Almost contact structures on manifolds with a G₂​ structure

Authors: Xenia de la Ossa, Magdalena Larfors, Matthew Magill

Preprint number: UUITP-06/21

Abstract: We review the construction of almost contact metric (three-) structures on manifolds with a G₂​ structure. These are of interest for certain supersymmetric configurations in string and M-theory. We compute the torsion of the SU(3) structure associated to an ACMS and apply these computations to heterotic G₂​ systems and supersymmetry enhancement. We initiate the study of the space of ACM3Ss, which is an infinite dimensional space with a local product structure and interesting topological features. Tantalising links between ACM3Ss and associative and coassociative submanifolds are observed.