Torsion of SU(2)-structures and Ricci curvature in dimension 5

Abstract

Following the approach of Bryant [R. Bryant, Some remarks on G 2-structures, in: S. Akbulut, T. Önder, R.J. Stern (Eds.), Proceeding of Gökova Geometry-Topology Conference 2005, International Press, 2006], we study the intrinsic torsion of an SU(2)-structure on a 5-dimensional manifold deriving an explicit expression for the Ricci and the scalar curvature in terms of torsion forms and its derivative. As a consequence of this formula we prove that the α-Einstein condition forces some special SU(2)-structures to be Sasaki–Einstein.