We consider the natural generalization of the parabolic Monge-Amp`ere equation to HKT geometry. We prove that in the compact case the equation has always a short-time solution and when the hypercomplex manifold is locally flat and admits a hyperkahler metric, then the equation has a long-time solution whose normalization converges to a solution of the quaternionic Monge-Amp`ere equation introduced by Alesker and Verbitsky. The result gives an alternative proof of a theorem of Alesker.
We formulate a Calabi-Yau type conjecture in generalized Kahler geometry, focusing on the case of nondegenerate Poisson structure. After defining natural Hamiltonian deformation spaces for generalized Kahler structures generalizing the notion of Kahler class, we conjecture unique solvability of Gualtieris Calabi-Yau equation within this class. We establish the uniqueness, and moreover show that all such solutions are actually hyper-Kahler metrics. We furthermore establish a GIT framework for this problem, interpreting solutions of this equation as zeros of a moment map associated to a Hamiltonian action and finding a Kempf-Ness functional. Lastly we indicate the naturality of generalized Kahler-Ricci flow in this setting, showing that it evolves within the given Hamiltonian deformation class, and that the Kempf-Ness functional is monotone, so that the only possible fixed points for the flow are hyper-Kahler metrics. On a hyper-Kahler background, we establish global existence and weak convergence of the flow.
Hermitian, pluriclosed metrics with vanishing Bismut-Ricci form give a natural extension of Calabi-Yau metrics to the setting of complex, non-Kahler manifolds, and arise independently in mathematical physics. We reinterpret this condition in terms of the Hermitian-Einstein equation on an associated holomorphic Courant algebroid, and thus refer to solutions as Bismut Hermitian-Einstein. This implies Mumford-Takemoto slope stability obstructions, and using these we exhibit infinitely many topologically distinct complex manifolds in every dimension with vanishing first Chern class which do not admit Bismut Hermitian-Einstein metrics. This reformulation also leads to a new description of pluriclosed flow in terms of Hermitian metrics on holomorphic Courant algebroids, implying new global existence results, in particular on all complex non-Kahler surfaces of nonnegative Kodaira dimension. On complex manifolds which admit Bismut-flat metrics we show global existence and convergence of pluriclosed flow to a Bismut-flat metric, which in turn gives a classification of generalized Kahler structures on these spaces.
We show how the smooth geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds emerges from the thermodynamic limit of the statistical mechanical model of crystal melting defined in our previous paper arXiv:0811.2801. In particular, the thermodynamic partition function of molten crystals is shown to be equal to the classical limit of the partition function of the topological string theory by relating the Ronkin function of the characteristic polynomial of the crystal melting model to the holomorphic 3-form on the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifold.
A quaternionic version of the Calabi problem on Monge-Ampere equation is introduced. It is a quaternionic Monge-Ampere equation on a compact hypercomplex manifold with an HKT-metric. The equation is non-linear elliptic of second order. For a hypercomplex manifold with holonomy in SL(n;H), uniqueness (up to a constant) of a solution is proven, as well as the zero order a priori estimate. The existence of solution is conjectured, similar to Calabi-Yau theorem. We reformulate this quaternionic equation as a special case of a complex Hessian equation, making sense on any complex manifold.
Gromov-Witten theory is used to define an enumerative geometry of curves in Calabi-Yau 5-folds. We find recursions for meeting numbers of genus 0 curves, and we determine the contributions of moving multiple covers of genus 0 curves to the genus 1 Gromov-Witten invariants. The resulting invariants, conjectured to be integral, are analogous to the previously defined BPS counts for Calabi-Yau 3 and 4-folds. We comment on the situation in higher dimensions where new issues arise. Two main examples are considered: the local Calabi-Yau P^2 with balanced normal bundle 3O(-1) and the compact Calabi-Yau hypersurface X_7 in P^6. In the former case, a closed form for our integer invariants has been conjectured by G. Martin. In the latter case, we recover in low degrees the classical enumeration of elliptic curves by Ellingsrud and Stromme.