Related papers: Conformal Holonomy Equals Ambient Holonomy
For a conformal manifold we introduce the notion of an ambient connection, an affine connection on an ambient manifold of the conformal manifold, possibly with torsion, and with conditions relating it to the conformal structure. The purpose…
In this paper we relate the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction for conformal manifolds to the approach to conformal geometry via the canonical Cartan connection. We show that from any ambient metric that satisfies a weakening of…
For a conformal manifold, we describe a new relation between the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman and Graham and the holonomy of the normal conformal Cartan connection. This relation allows us to prove several results on the…
Conformal geodesics are distinguished curves on a conformal manifold, loosely analogous to geodesics of Riemannian geometry. One definition of them is as solutions to a third order differential equation determined by the conformal…
Given a generic 2-plane field on a 5-dimensional manifold we consider its (3,2)-signature conformal metric [g] as defined in math.DG/0406400. Every conformal class [g] obtained in this way has very special conformal holonomy: it must be…
In this paper, we study the asymptotic structure of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric. We prove that every straight ambient metric admits a conformal completion with a well-defined null infinity, and that the asymptotic expansion of the…
An extension of the ambient metric construction of Fefferman-Graham to infinite order in even dimensions is described. The main ingredients are the introduction of "inhomogeneous ambient metrics" with asymptotic expansions involving the…
We prove that Fefferman spaces, associated to non--degenerate CR structures of hypersurface type, are characterised, up to local conformal isometry, by the existence of a parallel orthogonal complex structure on the standard tractor bundle.…
We present conformal structures in signature (3,2) for which the holonomy of the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric is equal to the non-compact exceptional Lie group G_{2(2)}. We write down the resulting 8-parameter family of G_{2(2)}-metrics…
The holonomy of the ambient metrics of Nurowski's conformal structures associated to generic real-analytic 2-plane fields on 5-manifolds is investigated. It is shown that the holonomy is always contained in the split real form G_2 of the…
This paper aims to classify the holonomy of the conformal Tractor connection, and relate these holonomies to the geometry of the underlying manifold. The conformally Einstein case is dealt with through the construction of metric cones,…
Statistical manifolds, the parameter spaces of smooth families of probability density functions, are the central objects of study in information geometry. While the elementary differential geometry of Riemannian statistical manifolds is…
The realization of tractor bundles as associated bundles in conformal geometry is studied. It is shown that different natural choices of principal bundle with normal Cartan connection corresponding to a given conformal manifold can give…
We present three large classes of examples of conformal structures for which the equations for the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric to be Ricci-flat are linear PDEs, which we solve explicitly. These explicit solutions enable us to discuss…
The conformal Fefferman-Graham ambient metric construction is one of the most fundamental constructions in conformal geometry. It embeds a manifold with a conformal structure into a pseudo-Riemannian manifold whose Ricci tensor vanishes up…
This paper provides details of the construction, properties and some applications of the ambient metric associated to a conformal class of metrics on a smooth manifold. Existence and uniqueness of formal expansions defining such metrics are…
For every codimension two spacelike submanifold of a Lorentz manifold and each choice of a normal lightlike vector field, we introduce a canonical way to construct a tractor conformal bundle. We characterize when the induced connection of a…
Tractor Calculus is a powerful tool for analyzing Weyl invariance; although fundamentally linked to the Cartan connection, it may also be arrived at geometrically by viewing a conformal manifold as the space of null rays in a Lorentzian…
This is the second in a series of papers where we prove a conjecture of Deser and Schwimmer regarding the algebraic structure of ``global conformal invariants''; these are defined to be conformally invariant integrals of geometric scalars.…
We present the general theory of curves in conformal geometry using tractor calculus. This primarily involves a tractorial determination of distinguished parametrizations and relative and absolute conformal invariants of generic curves. The…