English

A calibration in $\mathbf R^{16}$ and Federer's product question

Differential Geometry 2025-03-18 v1

Abstract

Building upon the construction of a Cayley calibration adapted to a complex structure, we introduce a calibration Φ\Phi in 8R16\bigwedge^8 \mathbf R^{16} with Φ2=294|\Phi^2| = 294. This enables us to show that the product of two orthogonally supported calibrations is not necessarily a calibration, thereby providing a negative answer to a question posed by Federer. Dadok and Harvey developed a general method for constructing calibrations as outer products of two unit spinors in the Clifford algebra. We show that Φ\Phi arises from the product of two spinors with norm 11 and 2\sqrt{2}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.12402,
  title  = {A calibration in $\mathbf R^{16}$ and Federer's product question},
  author = {Roger Züst},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.12402},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:22:26.451Z