Symmetries of Parabolic Geometries

We generalize the concept of affine locally symmetric spaces for parabolic geometries. We discuss mainly $|1|$--graded geometries and we show some restrictions on their curvature coming from the existence of symmetries. We use the theory of Weyl structures to discuss more interesting $|1|$--graded geometries which can carry a symmetry in a point with nonzero curvature. More concretely, we discuss the number of different symmetries which can exist at the point with nonzero curvature

The twistor spinors of generic 2- and 3-distributions

Generic distributions on 5- and 6-manifolds give rise to conformal structures that were discovered by P. Nurowski resp. R. Bryant. We describe both as Fefferman-type constructions and show that for orientable distributions one obtains conformal spin structures. The resulting conformal spin geometries are then characterized by their conformal holonomy and equivalently by the existence of a twistor spinor which satisfies a genericity condition. Moreover, we show that given such a twistor spinor we can decompose a conformal Killing field of the structure. We obtain explicit formulas relating conformal Killing fields, almost Einstein structures and twistor spinors.Comment: 26 page

Indices of quaternionic complexes

Methods of parabolic geometries have been recently used to construct a class of elliptic complexes on quaternionic manifolds, the Salamon's complex being the simplest case. The purpose of this paper is to describe an algorithm how to compute their analytical indices in terms of characteristic classes. Using this, we are able to derive some topological obstructions to existence of quaternionic structures on manifolds.Comment: 14 page

A holonomy characterisation of Fefferman spaces

We prove that Fefferman spaces, associated to non--degenerate CR structures of hypersurface type, are characterised, up to local conformal isometry, by the existence of a parallel orthogonal complex structure on the standard tractor bundle. This condition can be equivalently expressed in terms of conformal holonomy. Extracting from this picture the essential consequences at the level of tensor bundles yields an improved, conformally invariant analogue of Sparling's characterisation of Fefferman spaces.Comment: AMSLaTeX, 15 page

Ricci-corrected derivatives and invariant differential operators

We introduce the notion of Ricci-corrected differentiation in parabolic geometry, which is a modification of covariant differentiation with better transformation properties. This enables us to simplify the explicit formulae for standard invariant operators given in work of Cap, Slovak and Soucek, and at the same time extend these formulae from the context of AHS structures (which include conformal and projective structures) to the more general class of all parabolic structures (including CR structures).Comment: Substantially revised, shortened and simplified, with new treatment of Weyl structures; 24 page

On Nurowski's conformal structure associated to a generic rank two distribution in dimension five

For a generic distribution of rank two on a manifold $M$ of dimension five, we introduce the notion of a generalized contact form. To such a form we associate a generalized Reeb field and a partial connection. From these data, we explicitly constructed a pseudo--Riemannian metric on $M$ of split signature. We prove that a change of the generalized contact form only leads to a conformal rescaling of this metric, so the corresponding conformal class is intrinsic to the distribution. In the second part of the article, we relate this conformal class to the canonical Cartan connection associated to the distribution. This is used to prove that it coincides with the conformal class constructed by Nurowski.Comment: AMSLaTeX, 23 page

Essential Killing fields of parabolic geometries

We study vector fields generating a local flow by automorphisms of a parabolic geometry with higher order fixed points. We develop general tools extending the techniques of [1], [2], and [3]. We apply these tools to almost Grassmannian, almost quaternionic, and contact parabolic geometries, including CR structures, to obtain descriptions of the possible dynamics of such flows near the fixed point and strong restrictions on the curvature. In some cases, we can show vanishing of the curvature on a nonempty open set. Deriving consequences for a specific geometry entails evaluating purely algebraic and representation-theoretic criteria in the model homogeneous space. Published in Indiana University Mathematics Journal.Comment: 50 pages. Minor corrections, references update

Twisted Courant algebroids and coisotropic Cartan geometries

In this paper, we show that associated to any coisotropic Cartan geometry there is a twisted Courant algebroid. This includes in particular parabolic geometries. Using this twisted Courant structure, we give some new results about the Cartan curvature and the Weyl structure of a parabolic geometry. As more direct applications, we have Lie 2-algebra and 3D AKSZ sigma model with background associated to any coisotropic Cartan geometry

C^1 Deformations of almost-Grassmannian structures with strongly essential symmetry

We construct a family of $(2,n)$-almost Grassmannian structures of regularity $C^1$, each admitting a one-parameter group of strongly essential automorphisms, and each not flat on any neighborhood of the higher-order fixed point. This shows that Theorem 1.3 of [9] does not hold assuming only $C^1$ regularity of the structure (see also [2, Prop 3.5]).Comment: 24 p