Deformations of glued G_2-manifolds

We study how a gluing construction, which produces compact manifolds with holonomy G_2 from matching pairs of asymptotically cylindrical G_2-manifolds, behaves under deformations. We show that the gluing construction defines a smooth map from a moduli space of gluing data to the moduli space of torsion-free G_2-structures on the glued manifold, and that this is a local diffeomorphism. We use this to partially compactify the moduli space of torsion-free G_2-structures, including it as the interior of a topological manifold with boundary. The boundary points are equivalence classes of matching pairs of torsion-free asymptotically cylindrical G_2-structures.Comment: 13 pages; minor corrections, numbering changed to match print versio

The classification of 2-connected 7-manifolds

We present a classification theorem for closed smooth spin 2-connected 7-manifolds M. This builds on the almost-smooth classification from the first author's thesis. The main additional ingredient is an extension of the Eells-Kuiper invariant for any closed spin 7-manifold, regardless of whether the spin characteristic class p_M in the fourth integral cohomology of M is torsion. In addition we determine the inertia group of 2-connected M - equivalently the number of oriented smooth structures on the underlying topological manifold - in terms of p_M and the torsion linking form.Comment: Corrected the definition of pseudo-isotopy of almost diffeomorphisms, 56 pages. To appear in Proc. Lond. Math. So

New invariants of G_2-structures

We define a Z/48-valued homotopy invariant nu of a G_2-structure on the tangent bundle of a closed 7-manifold in terms of the signature and Euler characteristic of a coboundary with a Spin(7)-structure. For manifolds of holonomy G_2 obtained by the twisted connected sum construction, the associated torsion-free G_2-structure always has nu = 24. Some holonomy G_2 examples constructed by Joyce by desingularising orbifolds have odd nu. We define a further homotopy invariant xi of G_2-structures such that if M is 2-connected then the pair (nu, xi) determines a G_2-structure up to homotopy and diffeomorphism. The class of a G_2-structure is determined by nu on its own when the greatest divisor of p_1(M) modulo torsion divides 224; this sufficient condition holds for many twisted connected sum G_2-manifolds. We also prove that the parametric h-principle holds for coclosed G_2-structures.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. v3: Defined further invariant, strengthened classification results, changed titl

An analytic invariant of G_2 manifolds

The first and third authors have constructed a defect invariant $\nu(M,\phi)$ in Z/48 for $G_2$-structures on a closed 7-manifold. We describe the nu-invariant using $\eta$-invariants and Mathai-Quillen currents on M and show that it can be refined to an integer-valued invariant $\bar\nu(M,g)$ for $G_2$-holonomy metrics. As an example, we determine the $\bar\nu$-invariants of twisted and extra twisted connected sums a la Kovalev, Corti-Haskins-Nordstr\"om-Pacini, and Nordstr\"om. In particular, we exhibit examples of 7-manifolds where the moduli space of $G_2$-holonomy metrics has at least two connected components. In one of these examples, the underlying $G_2$-structures are homotopic, in another one, they are not.Comment: pdfLaTeX, 26 pages, 2 figures (tikz). v2: 28 pages, 2 figures. Reorganised the contents for clarity. Comments welcome

Deformations and gluing of asymptotically cylindrical manifolds with exceptional holonomy

In Berger's classification of Riemannian holonomy groups there are several infinite families and two exceptional cases: the groups Spin(7) and G_2. This thesis is mainly concerned with 7-dimensional manifolds with holonomy G_2. A metric with holonomy contained in G_2 can be defined in terms of a torsion-free G_2-structure, and a G_2-manifold is a 7-dimensional manifold equipped with such a structure. There are two known constructions of compact manifolds with holonomy exactly G_2. Joyce found examples by resolving singularities of quotients of flat tori. Later Kovalev found different examples by gluing pairs of exponentially asymptotically cylindrical (EAC) G_2-manifolds (not necessarily with holonomy exactly G_2) whose cylinders match. The result of this gluing construction can be regarded as a generalised connected sum of the EAC components, and has a long approximately cylindrical neck region. We consider the deformation theory of EAC G_2-manifolds and show, generalising from the compact case, that there is a smooth moduli space of torsion-free EAC G_2-structures. As an application we study the deformations of the gluing construction for compact G_2-manifolds, and find that the glued torsion-free G_2-structures form an open subset of the moduli space on the compact connected sum. For a fixed pair of matching EAC G_2-manifolds the gluing construction provides a path of torsion-free G_2-structures on the connected sum with increasing neck length. Intuitively this defines a boundary point for the moduli space on the connected sum, representing a way to `pull apart' the compact G_2-manifold into a pair of EAC components. We use the deformation theory to make this more precise. We then consider the problem whether compact G_2-manifolds constructed by Joyce's method can be deformed to the result of a gluing construction. By proving a result for resolving singularities of EAC G_2-manifolds we show that some of Joyce's examples can be pulled apart in the above sense. Some of the EAC G_2-manifolds that arise this way satisfy a necessary and sufficient topological condition for having holonomy exactly G_2. We prove also deformation results for EAC Spin(7)-manifolds, i.e. dimension 8 manifolds with holonomy contained in Spin(7). On such manifolds there is a smooth moduli space of torsion-free EAC Spin(7)-structures. Generalising a result of Wang for compact manifolds we show that for EAC G_2-manifolds and Spin(7)-manifolds the special holonomy metrics form an open subset of the set of Ricci-flat metrics.This work was supported by the EPSRC and the Gates Cambridge Trust

Asymptotically cylindrical Calabi-Yau manifolds

Let $M$ be a complete Ricci-flat Kahler manifold with one end and assume that this end converges at an exponential rate to $[0,\infty) \times X$ for some compact connected Ricci-flat manifold $X$. We begin by proving general structure theorems for $M$; in particular we show that there is no loss of generality in assuming that $M$ is simply-connected and irreducible with Hol$(M)$ $=$ SU$(n)$, where $n$ is the complex dimension of $M$. If $n > 2$ we then show that there exists a projective orbifold $\bar{M}$ and a divisor $\bar{D}$ in $|{-K_{\bar{M}}}|$ with torsion normal bundle such that $M$ is biholomorphic to $\bar{M}\setminus\bar{D}$, thereby settling a long-standing question of Yau in the asymptotically cylindrical setting. We give examples where $\bar{M}$ is not smooth: the existence of such examples appears not to have been noticed previously. Conversely, for any such pair $(\bar{M}, \bar{D})$ we give a short and self-contained proof of the existence and uniqueness of exponentially asymptotically cylindrical Calabi-Yau metrics on $\bar{M}\setminus\bar{D}$.Comment: 33 pages, various updates and minor corrections, final versio

Asymptotically cylindrical Calabi-Yau 3-folds from weak Fano 3-folds

We prove the existence of asymptotically cylindrical (ACyl) Calabi-Yau 3-folds starting with (almost) any deformation family of smooth weak Fano 3-folds. This allow us to exhibit hundreds of thousands of new ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds; previously only a few hundred ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds were known. We pay particular attention to a subclass of weak Fano 3-folds that we call semi-Fano 3-folds. Semi-Fano 3-folds satisfy stronger cohomology vanishing theorems and enjoy certain topological properties not satisfied by general weak Fano 3-folds, but are far more numerous than genuine Fano 3-folds. Also, unlike Fanos they often contain P^1s with normal bundle O(-1) + O(-1), giving rise to compact rigid holomorphic curves in the associated ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds. We introduce some general methods to compute the basic topological invariants of ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds constructed from semi-Fano 3-folds, and study a small number of representative examples in detail. Similar methods allow the computation of the topology in many other examples. All the features of the ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds studied here find application in arXiv:1207.4470 where we construct many new compact G_2-manifolds using Kovalev's twisted connected sum construction. ACyl Calabi-Yau 3-folds constructed from semi-Fano 3-folds are particularly well-adapted for this purpose.Comment: 107 pages, 1 figure. v3: minor corrections, changed formattin