English

Convex projective surfaces with compatible Weyl connection are hyperbolic

Differential Geometry 2020-06-17 v3

Abstract

We show that a properly convex projective structure p\mathfrak{p} on a closed oriented surface of negative Euler characteristic arises from a Weyl connection if and only if p\mathfrak{p} is hyperbolic. We phrase the problem as a non-linear PDE for a Beltrami differential by using that p\mathfrak{p} admits a compatible Weyl connection if and only if a certain holomorphic curve exists. Turning this non-linear PDE into a transport equation, we obtain our result by applying methods from geometric inverse problems. In particular, we use an extension of a remarkable L2L^2-energy identity known as Pestov's identity to prove a vanishing theorem for the relevant transport equation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.04616,
  title  = {Convex projective surfaces with compatible Weyl connection are hyperbolic},
  author = {Thomas Mettler and Gabriel P. Paternain},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.04616},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

23 pages, added Corollary 4.6, references updated, typos corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:22:01.451Z