Generalised G2-manifolds

We define new Riemannian structures on 7-manifolds by a differential form of mixed degree which is the critical point of a (possibly constrained) variational problem over a fixed cohomology class. The unconstrained critical points generalise the notion of a manifold of holonomy G (2), while the constrained ones give rise to a new geometry without a classical counterpart. We characterise these structures by means of spinors and show the integrability conditions to be equivalent to the supersymmetry equations on spinors in type II supergravity theory with bosonic background fields. In particular, this geometry can be described by two linear metric connections with skew-symmetric torsion. Finally, we construct explicit examples by introducing the device of T-duality.