Invariant local twistor calculus for quaternionic structures and related geometries

New universal invariant operators are introduced in a class of geometries which include the quaternionic structures and their generalizations as well as four-dimensional conformal (spin) geometries. It is shown that, in a broad sense, all invariants and invariant operators arise from these universal operators and that they may be used to reduce all invariants problems to corresponding algebraic problems involving homomorphisms between modules of certain parabolic subgroups of Lie groups. Explicit application of the operators is illustrated by the construction of all non-standard operators between exterior forms on a large class of the geometries which includes the quaternionic structures. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All right reserved.