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arXiv · 2407.03127

Flows of SU(2)-structures

Abstract

This paper initiates a classification programme of flows of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-structures on $4$-manifolds which have short-time existence and uniqueness. Our approach adapts a representation-theoretic method originally due to Bryant in the context of $\mathrm{G}_2$ geometry. We show how this strategy can also be used to deduce the number of geometric flows of a given $H$-structure; we illustrate this in the $\mathrm{G}_2$, $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$ and $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ cases. Our investigation also leads us to derive explicit expressions for the Ricci and self-dual Weyl curvature in terms of the intrinsic torsion of the underlying $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-structure. We compute the first variation formulae of all the quadratic functionals in the torsion; these provide natural building blocks for $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ gradient flows. In particular, our results demonstrate that both the negative gradient flow of the Dirichlet energy of the intrinsic torsion and the Ricci harmonic flow are parabolic after a modified DeTurck's trick.

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BibTeXRIS

Udhav Fowdar, Henrique N. Sá Earp. 2025-06-08. Flows of SU(2)-structures. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00209-025-03806-7

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