On the cohomology algebra of some classes of geometrically formal manifolds

Formality is a topological property, defined in terms of Sullivan's model for a space. In the simply-connected setting, a space is formal if its rational homotopy type is determined by the rational cohomology ring. In the general setting, the weaker 1-formality property allows one to reconstruct the rational pro-unipotent completion of the fundamental group, solely from the cup products of degree 1 cohomology classes. In this note, we survey various facets of formality, with ...

Motivated by understanding the limiting case of a certain systolic inequality we study compact Riemannian manifolds having all harmonic 1-forms of constant length. We give complete characterizations as far as K\"ahler and hyperbolic geometries are concerned. In the second part of the paper, we give algebraic and topological obstructions to the existence of a geometrically 2-formal K\"ahler metric, at the level of the second cohomology group. A strong interaction with almost K...

A Riemannian metric on a closed manifold is said to be geometrically formal if the wedge product of any two harmonic forms is harmonic; equivalently, the interior product of any two harmonic forms is harmonic. Given a Riemannian foliation on a closed manifold, we say that a bundle-like metric is transversely geometrically formal if the interior product of any two basic harmonic forms is basic harmonic. In this paper, we examine the geometric and topological consequences of th...

This is a sequel to our paper arXiv:1402.2546 to appear in the Journal of Geometric Analysis in which we concentrate on developing some of the topological properties of Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. In particular, we explicitly compute the cohomology rings for several cases not treated in arXiv:1402.2546 and give a formula for homotopy equivalence in one particular 7-dimensional case.

In this paper, we show that a generalized Sasakian space form of dimension greater than three is either of constant sectional curvature; or a canal hypersurface in Euclidean or Minkowski spaces; or locally a certain type of twisted product of a real line and a flat almost Hermitian manifold; or locally a wapred product of a real line and a generalized complex space form; or an $\alpha$-Sasakian space form; or it is of five dimension and admits an $\alpha$-Sasakian Einstein st...

We investigate some topological properties, in particular formality, of compact Sasakian manifolds. Answering some questions raised by Boyer and Galicki, we prove that all higher (than three) Massey products on any compact Sasakian manifold vanish. Hence, higher Massey products do obstruct Sasakian structures. Using this we produce a method of constructing simply connected K-contact non-Sasakian manifolds. On the other hand, for every $n \geq 3$, we exhibit the first examples...

Observations suggest that our universe is spatially flat on the largest observable scales. Exactly six different compact orientable three-dimensional manifolds admit flat metrics. These six manifolds are therefore the most natural choices for building cosmological models based on the present observations. This paper briefly describes these six manifolds and the harmonic basis functions previously developed for representing arbitrary scalar fields on them. The principal focus ...

A Riemannian manifold is called geometrically formal if the wedge product of any two harmonic forms is again harmonic. We classify geometrically formal compact 4-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature. If the sectional curvature is strictly positive, the manifold must be homeomorphic to S^4 or diffeomorphic to CP^2. This conclusion stills holds true if the sectional curvature is strictly positive and we relax the condition of geometric formality to the requirement tha...

We show that for a Lie group $G=\R^{n}\ltimes_{\phi} \R^{m}$ with a semisimple action $\phi$ which has a cocompact discrete subgroup $\Gamma$, the solvmanifold $G/\Gamma$ admits a canonical invariant formal (i.e. all products of harmonic forms are again harmonic) metric. We show that a compact oriented aspherical manifold of dimension less than or equal to 4 with the virtually solvable fundamental group admits a formal metric if and only if it is diffeomorphic to a torus or a...

We provide examples of homogeneous spaces which are neither symmetric spaces nor real cohomology spheres, yet have the property that every invariant metric is geometrically formal. We also extend the known obstructions to geometric formality to some new classes of homogeneous spaces and of biquotients, and to certain sphere bundles.