The map between conformal hypercomplex/hyper-Kaehler and quaternionic(-Kaehler) geometry

Abstract

We review the general properties of target spaces of hypermultiplets, which are quaternionic-like manifolds, and discuss the relations between these manifolds and their symmetry generators. We explicitly construct a one-to-one map between conformal hypercomplex manifolds (i.e. those that have a closed homothetic Killing vector) and quaternionic manifolds of one quaternionic dimension less. An important role is played by 'ξ-transformations', relating complex structures on conformal hypercomplex manifolds and connections on quaternionic manifolds. In this map, the subclass of conformal hyper-Kaehler manifolds is mapped to quaternionic-Kaehler manifolds. We relate the curvatures of the corresponding manifolds and furthermore map the symmetries of these manifolds to each other.

54 pages, 2 figures; v2: small corrections, version to be published in CMP; v3: changes of statement on (3.5)