Related papers: Gravitational instantons, self-duality and geometr…
We investigate four-dimensional, self-dual gravitational instantons endowed with a product structure RxM_3, where M_3 is homogeneous of Bianchi type. We analyze the general conditions under which Euclidean-time evolution in the…
We provide an exhaustive classification of self-dual four-dimensional gravitational instantons foliated with three-dimensional homogeneous spaces, i.e. homogeneous self-dual metrics on four-dimensional Euclidean spaces admitting a Bianchi…
We study the Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity coupled to Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in three dimensional Euclidean space with cosmological constant. The classical equations reduce to Bogomol'nyi type first order equations in curved space. There…
We consider instanton solutions of Euclidean Horava-Lifshitz gravity in four dimensions satisfying the detailed balance condition. They are described by geometric flows in three dimensions driven by certain combinations of the Cotton and…
Physical properties of gravitational instantons which are derivable from minimal surfaces in 3-dimensional Euclidean space are examined using the Newman-Penrose formalism for Euclidean signature. The gravitational instanton that corresponds…
A classification result for Ricci-flat anti-self-dual asymptotically locally Euclidean 4-manifolds is obtained: they are either hyperk\"ahler (one of the gravitational instantons classified by Kronheimer), or they are a cyclic quotient of a…
We study various aspects of four dimensional Einstein-Maxwell multicentred gravitational instantons. These are half-BPS Riemannian backgrounds of minimal N=2 supergravity, asymptotic to R^4, R^3 x S^1 or AdS_2 x S^2. Unlike for the…
I present some applications of geometric flows in string theory and gravity. In some circumstances time evolution in string theory can be approximately identified with Ricci-flow parametric evolution of spatial sections. In four dimensions,…
Self-duality in Euclidean gravitational set ups is a tool for finding remarkable geometries in four dimensions. From a holographic perspective, self-duality sets an algebraic relationship between two a priori independent boundary data: the…
We study time-dependent compactification of extra dimensions. We assume that the spacetime is spatially homogeneous, and solve the vacuum Einstein equations without cosmological constant in more than three dimensions. We consider globally…
A broad class of higher dimensional instanton solutions are found for a theory which contains gravity, a scalar field and antisymmetric tensor fields of arbitrary rank. The metric used, a warp product of an arbitrary number of any compact…
Supersymmetric instanton solutions in four dimensional Euclidean ungauged Einstein-Maxwell theory are analysed and classified according to the fraction of supersymmetry they preserve, using spinorial geometry techniques.
We consider gauged Wess-Zumino models based on the non compact group $SU(2,1)$. It is shown that by vector gauging the maximal compact subgroup $U(2)$ the resulting backgrounds obey the gravity-dilaton one loop string vacuum equations of…
A topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity which we propose regards anti-self-dual 2-forms and an anti-self-dual part of the frame connections as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli spaces of…
Starting from the self-dual "triplet" of gravitational instanton solutions in Euclidean gravity, we obtain the corresponding instanton solutions in string theory by making use of the target space duality symmetry. These dual triplet…
We show that every gravitational instantons are SU(2) Yang-Mills instantons on a Ricci-flat four manifold although the reverse is not necessarily true. It is shown that gravitational instantons satisfy exactly the same self-duality equation…
Gravitational instantons, solutions to the euclidean Einstein equations, with topology $R^3 XS^1$ arise naturally in any discussion of finite temperature quantum gravity. This Letter shows that all such instantons (irrespective of their…
In this work, we critically reanalyze the explicit breaking of the Peccei-Quinn global symmetry -- and the corresponding corrections to the QCD axion potential -- induced by gravity. Specifically, we examine the role of gravitational…
We construct eight-dimensional gravitational instantons by solving appropriate self-duality equations for the spin-connection. The particular gravitational instanton we present has $Spin(7)$ holonomy and, in a sense, it is the…
This is a review of gravitational instantons -- solutions to Riemannian Einstein or Einstein-Maxwell equations in four dimensions which yield complete metrics on non-compact four-manifolds, and which asymptotically `look like' flat space.…