Instantons on Sasakian 7-manifolds

We study a natural contact instanton (CI) equation on gauge fields over 7-dimensional Sasakian manifolds, which is closely related both to the transverse Hermitian Yang-Mills (tHYM) condition and the G_2-instanton equation. We obtain, by Fredholm theory, a finite-dimensional local model for the moduli space of irreducible solutions. We derive cohomological conditions for smoothness, and we express its dimension in terms of the index of a transverse elliptic operator. Finally we show that the moduli space of selfdual contact instantons (ASDI) is K\"ahler, in the Sasakian case. As an instance of concrete interest, we specialise to transversely holomorphic Sasakian bundles over contact Calabi-Yau 7-manifolds, and we show that, in this context, the notions of contact instanton, integrable G_2-instanton and HYM connection coincide.Comment: This is the updated version, published in The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics (2023

Explicit Soliton for the Laplacian Co-Flow on a Solvmanifold

We apply the general Ansatz in geometric flows on homogeneous spaces proposed by Jorge Lauret for the Laplacian co-flow of invariant $G_2$-structures on a Lie group, finding an explicit soliton on a particular almost Abelian $7$-manifold.Comment: Minor corrections, proof's Lemma 4.1 modified. To appear in the S\~ao Paulo Journal of mathematical scienc

Construction of G_2-instantons via twisted connected sums

We propose a method to construct G_2-instantons over a compact twisted connected sum G_2-manifold, applying a gluing result of S\'a Earp and Walpuski to instantons over a pair of 7-manifolds with a tubular end (see arXiv:1310.7933). In our example, the moduli spaces of the ingredient instantons are non-trivial, and their images in the moduli space over the asymptotic cross-section K3 surface intersect transversely. Such a pair of asymptotically stable holomorphic bundles is obtained using a twisted version of the Hartshorne-Serre construction, which can be adapted to produce other examples. Moreover, their deformation theory and asymptotic behaviour are explicitly understood, results which may be of independent interest.Comment: 22 pages. Final version to appear in Mathematical Research Letter

Harmonic flow of geometric structures

We give a twistorial interpretation of geometric structures on a Riemannian manifold, as sections of homogeneous fibre bundles, following an original insight by Wood (2003). The natural Dirichlet energy induces an abstract harmonicity condition, which gives rise to a geometric gradient flow. We establish a number of analytic properties for this flow, such as uniqueness, smoothness, short-time existence, and some sufficient conditions for long-time existence. This description potentially subsumes a large class of geometric PDE problems from different contexts. As applications, we recover and unify a number of results in the literature: for the isometric flow of ${\rm G}_2$-structures, by Grigorian (2017, 2019), Bagaglini (2019), and Dwivedi-Gianniotis-Karigiannis (2019); and for harmonic almost complex structures, by He (2019) and He-Li (2019). Our theory also establishes original properties regarding harmonic flows of parallelisms and almost contact structures.Comment: Upgraded and improved versio

Generalised Chern-Simons Theory and G₂-Instantons over Associative Fibrations

Adjusting conventional Chern-Simons theory to G₂-manifolds, one describes G₂-instantons on bundles over a certain class of 7-dimensional flat tori which fiber non-trivially over T⁴, by a pullback argument. Moreover, if c₂≠0, any (generic) deformation of the G₂-structure away from such a fibred structure causes all instantons to vanish. A brief investigation in the general context of (conformally compatible) associative fibrations f:Y⁷→X⁴ relates G₂-instantons on pullback bundles f∗E→Y and self-dual connections on the bundle E→X over the base, a fact which may be of independent interest

The heterotic G2\rm{G}_2 system on contact Calabi--Yau 77-manifolds

We obtain non-trivial solutions to the heterotic $\rm{G}_2$ system, which are defined on the total spaces of non-trivial circle bundles over Calabi--Yau $3$-orbifolds. By adjusting the $S^1$ fibres in proportion to a power of the string constant $\alpha'$, we obtain a cocalibrated $\rm{G}_2$-structure the torsion of which realises an arbitrary constant (trivial) dilaton field and an $H$-flux with nontrivial Chern--Simons defect. We find examples of connections on the tangent bundle and a non-flat $\rm{G}_2$-instanton induced from the horizontal Calabi--Yau metric which satisfy together the anomaly-free condition, also known as the heterotic Bianchi identity. The connections on the tangent bundle are $\rm{G}_2$-instantons up to higher order corrections in $\alpha'$