On M-theory fourfold vacua with higher curvature terms

We study solutions to the eleven-dimensional supergravity action, including terms quartic and cubic in the Riemann curvature, that admit an eight-dimensional compact space. The internal background is found to be a conformally Kahler manifold with vanishing first Chern class. The metric solution, however, is non-Ricci-flat even when allowing for a conformal rescaling including the warp factor. This deviation is due to the possible non-harmonicity of the third Chern-form in the leading order Ricci-flat metric. We present a systematic derivation of the background solution by solving the Killing spinor conditions including higher curvature terms. These are translated into first-order differential equations for a globally defined real two-form and complex four-form on the fourfold. We comment on the supersymmetry properties of the described solutions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.