Coordinate-free classic geometries

This paper is devoted to a coordinate-free approach to several classic geometries such as hyperbolic (real, complex, quaternionic), elliptic (spherical, Fubini-Study), and lorentzian (de Sitter, anti de Sitter) ones. These geometries carry a certain simple structure that is in some sense stronger than the riemannian structure. Their basic geometrical objects have linear nature and provide natural compactifications of classic spaces. The usual riemannian concepts are easily derivable from the strong structure and thus gain their coordinate-free form. Many examples illustrate fruitful features of the approach. The framework introduced here has already been shown to be adequate for solving problems concerning particular classic spaces.Comment: 20 pages, 2 pictures, 1 table, 32 references. Final versio

Differential geometry of grassmannians and Plucker map

Using the Plucker map between grassmannians, we study basic aspects of classic grassmannian geometries. For `hyperbolic' grassmannian geometries, we prove some facts (for instance, that the Plucker map is a minimal isometric embedding) that were previously known in the `elliptic' case.Comment: 12 pages. 2010 editio

Complex Hyperbolic Structures on Disc Bundles over Surfaces

We study complex hyperbolic disc bundles over closed orientable surfaces that arise from discrete and faithful representations H_n->PU(2,1), where H_n is the fundamental group of the orbifold S^2(2,...,2) and thus contains a surface group as a subgroup of index 2 or 4. The results obtained provide the first complex hyperbolic disc bundles M->{\Sigma} that: admit both real and complex hyperbolic structures; satisfy the equality 2(\chi+e)=3\tau; satisfy the inequality \chi/2<e; and induce discrete and faithful representations \pi_1\Sigma->PU(2,1) with fractional Toledo invariant; where {\chi} is the Euler characteristic of \Sigma, e denotes the Euler number of M, and {\tau} stands for the Toledo invariant of M. To get a satisfactory explanation of the equality 2(\chi+e)=3\tau, we conjecture that there exists a holomorphic section in all our examples. In order to reduce the amount of calculations, we systematically explore coordinate-free methods.Comment: 52 pages, 12 pictures, 10 tables, 20 references. Changes: final versio

Yet Another Poincare's Polyhedron Theorem

Poincar\'e's Polyhedron Theorem is a widely known valuable tool in constructing manifolds endowed with a prescribed geometric structure. It is one of the few criteria providing discreteness of groups of isometries. This work contains a version of Poincar\'e's Polyhedron Theorem that is applicable to constructing fibre bundles over surfaces and also suits geometries of nonconstant curvature. Most conditions of the theorem, being as local as possible, are easy to verify in practice.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 5 references. Final versio