The Riemannian and symplectic geometry of the space of generalized K\"ahler structures

TL;DR

This paper develops a geometric framework for generalized K"ahler structures on complex manifolds, extending classical results and introducing new tools like a Riemannian metric and energy functionals, with applications to existence and uniqueness problems.

Contribution

It generalizes the Calabi program to GK geometry, introduces a Riemannian metric with nonpositive curvature, and establishes conditions for existence and uniqueness of constant scalar curvature GK structures.

Findings

Generalized Futaki--Mabuchi extremal vector field defined

Mabuchi energy shown to be convex along geodesics

Uniqueness of extremal GK structures in the toric case

Abstract

On a compact complex manifold $(M, J)$ endowed with a holomorphic Poisson tensor $\pi_J$ and a deRham class $\alpha\in H^2(M, \mathbb R)$, we study the space of generalized K\"ahler (GK) structures defined by a symplectic form $F\in \alpha$ and whose holomorphic Poisson tensor is $\pi_J$. We define a notion of generalized K\"ahler class of such structures, and use the moment map framework of Boulanger and Goto to extend the Calabi program to GK geometry. We obtain generalizations of the Futaki--Mabuchi extremal vector field and Calabi--Lichnerowicz--Matsushima result for the Lie algebra of the group of automorphisms of $(M, J, \pi_J)$. We define a closed $1$-form on a GK class, which yields a generalization of the Mabuchi energy and thus a variational characterization of GK structures of constant scalar curvature. Next we introduce a formal Riemannian metric on a given GK class, generalizing the fundamental construction of Mabuchi--Semmes--Donaldson. We show that this metric has nonpositive sectional curvature, and that the Mabuchi energy is convex along geodesics, leading to a conditional uniqueness result for constant scalar curvature GK structures. We finally examine the toric case, proving the uniqueness of extremal generalized K\"ahler structures and showing that their existence is obstructed by the uniform relative K-stability of the corresponding Delzant polytope. Using the resolution of the Yau--Tian--Donaldson conjecture in the toric case by Chen--Cheng and He, we show in some settings that this condition suffices for existence and thus construct new examples.