In mathematics, a nilmanifold is a differentiable manifold which has a transitive nilpotent group of diffeomorphisms acting on it. As such, a nilmanifold is an example of a homogeneous space and is diffeomorphic to the quotient space ${\displaystyle N/H}$, the quotient of a nilpotent Lie group N modulo a closed subgroup H. This notion was introduced by Anatoly Mal'cev in 1949.

In the Riemannian category, there is also a good notion of a nilmanifold. A Riemannian manifold is called a homogeneous nilmanifold if there exist a nilpotent group of isometries acting transitively on it. The requirement that the transitive nilpotent group acts by isometries leads to the following rigid characterization: every homogeneous nilmanifold is isometric to a nilpotent Lie group with left-invariant metric (see Wilson).

Nilmanifolds are important geometric objects and often arise as concrete examples with interesting properties; in Riemannian geometry these spaces always have mixed curvature, almost flat spaces arise as quotients of nilmanifolds, and compact nilmanifolds have been used to construct elementary examples of collapse of Riemannian metrics under the Ricci flow.

In addition to their role in geometry, nilmanifolds are increasingly being seen as having a role in arithmetic combinatorics (see Green–Tao) and ergodic theory (see, e.g., Host–Kra).

A compact nilmanifold is a nilmanifold which is compact. One way to construct such spaces is to start with a simply connected nilpotent Lie group N and a discrete subgroup ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$. If the subgroup ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$ acts cocompactly (via right multiplication) on N, then the quotient manifold ${\displaystyle N/\Gamma }$ will be a compact nilmanifold. As Mal'cev has shown, every compact nilmanifold is obtained this way.

Such a subgroup ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$ as above is called a lattice in N. It is well known that a nilpotent Lie group admits a lattice if and only if its Lie algebra admits a basis with rational structure constants: this is Mal'cev's criterion. Not all nilpotent Lie groups admit lattices; for more details, see also M. S. Raghunathan.

A compact Riemannian nilmanifold is a compact Riemannian manifold which is locally isometric to a nilpotent Lie group with left-invariant metric. These spaces are constructed as follows. Let ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$ be a lattice in a simply connected nilpotent Lie group N, as above. Endow N with a left-invariant (Riemannian) metric. Then the subgroup ${\displaystyle \Gamma }$ acts by isometries on N via left-multiplication. Thus the quotient ${\displaystyle \Gamma \backslash N}$ is a compact space locally isometric to N. Note: this space is naturally diffeomorphic to ${\displaystyle N/\Gamma }$.

Compact nilmanifolds also arise as principal bundles. For example, consider a 2-step nilpotent Lie group N which admits a lattice (see above). Let ${\displaystyle Z=[N,N]}$ be the commutator subgroup of N. Denote by p the dimension of Z and by q the codimension of Z; i.e. the dimension of N is p+q. It is known (see Raghunathan) that ${\displaystyle Z\cap \Gamma }$ is a lattice in Z. Hence, ${\displaystyle G=Z/(Z\cap \Gamma )}$ is a p-dimensional compact torus. Since Z is central in N, the group G acts on the compact nilmanifold ${\displaystyle P=N/\Gamma }$ with quotient space ${\displaystyle M=P/G}$. This base manifold M is a q-dimensional compact torus. It has been shown that every principal torus bundle over a torus is of this form, see. More generally, a compact nilmanifold is a torus bundle, over a torus bundle, over...over a torus.