arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Olivier Biquard.
We give a simple and uniform construction of essentially all known deformation classes of gravitational instantons with ALF, ALG or ALH asymptotics and nonzero injectivity radius. We also construct new ALH Ricci flat metrics asymptotic to the product of a real line with a flat 3-manifold.
We prove local polyhomogeneity of asymptotically real or complex hyperbolic Einstein metrics, with application to unique continuation problems.
We prove the unique continuation property at the conformal infinity for asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein metrics.
We give a new construction of Einstein and Kaehler-Einstein manifolds which are asymptotically complex hyperbolic, inspired by the work of Mazzeo-Pacard in the real hyperbolic case. The idea is to develop a gluing theorem for 1-handle surgery at infinity, which generalizes the Klein construction for the complex hyperbolic metric.
We consider the Einstein deformations of the reducible rank two symmetric spaces of noncompact type. If $M$ is the product of any two real, complex, quaternionic or octonionic hyperbolic spaces, we prove that the family of nearby Einstein metrics is parametrized by certain new geometric structures on the Furstenberg boundary of $M$.
We prove that any real analytic strictly pseudoconvex CR 3-manifold is the boundary (at infinity) of a unique selfdual Einstein metric defined in a neighborhood. The proof uses a new construction of twistor space based on singular rational curves.
We relate a recently introduced non-local geometric invariant of compact strictly pseudoconvex Cauchy-Riemann (CR) manifolds of dimension 3 to various eta-invariants in CR geometry: on the one hand a renormalized eta-invariant appearing when considering a sequence of metrics converging to the CR structure by expanding the size of the Reeb field; on the other hand the eta-invariant of the middle degree operator of the contact complex. We then provide explicit computations for a class of examples: transverse circle invariant CR structures on Seifert manifolds. Applications are given to the problem of filling a CR manifold by a complex hyperbolic manifold, and more generally by a Kahler-Einstein or an Einstein metric.
We compute a recently introduced geometric invariant of stricly pseudoconvex CR 3-manifolds for certain circle invariant spherical CR structures on Seifert manifolds. We give applications to the problem of filling the CR manifold by a complex hyperbolic manifold, and more generally by a Kaehler-Einstein or an Einstein metric.
Any strictly pseudoconvex domain in C2 carries a complete Kahler-Einstein metric, the Cheng-Yau metric, with ``conformal infinity'' the CR structure of the boundary. It is well known that not all CR structures on the 3-sphere arise in this way. In this paper, we study CR structures on the 3-sphere satisfying a different filling condition: boundaries at infinity of (complete) selfdual Einstein metrics. We prove that (modulo contactomorphisms) they form an infinite dimensional manifold, transverse to the space of CR structures which are boundaries of complex domains (and therefore of Kahler-Einstein metrics).
We define a renormalized characteristic class for Einstein asymptotically complex hyperbolic (ACHE) manifolds of dimension 4: for any such manifold, the polynomial in the curvature associated to the characteristic class euler-3signature is shown to converge. This extends a work of Burns and Epstein in the Kahler-Einstein case. This extends a work of Burns and Epstein in the Kahler-Einstein case. We also define a new global invariant for any 3-dimensional pseudoconvex CR manifold, by a renormalization procedure of the eta invariant of a sequence of metrics which approximate the CR structure. Finally, we get a formula relating the renormalized characteristic class to the topological number euler-3signature and the invariant of the CR structure arising at infinity.
On a complex curve, we establish a correspondence between integrable connections with irregular singularities, and Higgs bundles such that the Higgs field is meromorphic with poles of any order. The moduli spaces of these objects are obtained by fixing at each singularity the polar part of the connection. We prove that they carry hyperKahler metrics, which are complete when the residue of the connection if semisimple.
For certain real hypersurfaces in the projective space, of signature (1,n), we study the filling problem for small deformations of the CR structure (the other signatures being well understood). We characterize the deformations which are fillable, and prove that they have infinite codimension in the set of all CR structures. This result generalizes the cases of the 3-sphere and of signature (1,1) to higher dimension.
A conformal metric on a 4-ball induces on the boundary 3-sphere a conformal metric and a trace-free second fundamental form. Conversely, such a data on the 3-sphere is the boundary of a unique selfdual conformal metric, defined in a neighborhood of the sphere. In this paper we characterize the conformal metrics and trace-free second fundamental forms on the 3-sphere (close to the standard round metric) which are boundaries of selfdual conformal metrics on the whole 4-ball. When the data on the boundary is reduced to a conformal metric (the trace-free part of the second fundamental form vanishes), one may hope to find in the conformal class of the filling metric an Einstein metric, with a pole of order 2 on the boundary. We determine which conformal metrics on the 3-sphere are boundaries of such selfdual Einstein metrics on the 4-ball. In particular, this implies the Positive Frequency Conjecture of LeBrun. The proof uses twistor theory, which enables to translate the problem in terms of complex analysis; this leads us to prove a criterion for certain integrable CR structures of signature (1,1) to be fillable by a complex domain. Finally, we solve an analogous, higher dimensional problem: selfdual Einstein metrics are replaced by quaternionic-Kahler metrics, and conformal structures on the boundary by quaternionic contact structures (previously introduced by the author); in contrast with the 4-dimensional case, we prove that any small deformation of the standard quaternionic contact structure on the (4m-1)-sphere is the boundary of a quaternionic-Kahler metric on the 4m-ball.
We study doubly-periodic instantons, i.e. instantons on the product of a 1-dimensional complex torus T with a complex line C, with quadratic curvature decay. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of these instantons, constructing new asymptotic invariants. We show that the underlying holomorphic bundle extends to TxP1. The converse statement is also true, namely a holomorphic bundle on TxP1 which is flat on the torus at infinity, and satisfies a stability condition, comes from a doubly-periodic instanton. Finally, we study the hyperkahler geometry of the moduli space of doubly-periodic instantons, and prove that the Nahm transform previously defined by the second author is a hyperkahler isometry with the moduli space of certain meromorphic Higgs bundles on the dual torus.