The generalized K\"ahler Calabi-Yau problem

Abstract

We formulate an extension of the Calabi conjecture to the setting of generalized K\"ahler geometry. We show a transgression formula for the Bismut Ricci curvature in this setting, which requires a new local Goto/Kodaira-Spencer deformation result, and use it to show that solutions of the generalized Calabi-Yau equation on compact manifolds are classically K\"ahler, Calabi-Yau, and furthermore unique in their generalized K\"ahler class. We show that the generalized K\"ahler-Ricci flow is naturally adapted to this conjecture, and exhibit a number of a priori estimates and monotonicity formulas which suggest global existence and convergence. For initial data in the generalized K\"ahler class of a K\"ahler Calabi-Yau structure we prove the flow exists globally and converges to this unique fixed point. This has applications to understanding the space of generalized K\"ahler structures, and as a special case yields the topological structure of natural classes of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms on hyperK\"ahler manifolds. In the case of commuting-type generalized K\"ahler structures we establish global existence and convergence with arbitrary initial data to a K\"ahler, Calabi-Yau metric, which yields a new $d d^c$-lemma for these structures.