Related papers: Spin(7)-instantons, Cayley submanifolds, and Fuete…

We investigate instantons on sine-cones over Sasaki-Einstein and 3-Sasakian manifolds. It is shown that these conical Einstein manifolds are K"ahler with torsion (KT) manifolds admitting Hermitian connections with totally antisymmetric…

Associative submanifolds of the 7-sphere S^7 are 3-dimensional minimal submanifolds which are the links of calibrated 4-dimensional cones in R^8 called Cayley cones. Examples of associative 3-folds are thus given by the links of complex and…

We derive the explicit formula for the intrinsic torsion of a ${\rm Spin}(7)$-structure on a $8$--dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$. Here, the intrinsic torsion is a difference of the minimal ${\rm Spin}(7)$--connection and the…

We present a classification theorem for closed smooth spin 2-connected 7-manifolds M. This builds on the almost-smooth classification from the first author's thesis. The main additional ingredient is an extension of the Eells-Kuiper…

The SU(4)-instanton equations are natural BPS equations for instantons on 8-manifolds. We study these equations on nearly Kaehler and Calabi-Yau torsion manifolds of the form M x G/H, with G/H a coset space and M a product of a torus with…

We consider type II superstring compactifications on the singular Spin(7) manifold constructed as a cone on SU(3)/U(1). Based on a toric realization of the projective space CP^2, we discuss how the manifold can be viewed as three…

We introduce the coupled instanton equations for a metric, a spinor, a three-form, and a connection on a bundle, over a spin manifold. Special solutions in dimensions $6$ and $7$ arise, respectively, from the Hull--Strominger and the…

The exceptional holonomy groups are G2 in 7 dimensions, and Spin(7) in 8 dimensions. Riemannian manifolds with these holonomy groups are Ricci-flat. This is a survey paper on constructions for compact 7- and 8-manifolds with holonomy G2 and…

We prove that a sequence of solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equation with multiple spinors in dimension three can degenerate only by converging (after rescaling) to a Fueter section of a bundle of moduli spaces of ASD instantons.

An existence theorem for stationary discs of strongly pseudoconvex domains in almost complex manifolds is proved. More precisely, it is shown that, for all points of a suitable neighborhood of the boundary and for any vector belonging to…

This paper is a continuation of math.DG/0408005. We first construct special Lagrangian submanifolds of the Ricci-flat Stenzel metric (of holonomy SU(n)) on the cotangent bundle of S^n by looking at the conormal bundle of appropriate…

A concrete model for a 7-dimensional gauge theory under special holonomy is proposed, within the paradigm outlined by Donaldson and Thomas, over the asymptotically cylindrical G2-manifolds provided by Kovalev's noncompact version of the…

Type IIA orientifold constructions with intersecting D6-branes and their IIB duals in terms of magnetized D9/D7-branes constitute one of the most promising avenues for the construction of semirealistic MSSM-like compactifications. One…

We revisit the problem of constructing instantons on ADE orbifolds R^4/\Gamma and point out some subtle relations with the complex structure on the orbifold. We consider generalized instanton equations on R^4/\Gamma which are BPS equations…

We generalize the $\alpha$-invariant introduced by Atiyah and Rees to an invariant of real spin bundles and use it to classify real bundles over $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^3$ admitting spin structure. We apply this result to show that…

We establish a general analytic and geometric framework for resolving Spin(7)--orbifolds. These spaces arise naturally as boundary points in the moduli space of exceptional holonomy metrics, and smooth Gromov--Hausdorff resolutions can be…

We consider pure $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory when the space is compactified to a 3-dimensional sphere with finite radius. The Euclidean classical self-dual solutions of the equations of motion (the instantons) and the static finite energy…

Given a bundle gerbe with connection on an oriented Riemannian manifold of dimension at least equal to 3, we formulate and study the associated Yang-Mills equations. When the Riemannian manifold is compact and oriented, we prove the…

We present a construction of superconformal field theories for manifolds with Spin(7) holonomy. Geometrically these models correspond to the realization of Spin(7) manifolds as anti-holomorphic quotients of Calabi-Yau fourfolds. Describing…

We study mirror symmetry of type II strings on manifolds with the exceptional holonomy groups $G_2$ and Spin(7). Our central result is a construction of mirrors of Spin(7) manifolds realized as generalized connected sums. In parallel to…