English

The classification of naturally reductive homogeneous spaces in dimensions $n \leq 6$

Differential Geometry 2014-12-02 v2 Representation Theory

Abstract

We present a new method for classifying naturally reductive homogeneous spaces -- i.\,e.~homogeneous Riemannian manifolds admitting a metric connection with skew torsion that has parallel torsion \emph{and} curvature. This method is based on a deeper understanding of the holonomy algebra of connections with parallel skew torsion on Riemannian manifolds and the interplay of such a connection with the geometric structure on the given Riemannian manifold. It allows to reproduce by easier arguments the known classifications in dimensions 3,43,4, and 55, and yields as a new result the classification in dimension 66. In each dimension, one obtains a `hierarchy' of degeneracy for the torsion form, which we then treat case by case. For the completely degenerate cases, we obtain results that are independent of the dimension. In some situations, we are able to prove that any Riemannian manifold with parallel skew torsion has to be naturally reductive. We show that a `generic' parallel torsion form defines a quasi-Sasakian structure in dimension 55 and an almost complex structure in dimension 66.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1407.4936,
  title  = {The classification of naturally reductive homogeneous spaces in dimensions $n \leq 6$},
  author = {Ilka Agricola and Ana Cristina Ferreira and Thomas Friedrich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.4936},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

30 pages; final version (small mistakes corrected). To appear in "Differential Geometry and its Applications"