Twistor Theory For Riemannian Symmetric Spaces

In this monograph on twistor theory and its applications to harmonic map theory, a central theme is the interplay between the complex homogeneous geometry of flag manifolds and the real homogeneous geometry of symmetric spaces. In particular, flag manifolds are shown to arise as twistor spaces of Riemannian symmetric spaces. Applications of this theory include a complete classification of stable harmonic 2-spheres in Riemannian symmetric spaces and a Bäcklund transform for harmonic 2-spheres in Lie groups which, in many cases, provides a factorisation theorem for such spheres as well as gap phenomena. The main methods used are those of homogeneous geometry and Lie theory together with some algebraic geometry of Riemann surfaces. The work addresses differential geometers, especially those with interests in minimal surfaces and homogeneous manifolds.

This 1990 collection of review articles covers the considerable progress made in a wide range of applications of twistor theory.

Twistor theory is the remarkable mathematical framework that was discovered by Roger Penrose in the course of research into gravitation and quantum theory. It have since developed into a broad, many-faceted programme that attempts to resolve basic problems in physics by encoding the structure of physical fields and indeed space-time itself into the complex analytic geometry of twistor space. Twistor theory has important applications in diverse areas of mathematics and mathematical physics. These include powerful techniques for the solution of nonlinear equations, in particular the self-duality equations both for the Yang-Mills and the Einstein equations, new approaches to the representation theory of Lie groups, and the quasi-local definition of mass in general relativity, to name but a few. This volume and its companions comprise an abundance of new material, including an extensive collection of Twistor Newsletter articles written over a period of 15 years. These trace the development of the twistor programme and its applications over that period and offer an overview on the current status of various aspects of that programme. The articles have been written in an informal and easy-to-read style and have been arranged by the editors into chapter supplemented by detailed introductions, making each volume self-contained and accessible to graduate students and non-specialists from other fields. Volume II explores applications of flat twistor space to nonlinear problems. It contains articles on integrable or soluble nonlinear equations, conformal differential geometry, various aspects of general relativity, and the development of Penrose's quasi-local mass construction.

* Presents extensive surveys by van den Ban, Schlichtkrull, and Delorme of the recent progress in deriving the Plancherel theorem on reductive symmetric spaces * Well suited for both graduate students and researchers in semisimple Lie theory and neighboring fields, possibly even mathematical cosmology * Knowledge of basic representation theory of Lie groups as well as familiarity with semisimple Lie groups, symmetric spaces, and parabolic subgroups is required

From the reviews: "... focused mainly on complex differential geometry and holomorphic bundle theory. This is a powerful book, written by a very distinguished contributor to the field" (Contemporary Physics )"the book provides a large amount of background for current research across a spectrum of field. ... requires effort to read but it is worthwhile and rewarding" (New Zealand Math. Soc. Newsletter) " The contents are highly technical and the pace of the exposition is quite fast. Manin is an outstanding mathematician, and writer as well, perfectly at ease in the most abstract and complex situation. With such a guide the reader will be generously rewarded!" (Physicalia) This new edition includes an Appendix on developments of the last 10 years, by S. Merkulov.

"Twistor theory is the remarkable mathematicl framework that was discovered by Roger Penrose in the course of research into gravitation and quantum theory. It has since developed into a broad many-faceted programme that attempts to resolve basic problems in physics by encoding the the structure of physical fields and indeed space-time itself into the complex analytical geometry of twistor space."--BOOK JACKET.

In this paper, the author studies all the elliptic integrable systems, in the sense of C, that is to say, the family of all the $m$-th elliptic integrable systems associated to a $k^\prime$-symmetric space $N=G/G_0$. The author describes the geometry behind this family of integrable systems for which we know how to construct (at least locally) all the solutions. The introduction gives an overview of all the main results, as well as some related subjects and works, and some additional motivations.