Special Geometry, Hessian Structures and Applications

Abstract

The target space geometry of abelian vector multiplets in $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories in four and five space-time dimensions is called special geometry. It can be elegantly formulated in terms of Hessian geometry. In this review, we introduce Hessian geometry, focussing on aspects that are relevant for the special geometries of four- and five-dimensional vector multiplets. We formulate $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories in terms of Hessian structures and give various concrete applications of Hessian geometry, ranging from static BPS black holes in four and five space-time dimensions to topological string theory, emphasizing the role of the Hesse potential. We also discuss the r-map and c-map which relate the special geometries of vector multiplets to each other and to hypermultiplet geometries. By including time-like dimensional reductions, we obtain theories in Euclidean signature, where the scalar target spaces carry para-complex versions of special geometry.

Invited review article, prepared for submission to Phys. Rept., 196 p. plus appendices and reference (87 p.). v2: references added. v3: minor changes. Discussion of centroaffine hypersurfaces added, references added. v4: typos corrected; final version

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• $R^2$ corrected AdS${}_2$ holography
• The geometry and DSZ quantization of four-dimensional supergravity
• Gravitational Blocks: Symplectic Covariance Unveiled
• Observations on holographic aspects of four-dimensional asymptotically flat $\mathcal{N}=2$ black holes
• Type-II Calabi-Yau compactifications, T-duality and special geometry in general spacetime signature
• Conelike radiant structures
• Supersymmetry algebras in arbitrary signature and their R-symmetry groups