then the Berwald scalar curvature is constant along fibres.     

Cheeger-gromoll type metrics on the (1,1)-tensor bundles

Using a Riemannian metric on a differentiable manifold, a Cheeger-Gromoll type metric is introduced on the (1,1)-tensor bundle of the manifold. Then the Levi-Civita connection, Riemannian curvature tensor, Ricci tensor, scalar curvature and sectional curvature of this metric are calculated. Also, a para-Nordenian structure on the the (1,1)-tensor bundle with this metric is constructed and the geometric properties of this structure are studied.     

Métriques autoduales sur la boule

A conformal metric on a 4-ball induces on the boundary 3-sphere a conformal metric and a trace-free second fundamental form. Conversely, such a data on the 3-sphere is the boundary of a unique selfdual conformal metric, defined in a neighborhood of the sphere. In this paper we characterize the conformal metrics and trace-free second fundamental forms on the 3-sphere (close to the standard round metric) which are boundaries of selfdual conformal metrics on the whole 4-ball. When the data on the boundary is reduced to a conformal metric (the trace-free part of the second fundamental form vanishes), one may hope to find in the conformal class of the filling metric an Einstein metric, with a pole of order 2 on the boundary. We determine which conformal metrics on the 3-sphere are boundaries of such selfdual Einstein metrics on the 4-ball. In particular, this implies the Positive Frequency Conjecture of LeBrun. The proof uses twistor theory, which enables to translate the problem in terms of complex analysis; this leads us to prove a criterion for certain integrable CR structures of signature (1,1) to be fillable by a complex domain. Finally, we solve an analogous, higher dimensional problem: selfdual Einstein metrics are replaced by quaternionic-K?hler metrics, and conformal structures on the boundary by quaternionic contact structures (previously introduced by the author); in contrast with the 4-dimensional case, we prove that any small deformation of the standard quaternionic contact structure on the (4m−1)-sphere is the boundary of a quaternionic-K?hler metric on the (4m)-ball. Oblatum 29-XI-2000 & 7-XI-2001?Published online: 1 February 2002