Contact metric three manifolds and Lorentzian geometry with torsion in six-dimensional supergravity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of contact metric three-manifolds with null Reeb vector fields and uses them to systematically construct and classify solutions of six-dimensional supergravity with torsion.

Contribution

It defines $ ext{ extepsilon} ext{ exteta}$-Einstein $ ext{ extepsilon}$-contact metric structures and links them to supergravity solutions, extending classical notions to null Reeb vector fields.

Findings

Classified all left-invariant $ ext{ extepsilon} ext{ exteta}$-Einstein structures on Lie groups.

Constructed bi-parametric families of Ricci-flat Lorentzian connections with torsion.

Generated new supergravity solutions, including deformations of known maximally supersymmetric backgrounds.

Abstract

We introduce the notion of $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold, which includes as particular cases $\eta\,$-Einstein Riemannian and Lorentzian (para) contact metric three-manifolds, but which in addition allows for the Reeb vector field to be null. We prove that the product of an $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein Lorentzian $\varepsilon\,$-contact metric three-manifold with an $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein Riemannian contact metric three-manifold carries a bi-parametric family of Ricci-flat Lorentzian metric-compatible connections with isotropic, totally skew-symmetric, closed and co-closed torsion, which in turn yields a bi-parametric family of solutions of six-dimensional minimal supergravity coupled to a tensor multiplet. This result allows for the systematic construction of families of Lorentzian solutions of six-dimensional supergravity from pairs of $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein contact metric three-manifolds. We classify all left-invariant $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein structures on simply connected Lie groups, paying special attention to the case in which the Reeb vector field is null. In particular, we show that the Sasaki and K-contact notions extend to $\varepsilon\,$-contact structures with null Reeb vector field but are however not equivalent conditions, in contrast to the situation occurring when the Reeb vector field is not light-like. Furthermore, we pose the Cauchy initial-value problem of an $\varepsilon\,$-contact $\varepsilon\eta\,$-Einstein structure, briefly studying the associated constraint equations in a particularly simple decoupling limit. Altogether, we use these results to obtain novel families of six-dimensional supergravity solutions, some of which can be interpreted as continuous deformations of the maximally supersymmetric solution on $\widetilde{\mathrm{Sl}}(2,\mathbb{R})\times S^3$.