Curved Witten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde equation and ${\cal N}{=}\,4$ mechanics

Abstract

We propose a generalization of the Witten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde (WDVV) equation from ${\mathbb R}^n$ to an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. Its form is obtained by extending the relation of the WDVV equation with ${\cal N}{=}\,4$ supersymmetric $n$-dimensional mechanics from flat to curved space. The resulting `curved WDVV equation' is written in terms of a third-rank Codazzi tensor. For every flat-space WDVV solution subject to a simple constraint we provide a curved-space solution on any isotropic space, in terms of the rotationally invariant conformal factor of the metric.