Geometric quantities of manifolds with Grassmann structure

Abstract

We study geometry of manifolds endowed with a Grassmann structure which depends on symmetries of their curvature. Due to this reason a complete decomposition of the space of curvature tensors over tensor product vector spaces into simple modules under the action of the group $G = GL(p, \R) \otimes GL(q, \R)$ is given. The dimensions of the simple submodules, the highest weights and some projections are determined. New torsion-free connections on Grassmann manifolds apart from previously known examples are given. We use algebraic results to reveal obstructions to the existence of corresponding connections compatible with some type of normalizations and to enlighten previously known results from another point of view.