Related papers: Eight-manifolds with G-structure in eleven dimensi…
We construct new explicit metrics on complete non-compact Riemannian 8-manifolds with holonomy Spin(7). One manifold, which we denote by A_8, is topologically R^8 and another, which we denote by B_8, is the bundle of chiral spinors over…
We prove that, for M theory or type II, generic Minkowski flux backgrounds preserving $\mathcal{N}$ supersymmetries in dimensions $D\geq4$ correspond precisely to integrable generalised $G_{\mathcal{N}}$ structures, where $G_{\mathcal{N}}$…
The exceptional holonomy groups are G2 in 7 dimensions, and Spin(7) in 8 dimensions. In a previous paper (Invent. math. 123 (1996), 507-552) the author constructed the first examples of compact 8-manifolds with holonomy Spin(7), by…
We find the geometry of all supersymmetric type I backgrounds by solving the gravitino and dilatino Killing spinor equations, using the spinorial geometry technique, in all cases. The solutions of the gravitino Killing spinor equation are…
The condition of having an $N=1$ spacetime supersymmetry for heterotic string leads to 4 distinct possibilities for compactifications namely compactifications down to 6,4,3 and 2 dimensions. Compactifications to 6 and 4 dimensions have been…
We study supersymmetric solutions in 7- and 8-dimensional Abelian heterotic supergravity theories. In dimension 7, the solutions are described by $G_{2}$ with torsion equations. When a $G_{2}$ manifold has principal orbits $S^{3} \times…
We reduce the classification of all supersymmetric backgrounds of IIB supergravity to the evaluation of the Killing spinor equations and their integrability conditions, which contain the field equations, on five types of spinors. This…
We show that the holonomy of the supercovariant connection for M-theory backgrounds with $N$ Killing spinors reduces to a subgroup of $SL(32-N,\bR)\st (\oplus^N \bR^{32-N})$. We use this to give the necessary and sufficient conditions for a…
We consider warp compactifications of M-theory on 7-manifolds in the presence of 4-form fluxes and investigate the constraints imposed by supersymmetry. As long as the 7-manifold supports only one Killing spinor we infer from the Killing…
We study the general requirement for supersymmetric AdS$_6$ solutions in type IIB supergravity. We employ the Killing spinor technique and study the differential and algebraic relations among various Killing spinor bilinears to find 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 exceptional holonomy, in two parts. Part I introduces the…
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…
It is shown that, under certain conditions, the existence of a Killing spinor on a bosonic background of a supergravity theory implies that the Einstein equations are also satisfied. As an application of the theorem, we obtain a new black…
We investigate the differential geometry and topology of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds $(M,g)$ equipped with a real Killing spinor $\varepsilon$, where $\varepsilon$ is defined as a section of a bundle of irreducible real Clifford…
We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a Killing spinor in N=(1,0) gauge supergravity in six dimensions coupled to a single tensor multiplet, vector multiplets and hypermultiplets. These are shown to imply…
Admissible curved space backgrounds for four-dimensional supersymmetric field theories are determined by solving Killing spinor equations of four-dimensional off-shell supergravities. These can be obtained by combining ten-dimensional type…
We show that eleven-dimensional supergravity backgrounds with thirty one supersymmetries, N=31, admit an additional Killing spinor and so they are locally isometric to maximally supersymmetric ones. This rules out the existence of simply…
M-theory backgrounds in the form of unwarped compactifications with or without fluxes are considered. We construct the bilinear forms of supergravity Killing spinors for different choices of spinor inner products on these backgrounds. The…
We use classical obstruction theory \`{a} la Eilenberg-Steenrod to obtain a homotopy classification of $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-structures on compact $8$-manifolds with abelian fundamental group. As an application, we show that a compact,…
We consider the bosonic sectors of supergravity theories in ten and eleven dimensions which correspond to the low energy limits of string theories and M-theory. The solutions of supergravity field equations are known as supergravity…