The Calabi metric for the space of Kähler metrics

Abstract

Given any closed Kähler manifold we define, following an idea by Calabi (Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 60:167–168, 1954), a Riemannian metric on the space of Kähler metrics regarded as an infinite dimensional manifold. We prove several geometrical features of the resulting space, some of which we think were already known to Calabi. In particular, the space is a portion of an infinite dimensional sphere and explicit unique smooth solutions for the Cauchy and the Dirichlet problems for the geodesic equation are given.