Ricci-flat manifold

In mathematics, Ricci-flat manifolds[1][2] are Riemannian manifolds whose Ricci curvature vanishes. Ricci-flat manifolds are special cases of Einstein manifolds, where the cosmological constant need not vanish.

Since Ricci curvature measures the amount by which the volume of a small geodesic ball deviates from the volume of a ball in Euclidean space, small geodesic balls will have no volume deviation, but their "shape" may vary from the shape of the standard ball in Euclidean space. For example, in a Ricci-flat manifold, a circle in Euclidean space may be deformed into an ellipse with equal area. This is due to Weyl curvature.

Ricci-flat manifolds often have restricted holonomy groups. Important cases include Calabi–Yau manifolds and hyperkähler manifolds.

Applications

In physics, Ricci-flat manifolds represent vacuum solutions to the analogues of Einstein's equations for Riemannian manifolds of any dimension, with vanishing cosmological constant.

Further reading

See also

References

  1. Dictionary of Distances By Michel-Marie Deza, Elena Deza. Elsevier, Nov 16, 2006. Pg 87
  2. Arthur E. Fischer and Joseph A. Wolf, The structure of compact Ricci-flat Riemannian manifolds. J. Differential Geom. Volume 10, Number 2 (1975), 277-288.


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