Quaternionic K\"ahler Reductions of Wolf Spaces

We find a necessary condition for the existence of an action of a Lie group $G$ by quaternionic automorphisms on an integrable quaternionic manifold in terms of representations of $\mathfrak{g}$. We check this condition and prove that a Riemannian symmetric space of dimension $4n$ for $n\geq 2$ has an invariant integrable almost quaternionic structure if and only if it is quaternionic vector space, quaternionic hyperbolic space or quaternionic projective space.

We relate the moduli space of Yang-Mills instantons to quaternionic manifolds. For instanton number one, the Wolf spaces play an important role. We apply these ideas to instanton calculations in N=4 SYM theory.

Classification results are given for (i) compact quaternionic K\"ahler manifolds with a cohomogeneity-one action of a semi-simple group, (ii) certain complete hyperK\"ahler manifolds with a cohomogeneity-two action of a semi-simple group preserving each complex structure, (iii) compact 3-Sasakian manifolds which are cohomogeneity one with respect to a group of 3-Sasakian symmetries. Information is also obtained about non-compact quaternionic K\"ahler manifolds of cohomogeneit...

Positive Quaternion Kaehler Manifolds are Riemannian manifolds with holonomy contained in Sp(n)Sp(1) and with positive scalar curvature. Conjecturally, they are symmetric spaces. We prove this conjecture in dimension 20 under additional assumptions and we provide recognition theorems for quaternionic projective spaces (in low dimensions) as well as the real Grassmanian (which is Positive Quaternion Kaehler).

The notion of a $\Gamma $-symmetric space is a generalization of the classical notion of a symmetric space, where a general finite abelian group $\Gamma $ replaces the group $Z_2$. The case $\Gamma =\Z_k$ has also been studied, from the algebraic point of view by V.Kac \cite{VK} and from the point of view of the differential geometry by Ledger, Obata, Kowalski or Wolf - Gray in terms of $k$-symmetric spaces. In this case, a $k$-manifold is an homogeneous reductive space and t...

In a series of papers published in this Journal (J. Math. Phys.), a discussion was started on the significance of a new definition of projective representations in quaternionic Hilbert spaces. The present paper gives what we believe is a resolution of the semantic differences that had apparently tended to obscure the issues.

Following our approach to metric Lie algebras developed in math.DG/0312243 we propose a way of understanding pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces which are not semi-simple. We introduce cohomology sets (called quadratic cohomology) associated with orthogonal modules of Lie algebras with involution. Then we construct a functorial assignment which sends a pseudo-Riemannian symmetric space M to a triple consisting of (i) a Lie algebra with involution (of dimension much smaller t...

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...

In a previous article we proved a lower bound for the spectrum of the Dirac operator on quaternionic Kaehler manifolds. In the present article we study the limiting case, i. e. manifolds where the lower bound is attained as an eigenvalue. We give an equivalent formulation in terms of a quaternionic Killing equation and show that the only symmetric quaternionic Kaehler manifolds with smallest possible eigenvalue are the quaternionic projective spaces.

The existing classification of homogeneous quaternionic spaces is not complete. We study these spaces in the context of certain $N=2$ supergravity theories, where dimensional reduction induces a mapping between {\em special} real, K\"ahler and quaternionic spaces. The geometry of the real spaces is encoded in cubic polynomials, those of the K\"ahler and quaternionic manifolds in homogeneous holomorphic functions of second degree. We classify all cubic polynomials that have an...