Para-Kähler-Einstein 4-manifolds and non-integrable twistor distributions

We study the local geometry of 4-manifolds equipped with a para-Kähler-Einstein (pKE) metric, a special type of split-signature pseudo-Riemannian metric, and their associated twistor distribution, a rank 2 distribution on the 5-dimensional total space of the circle bundle of self-dual null 2-planes. For pKE metrics with non-zero scalar curvature this twistor distribution has exactly two integral leaves and is ‘maximally non-integrable’ on their complement, a so-called (2,3,5)-distribution. Our main result establishes a simple correspondence between the anti-self-dual Weyl tensor of a pKE metric with non-zero scalar curvature and the Cartan quartic of the associated twistor distribution. This will be followed by a discussion of this correspondence for general split-signature metrics which is shown to be much more involved. We use Cartan’s method of equivalence to produce a large number of explicit examples of pKE metrics with non-zero scalar curvature whose anti-self-dual Weyl tensor have special real Petrov type. In the case of real Petrov type D, we obtain a complete local classification. Combined with the main result, this produces twistor distributions whose Cartan quartic has the same algebraic type as the Petrov type of the constructed pKE metrics. In a similar manner, one can obtain twistor distributions with Cartan quartic of arbitrary algebraic type. As a byproduct of our pKE examples we naturally obtain para-Sasaki-Einstein metrics in five dimensions. Furthermore, we study various Cartan geometries naturally associated to certain classes of pKE 4-dimensional metrics. We observe that in some geometrically distinguished cases the corresponding Cartan connections satisfy the Yang-Mills equations. We then provide explicit examples of such Yang-Mills Cartan connections.

Cartan connections and path structures with large automorphism groups

In this paper, we classify compact manifolds of dimension three equipped with a path structure and a fixed contact form (which we refer to as a strict path structure) under the hypothesis that their automorphism group is non-compact. We use a Cartan connection associated to the structure and show that its curvature is constant.

Curvature-torsion quasitensor of Laptev fundamental-group connection

We consider a space with Laptev's fundamental group connection generalizing spaces with Cartan connections. Laptev structural equations are reduced to a simpler form. The continuation of the given structural equations made it possible to find differential comparisons for the coeffi­cients in these equations. It is proved that one part of these coefficients forms a tensor, and the other part forms is quasitensor, which justifies the name quasitensor of torsion-curvature for the entire set. From differential congruences for the components of this quasitensor, congruences are ob­tained for the components of the Laptev curvature-torsion tensor, which contains 9 subtensors included in the unreduced structural equations. In two special cases, a space with a fundamental connection is a spa­ce with a Cartan connection, having a quasitensor of torsion-curvature, which contains a quasitensor of torsion. In the reductive case, the space of the Cartan connection is turned into such a principal bundle with connec­tion that has not only a curvature tensor, but also a torsion tensor.

New relations between G2 geometries in dimensions 5 and 7

There are two well-known parabolic split [Formula: see text] geometries in dimension 5, [Formula: see text] distributions and [Formula: see text] contact structures. Here we link these two geometries with yet another [Formula: see text] related contact structure, which lives on a [Formula: see text]-manifold. More precisely, we present a natural geometric construction that associates to a [Formula: see text] distribution a [Formula: see text]-dimensional bundle endowed with a canonical Lie contact structure. We further study the relation between the canonical normal Cartan connections associated with the two structures and we show that the Cartan holonomy of the induced Lie contact structure reduces to [Formula: see text]. This motivates the study of the curved orbit decomposition associated with a [Formula: see text] reduced Lie contact structure on a [Formula: see text]-manifold. It is shown that, provided an additional curvature condition is satisfied, in a neighborhood of each point in the open curved orbit the structure descends to a [Formula: see text] distribution on a local leaf space. The closed orbit carries an induced [Formula: see text] contact structure.