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Karin Melnick

Publications and source records attributed to Karin Melnick.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

A local Lorentzian Ferrand-Obata theorem for conformal vector fields

For a conformal vector field on a closed, real-analytic, Lorentzian manifold we prove that the flow is locally isometric -- that it preserves a metric in the conformal class on a neighborhood of any point -- or the metric is everywhere conformally flat. The main theorem can be viewed as a local version of the Lorentzian Lichnerowicz conjecture in the real-analytic setting. The key result is an optimal improvement of the local normal forms for conformal vector fields of [FM13], which focused on non-linearizable singularities. This article is primarily concerned with essential linearizable singularities, and the proofs include global arguments which rely on the compactness assumption.

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arXiv2025

An Embedding Theorem for Tractor Bundles, and an Application in Conformal Pseudo-Riemannian Geometry

We provide an extension of the Gromov-Zimmer embedding theorem for Cartan geometries of [Bader U., Frances C., Melnick K., Geom. Funct. Anal. 19 (2009), 333-355, arXiv:0709.3844] to tractor bundles carrying any invariant connection, including tractor connections and prolongation connections of first BGG operators for parabolic geometries. As an application, we prove a rigidity result for conformal actions of special pseudo-unitary groups on closed, simply connected, analytic pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.

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arXiv2024

Classification of closed conformally flat Lorentzian manifolds with unipotent holonomy

We classify closed, conformally flat Lorentzian manifolds of dimension $n \geq 3$ with unipotent holonomy in PO(2,n). They are all Kleinian and fall into four different geometric types according to the intersection of the image of the developing map with a holonomy-invariant isotropic flag. They are homeomorphic to $S^{n-1} \times S^1$ or a nilmanifold of degree at most three, up to a finite cover. We classify those admitting an essential conformal flow; these fall into two geometric types, both homeomorphic to $S^{n-1} \times S^1$ up to finite cover.

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arXiv2022

Smooth and analytic actions of $SL(n,{\bf R})$ and $SL(n,{\bf Z})$ on closed $n$-dimensional manifolds

The main result is a classification of smooth actions of $SL(n,{\bf R})$, $n \geq 3$, or connected groups locally isomorphic to it, on closed $n$-manifolds, extending a theorem of Uchida. We construct new exotic actions of $SL(n,{\bf Z})$ on the $n$-torus and connected sums of $n$-tori, and we formulate a conjectural classification of actions of lattices in $SL(n,{\bf R})$ on closed $n$-manifolds. We prove some results about invariant rigid geometric structures for $SL(n,{\bf R})$-actions.

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arXiv2021

The conformal group of a compact simply connected Lorentzian manifold

We prove that the conformal group of a closed, simply connected, real analytic Lorentzian manifold is compact. D'Ambra proved in 1988 that the isometry group of such a manifold is compact. Our result implies the Lorentzian Lichnerowicz Conjecture for real analytic Lorentzian manifolds with finite fundamental group. Third version includes corrections and clarifications, particularly in section 6.

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arXiv2020

Rigidity of transformation groups in differential geometry

In this survey, symmetry provides a framework for classification of manifolds with differential-geometric structures. We highlight pseudo-Riemannian metrics, conformal structures, and projective structures. A range of techniques have been developed and successfully deployed in this subject, some of them based on algebra and dynamics and some based on analysis. We aim to illustrate this variety.

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arXiv2019

C^1 Deformations of almost-Grassmannian structures with strongly essential symmetry

We construct a family of $(2,n)$-almost Grassmannian structures of regularity $C^1$, each admitting a one-parameter group of strongly essential automorphisms, and each not flat on any neighborhood of the higher-order fixed point. This shows that Theorem 1.3 of [9] does not hold assuming only $C^1$ regularity of the structure (see also [2, Prop 3.5]).

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arXiv2017

Nonstationary smooth geometric structures for contracting measurable cocycles

We implement a differential-geometric approach to normal forms for contracting measurable cocycles to $\mbox{Diff}^q({\bf R}^n, {\bf 0})$, $q \geq 2$. We obtain resonance polynomial normal forms for the contracting cocycle and its centralizer, via $C^q$ changes of coordinates. These are interpreted as nonstationary invariant differential-geometric structures. We also consider the case of contracted foliations in a manifold, and obtain $C^q$ homogeneous structures on leaves for an action of the group of subresonance polynomial diffeomorphisms together with translations.

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arXiv2015

Strongly essential flows on irreducible parabolic geometries

We study the local geometry of irreducible parabolic geometries admitting strongly essential flows; these are flows by local automorphisms with higher-order fixed points. We prove several new rigidity results, and recover some old ones for projective and conformal structures, which show that in many cases the existence of a strongly essential flow implies local flatness of the geometry on an open set having the fixed point in its closure. For almost c-projective and almost quaternionic structures we can moreover show flatness of the geometry on a neighborhood of the fixed point.

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arXiv2015

Quasihomogeneous three-dimensional real analytic Lorentz metrics do not exist

We show that a germ of a real analytic Lorentz metric on ${\bf R}^3$ which is locally homogeneous on an open set containing the origin in its closure is necessarily locally homogeneous. We classifiy Lie algebras that can act quasihomogeneously---meaning they act transitively on an open set admitting the origin in its closure, but not at the origin---and isometrically for such a metric. In the case that the isotropy at the origin of a quasihomogeneous action is semisimple, we provide a complete set of normal forms of the metric and the action.

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arXiv2014

Essential Killing fields of parabolic geometries

We study vector fields generating a local flow by automorphisms of a parabolic geometry with higher order fixed points. We develop general tools extending the techniques of [1], [2], and [3]. We apply these tools to almost Grassmannian, almost quaternionic, and contact parabolic geometries, including CR structures, to obtain descriptions of the possible dynamics of such flows near the fixed point and strong restrictions on the curvature. In some cases, we can show vanishing of the curvature on a nonempty open set. Deriving consequences for a specific geometry entails evaluating purely algebraic and representation-theoretic criteria in the model homogeneous space. Published in Indiana University Mathematics Journal.

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arXiv2012

Formes normales pour les champs conformes pseudo-riemanniens

We establish normal forms for conformal vector fields on pseudo-Riemannian manifolds in the neighborhood of a singularity. For real-analytic Lorentzian manifolds, we show that the vector field is analytically linearizable or the manifold is conformally flat. In either case, the vector field is locally conjugate to a normal form on a model space. For smooth metrics of general signature, we obtain the analogous result under the additional assumption that the differential of the flow at the fixed point is bounded.

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arXiv2010

Conformal actions of nilpotent groups on pseudo-Riemannian manifolds

We study conformal actions of connected nilpotent Lie groups on compact pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. We prove that if a type-(p,q) compact manifold M supports a conformal action of a connected nilpotent group H, then the degree of nilpotence of H is at most 2p+1, assuming p <= q; further, if this maximal degree is attained, then M is conformally equivalent to the universal type-(p,q), compact, conformally flat space, up to finite covers. The proofs make use of the canonical Cartan geometry associated to a pseudo-Riemannian conformal structure.

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arXiv2008

A Frobenius theorem for Cartan geometries, with applications

We prove analogues for Cartan geometries of Gromov's major theorems on automorphisms of rigid geometric structures. The starting point is a Frobenius theorem, which says that infinitesimal automorphisms of sufficiently high order integrate to local automorphisms. Consequences include a stratification theorem describing the configuration of orbits for local Killing fields in a compact real-analytic Cartan geometry, and an open-dense theorem in the smooth case, which says that if there is a dense orbit, then there is an open, dense, locally homogeneus subset. Combining the Frobenius theorem with the embedding theorem of Bader, Frances, and the author gives a representation theorem that relates the fundamental group of the manifold with the automorphism group.

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arXiv2007

An embedding theorem for automorphism groups of Cartan geometries

We prove a theorem relating the automorphism group of a Cartan geometry to the group on which the geometry is modeled: a component of the adjoint representation of the first embeds in the adjoint representation of the second. Consequences of the theorem include general bounds on the rank and nilpotence degree of an automorphism group; a result asserting local homogeneity and completeness of parabolic geometries admitting a maximal-rank group of automorphisms; and a local freeness theorem for actions additionally preserving a continuous volume form.

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arXiv2007

A primer on the (2+1) Einstein universe

The Einstein universe is the conformal compactification of Minkowski space. It also arises as the ideal boundary of anti-de Sitter space. The purpose of this article is to develop the synthetic geometry of the Einstein universe in terms of its homogeneous submanifolds and causal structure, with particular emphasis on dimension $2 + 1$, in which there is a rich interplay with symplectic geometry.

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