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In this note, we characterise the existence of non-trivial invariant spinors on maximal flag manifolds associated to complex simple Lie algebras. This characterisation is based on the combinatorial properties of their set of positive roots., Comment: 11 pages

We study the integrability to second order of the infinitesimal Einstein deformations of the symmetric metric $g$ on the complex Grassmannian of $k$-planes inside $\mathbb{C}^n$. By showing the nonvanishing of Koiso's obstruction polynomial, we characterize the infinitesimal deformations that are integrable to second order as an explicit variety inside $\mathfrak{su}(n)$. In particular we show that $g$ is isolated in the moduli space of Einstein metrics if $n$ is odd., Comment: v1: 30 pages. v2: 31 pages, corrected numerical error introduced in arXiv:2305.07391, simplified discussion at the end

The homogeneous minimal hypersurfaces in $S^n$ have $g = 1,2,3,4$, or $6$ distinct (constant) principal curvatures. While the Morse index and nullity have been calculated for all such hypersurfaces having $g = 1,2,3$, it has remained an open problem to compute these quantities for any of those with $g = 4$ or $6$. In this paper, we calculate the Morse index and nullity of two homogeneous minimal hypersurfaces in $S^n$ with $g = 4$. Moreover, we observe that their Laplace spectra contain irrational eigenvalues that are not expressible in radicals., Comment: 29 pages

In this article we study the concept of quaternionic bisectional curvature introduced by B. Chow and D. Yang for quaternion-K\"ahler manifolds. We show that non-negative quaternionic bisectional curvature is only realized for the quaternionic projective space. We also show that all symmetric quaternion-K\"ahler manifolds different from the quaternionic projective space admit quaternionic lines of negative quaternionic bisectional curvature. In particular this implies that non-negative sectional curvature does not imply non-negative quaternionic bisectional curvature. Moreover we give a new and rather short proof of a classification result by A. Gray on compact K\"ahler manifolds of non-negative sectional curvature., Comment: v2: minor corrections; to appear in Math. Ann

We study the integrability to second order of infinitesimal Einstein deformations on compact Riemannian and in particular on K\"ahler manifolds. We find a new way of expressing the necessary and sufficient condition for integrability to second order, which also gives a very clear and compact way of writing the Koiso obstruction. As an application we consider the K\"ahler case, where the condition can be further simplified and in complex dimension $3$ turns out to be purely algebraic. One of our main results is the complete and explicit description of infinitesimal Einstein deformation integrable to second order on the complex $2$-plane Grassmannian, which also has a quaternion K\"ahler structure. As a striking consequence we find that the symmetric Einstein metric on the Grassmannian $ \mathrm{Gr}_2(\bbC^{n+2})$ for $n$ odd is rigid., Comment: v2:minor corrections; to appear in J.Math.Soc.Japan

The aim of this note is to establish the correspondence between the twisted localized Pestov identity on the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold and the Weitzenb\"ock identity for twisted symmetric tensors on the manifold., Comment: 22 pages. v2: added some references

Let $(M,g,J)$ be a closed K\"ahler manifold with negative sectional curvature and complex dimension $m := \dim_{\mathbb{C}} M \geq 2$. In this article, we study the unitary frame flow, that is, the restriction of the frame flow to the principal $\mathrm{U}(m)$-bundle $F_{\mathbb{C}}M$ of unitary frames. We show that if $m \geq 6$ is even, and $m \neq 28$, there exists $\lambda(m) \in (0, 1)$ such that if $(M, g, J)$ has negative $\lambda(m)$-pinched holomorphic sectional curvature, then the unitary frame flow is ergodic and mixing. The constants $\lambda(m)$ satisfy $\lambda(6) = 0.9330...$, $\lim_{m \to +\infty} \lambda(m) = \tfrac{11}{12} = 0.9166...$, and $m \mapsto \lambda(m)$ is decreasing. This extends to the even-dimensional case the results of Brin-Gromov who proved ergodicity of the unitary frame flow on negatively-curved compact K\"ahler manifolds of odd complex dimension.

We report on some recent progress achieved in [arXiv:2111.14811] on the ergodicity of the frame flow of negatively-curved Riemannian manifolds. We explain the new ideas leading to ergodicity for nearly $0.25$-pinched manifolds and give perspectives for future work., Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures

We prove that the normal metric on the homogeneous space $E_7/\mathrm{PSO}(8)$ is stable with respect to the Einstein-Hilbert action, thereby exhibiting the first known example of a non-symmetric metric of positive scalar curvature with this property., Comment: v1: 23 pages. v2: 21 pages, 3 tables. Restructured and streamlined. v3: Revised version. 22 pages, 3 tables

It is known that the frame flow on a closed $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curvature is ergodic if $n$ is odd and $n \neq 7$. In this paper we study its ergodicity in the remaining cases. For $n$ even and $n \neq 8, 134$, we show that: if $n \equiv 2$ mod $4$ or $n=4$, the frame flow is ergodic if the manifold is $\sim 0.3$-pinched, if $n \equiv 0$ mod $4$, it is ergodic if the manifold is $\sim 0.6$-pinched. In the three dimensions $n=7,8,134$, the respective pinching bounds that we need in order to prove ergodicity are $0.4962...$, $0.6212...$, and $0.5788...$. This is a significant improvement over the previously known results and a step forward towards solving a long-standing conjecture of Brin asserting that $0.25$-pinched even-dimensional manifolds have an ergodic frame flow., Comment: 36 pages, 1 figure; new version containing an improvement of the pinching bound in dimension 134, using some general result about the Fourier degree of sections of vector bundles over the sphere; final version incorporating comments of the referees, accepted in Inventiones Mathematicae

We obtain new lower bounds for the first non-zero eigenvalue of the scalar sub-Laplacian for 3-Sasaki metrics, improving Lichnerowicz-Obata type estimates by Ivanov et al. The limiting eigenspace is fully decribed in terms of the automorphism algebra. Our results can be thought of as an analogue of the Lichnerowicz-Matsushima estimate for K\"ahler-Einstein metrics. In dimension 7, if the automorphism algebra is non-vanishing, we also compute the second eigenvalue for the sub-Laplacian and construct explicit eigenfunctions. In addition, for all metrics in the canonical variation of the 3-Sasaki metric we give a lower bound for the spectrum of the Riemannian Laplace operator, depending only on scalar curvature and dimension. We also strengthen a result pertaining to the growth rate of harmonic functions, due to Conlon, Hein and Sun, in the case of hyperk\"ahler cones. In this setup we also describe the space of holomorphic functions., Comment: Final version accepted for publication in Crelle

We initiate a systematic study of the deformation theory of the second Einstein metric $g_{1/\sqrt{5}}$ respectively the proper nearly $G_2$ structure $\varphi_{1/\sqrt{5}}$ of a $3$-Sasaki manifold $(M^7,g)$. We show that infinitesimal Einstein deformations for $g_{1/\sqrt{5}}$ coincide with infinitesimal $G_2$ deformations for $\varphi_{1/\sqrt{5}}$. The latter are showed to be parametrised by eigenfunctions of the basic Laplacian of $g$, with eigenvalue twice the Einstein constant of the base $4$-dimensional orbifold, via an explicit differential operator. In terms of this parametrisation we determine those infinitesimal $G_2$ deformations which are unobstructed to second order., Comment: Final version.Some proofs were expanded, index of notations added

In this article we study the stability problem for the Einstein-Hilbert functional on compact symmetric spaces following and completing the seminal work of Koiso on the subject. We classify in detail the irreducible representations of simple Lie algebras with Casimir eigenvalue less than the Casimir eigenvalue of the adjoint representation, and use this information to prove the stability of the Einstein metrics on both the quaternionic and Cayley projective plane. Moreover we prove that the Einstein metrics on quaternionic Grassmannians different from projective spaces are unstable., Comment: 24 pages

In this article we study the stability problem for the Einstein metrics on Sasaki Einstein and on complete nearly parallel ${\rm G}_2$ manifolds. In the Sasaki case we show linear instability if the second Betti number is positive. Similarly we prove that nearly parallel $\rm G_2$ manifolds with positive third Betti number are linearly unstable. Moreover, we prove linear instability for the Berger space ${\rm SO}(5)/{\rm SO}(3)_{irr} $ which is a $7$-dimensional homology sphere with a proper nearly parallel ${\rm G}_2$ structure., Comment: 13 pages

We describe the second order obstruction to deformation for nearly $G_2$ structures on compact manifolds. Building on work of B.Alexandrov and U.Semmelmann this allows proving rigidity under deformation for the proper nearly $G_2$ structure on the Aloff-Wallach space $N(1,1)$., Comment: Improved presentation,added full details on rigidity of Aloff-Wallach space $N(1,1)$. 18 pages

For Kaehler manifolds we explicitly determine the solution to the conformal Killing form equation in middle degree. In particular, we complete the classification of conformal Killing forms on compact Kaehler manifolds. We give the first examples of conformal Killing forms on Kaehler manifolds not coming from Hamiltonian 2-forms. These are supported by Calabi type manifolds over a Kaehler Einstein base. In this set up we also give structure results and examples for the closely related class of Hermitian Killing forms., Comment: 31 pages

We give a characterization {\sl \`a la Obata} for certain families of K\''ahler manifolds. These results are in the same line as other extensions of the well-known Obata's rigidity theorem from \cite{Obata62}, like for instance the generalizations in \cite{RanjSant97} and \cite{Santhanam07}. Moreover, we give a complete description of the so-called K\''ahler doubly-warped product structures whose underlying metric is Einstein.

We characterize those complete K{\"a}hler manifolds supporting a nonconstant real-valued function with critical points whose Hessian is complex linear, has pointwise two eigenvalues and whose gradient is a Hessian-eigenvector.

We study conformal Killing forms on compact 6-dimensional nearly K\"ahler manifolds. Our main result concerns forms of degree 3. Here we give a classification showing that all conformal Killing 3-forms are linear combinations of $d \omega$ and its Hodge dual $* d\omega$ where $\omega$ is the fundamental 2-form of the nearly K\"ahler structure. The proof is based on a fundamental integrability condition for conformal Killing forms. We have partial results in the case of conformal Killing 2-forms. In particular we show the non-existence of J-anti-invariant Killing 2-forms., Comment: 10 pages

A geometry with parallel skew-symmetric torsion is a Riemannian manifold carrying a metric connection with parallel skew-symmetric torsion. Besides the trivial case of the Levi-Civita connection, geometries with non-vanishing parallel skew-symmetric torsion arise naturally in several geometric contexts, e.g. on naturally reductive homogeneous spaces, nearly K\"ahler or nearly parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-manifolds, Sasakian and $3$-Sasakian manifolds, or twistor spaces over quaternion-K\"ahler manifolds with positive scalar curvature. In this paper we study the local structure of Riemannian manifolds carrying a metric connection with parallel skew-symmetric torsion. On every such manifold one can define a natural splitting of the tangent bundle which gives rise to a Riemannian submersion over a geometry with parallel skew-symmetric torsion of smaller dimension endowed with some extra structure. We show how previously known examples of geometries with parallel skew-symmetric torsion fit into this pattern, and construct several new examples. In the particular case where the above Riemannian submersion has the structure of a principal bundle, we give the complete local classification of the corresponding geometries with parallel skew-symmetric torsion., Comment: 42 pages; thoroughly revised version, including a simpler definition of the geometry with parallel curvature determined by a geometry with parallel skew-symmetric torsion, and an appendix discussing 3-(\alpha,\delta)-Sasakian structures in our framework

Motivated by the study of Killing forms on compact Riemannian manifolds of negative sectional curvature, we introduce the notion of generalized vector cross products on $\mathbb{R}^n$ and give their classification. Using previous results about Killing tensors on negatively curved manifolds and a new characterization of $\mathrm{SU}(3)$-structures in dimension $6$ whose associated $3$-form is Killing, we then show that every Killing $3$-form on a compact $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curvature vanishes if $n\ge 4$., Comment: 16 pages

We study the Rarita-Schwinger operator on compact Riemannian spin manifolds. In particular, we find examples of compact Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature where the Rarita-Schwinger operator has a non-trivial kernel. For positive quaternion K\"ahler manifolds and symmetric spaces with spin structure we give a complete classification of manifolds admitting Rarita-Schwinger fields. In the case of Calabi-Yau, hyperk\"ahler, $G_2$ and Spin(7) manifolds we find an identification of the kernel of the Rarita-Schwinger operator with certain spaces of harmonic forms. We also give a classification of compact irreducible spin manifolds admitting parallel Rarita-Schwinger fields., Comment: 21 pages

The standard Laplace operator is a generalization of the Hodge Laplace operator on differential forms to arbitrary geometric vector bundles, alternatively it can be seen as generalization of the Casimir operator acting on sections of homogeneous vector bundles over symmetric spaces to general Riemannian manifolds. Stressing the functorial aspects of the standard Laplace operator $\Delta$ with respect to the category of geometric vector bundles we show that the standard Laplace operator commutes not only with all homomorphisms, but also with a large class of natural first order differential operators between geometric vector bundles. Several examples are included to highlight the conclusions of this article.

We show that Killing tensors on conformally flat $n$-dimensional tori whose conformal factor only depends on one variable, are polynomials in the metric and in the Killing vector fields. In other words, every first integral of the geodesic flow polynomial in the momenta on the sphere bundle of such a torus is linear in the momenta., Comment: 8 pages

We introduce an appropriate formalism in order to study conformal Killing (symmetric) tensors on Riemannian manifolds. We reprove in a simple way some known results in the field and obtain several new results, like the classification of conformal Killing $2$-tensors on Riemannian products of compact manifolds, Weitzenb\"ock formulas leading to non-existence results, and construct various examples of manifolds with conformal Killing tensors., Comment: 29 pages; the statement and the proof of Theorem 5.1 have been corrected

We study generalized Killing spinors on the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$, which turn out to be related to Lagrangian embeddings in the nearly K\"ahler manifold $S^3\times S^3$ and to great circle flows on $\mathbb{S}^3$. Using our methods we generalize a well known result of Gluck and Gu concerning divergence-free geodesic vector fields on the sphere and we show that the space of Lagrangian submanifolds of $S^3\times S^3$ has at least three connected components., Comment: 11 pages

We study generalized Killing spinors on round spheres $\mathbb{S}^n$. We show that on the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^8$ any generalized Killing spinor has to be an ordinary Killing spinor. Moreover we classify generalized Killing spinors on $\mathbb{S}^n$ whose associated symmetric endomorphism has at most two eigenvalues and recover in particular Agricola--Friedrich's canonical spinor on 3-Sasakian manifolds of dimension 7. Finally we show that it is not possible to deform Killing spinors on standard spheres into genuine generalized Killing spinors., Comment: 16 pages; new version filling a gap in the proof of Lemma 4.1 which was brought to our attention by Stanislav Wiechmann

We study generalized Killing spinors on compact Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature. This problem is related to the existence compact Einstein hypersurfaces in manifolds with parallel spinors, or equivalently, in Riemannian products of flat spaces, Calabi-Yau, hyperkaehler, G_2 and Spin(7) manifolds., Comment: 17 pages; new version including the 2-dimensional case and several stylistical improvements

An almost quaternion-Hermitian structure on a Riemannian manifold $(M^{4n},g)$ is a reduction of the structure group of $M$ to $\mathrm{Sp}(n)\mathrm{Sp}(1)\subset \mathrm{SO}(4n)$. In this paper we show that a compact simply connected homogeneous almost quaternion-Hermitian manifold of non-vanishing Euler characteristic is either a Wolf space, or $\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{S}^2$, or the complex quadric $\mathrm{SO}(7)/\mathrm{U}(3)$., Comment: published version, references updated

We complete our recent classification of compact inner symmetric spaces with weakly complex tangent bundle by filling up a case which was left open, and extend this classification to the larger category of compact homogeneous spaces with positive Euler characteristic. We show that a simply connected compact equal rank homogeneous space has weakly complex tangent bundle if and only if it is a product of compact equal rank homogeneous spaces which either carry an invariant almost complex structure (and are classified by Hermann), or have stably trivial tangent bundle (and are classified by Singhof and Wemmer), or belong to an explicit list of weakly complex spaces which have neither stably trivial tangent bundle, nor carry invariant almost complex structures., Comment: 16 pages

We give criteria for real, complex and quaternionic representations to define s-representations, focusing on exceptional Lie algebras defined by spin representations. As applications, we obtain the classification of complex representations whose second exterior power is irreducible or has an irreducible summand of co-dimension one, and we give a conceptual computation-free argument for the construction of the exceptional Lie algebras of compact type., Comment: 16 pages [v2: references added, last section expanded)

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

We describe and to some extent characterize a new family of K\"ahler spin manifolds admitting non-trivial imaginary K\"ahlerian Killing spinors., Comment: 23 pages, no figure

We study the infinitesimal deformations of a proper nearly parallel G_2-structure and prove that they are characterized by a certain first order differential equation. In particular we show that the space of infinitesimal deformations modulo the group of diffeomorphisms is isomorphic to a subspace of co-closed $\Lambda^3_{27}$-eigenforms of the Laplace operator for the eigenvalue 8 scal/21. We give a similar description for the space of infinitesimal Einstein deformations of a fixed nearly parallel G_2-structure. Moreover we show that there are no deformations on the squashed S^7 and on SO(5)/SO(3), but that there are infinitesimal deformations on the Aloff-Wallach manifold N(1,1) = SU(3)/U(1)., Comment: 34 pages

We prove that the tangent bundle of an inner symmetric space $M$ of compact type is weakly complex if and only if $M$ is a Riemannian product $M_1\times...\times M_k$, each $M_i$ being an even-dimensional round sphere or Hermitian symmetric., Comment: The manuscript was withdrawn since it was merged into the related article arXiv:1003.5172

We prove that compact quaternionic-K\"ahler manifolds of positive scalar curvature admit no almost complex structure, even in the weak sense, except for the complex Grassmannians $Gr_2(C^{n+2})$. We also prove that irreducible inner symmetric spaces $M^{4n}$ of compact type are not weakly complex, except for spheres and Hermitian symmetric spaces., Comment: the related manuscript arXiv:1006.2457 was merged into this new version

We introduce the notion of even Clifford structures on Riemannian manifolds, a framework generalizing almost Hermitian and quaternion-Hermitian geometries. We give the complete classification of manifolds carrying parallel even Clifford structures: K\"ahler, quaternion-K\"ahler and Riemannian products of quaternion-K\"ahler manifolds, several classes of 8-dimensional manifolds, families of real, complex and quaternionic Grassmannians, as well as Rosenfeld's elliptic projective planes, which are symmetric spaces associated to the exceptional simple Lie groups. As an application, we classify all Riemannian manifolds whose metric is bundle-like along the curvature constancy distribution, generalizing well-known results in Sasakian and 3-Sasakian geometry., Comment: Final version, 28 pages

The moduli space NK of infinitesimal deformations of a nearly K\"ahler structure on a compact 6-dimensional manifold is described by a certain eigenspace of the Laplace operator acting on co-closed primitive (1,1) forms. Using the Hermitian Laplace operator and some representation theory, we compute the space NK on all 6-dimensional homogeneous nearly K\"ahler manifolds. It turns out that the nearly K\"ahler structure is rigid except for the flag manifold F(1,2)=SU_3/T^2, which carries an 8-dimensional moduli space of infinitesimal nearly K\"ahler deformations, modeled on the Lie algebra su_3 of the isometry group., Comment: 23 pages

It is well-known that every 6-dimensional strictly nearly K\"{a}hler manifold $(M,g,J)$ is Einstein with positive scalar curvature $scal>0$. Moreover, one can show that the space $E$ of co-closed primitive (1,1)-forms on $M$ is stable under the Laplace operator $\Delta$. Let $E(a)$ denote the $a$-eigenspace of the restriction of $\Delta$ to $E$. If $M$ is compact, we prove that the moduli space of infinitesimal Einstein deformations of the nearly K\"{a}hler metric $g$ is naturally isomorphic to the direct sum $E(scal/15)\oplus E(scal/5)\oplus E(2scal/5)$. It is known that the last summand is itself isomorphic with the moduli space of infinitesimal nearly K\"{a}hler deformations.