Contact metric three manifolds and Lorentzian geometry with torsion in six-dimensional supergravity

Abstract

We introduce the notion of $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold, which includes as particular cases $η\,$-Einstein Riemannian and Lorentzian (para) contact metric three-manifolds, but which in addition allows for the Reeb vector field to be null. We prove that the product of an $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein Lorentzian $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold with an $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein Riemannian contact metric three-manifold carries a bi-parametric family of Ricci-flat Lorentzian metric-compatible connections with isotropic, totally skew-symmetric, closed and co-closed torsion, which in turn yields a bi-parametric family of solutions of six-dimensional minimal supergravity coupled to a tensor multiplet. This result allows for the systematic construction of families of Lorentzian solutions of six-dimensional supergravity from pairs of $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein contact metric three-manifolds. We classify all left-invariant $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein structures on simply connected Lie groups, paying special attention to the case in which the Reeb vector field is null. In particular, we show that the Sasaki and K-contact notions extend to $\varepsilon\,$-contact structures with null Reeb vector field but are however not equivalent conditions, in contrast to the situation occurring when the Reeb vector field is not light-like. Furthermore, we pose the Cauchy initial-value problem of an $\varepsilon\,$-contact $\varepsilonη\,$-Einstein structure, briefly studying the associated constraint equations in a particularly simple decoupling limit. Altogether, we use these results to obtain novel families of six-dimensional supergravity solutions, some of which can be interpreted as continuous deformations of the maximally supersymmetric solution on $\widetilde{\mathrm{Sl}}(2,\mathbb{R})\times S^3$.