[Math] Manifolds admitting flat connections

connectionsdg.differential-geometryriemannian-geometry

For each Riemannian manifold one can construct the Levi-Civita connection. While this connection is unique, we can call a (Riemannian) manifold flat if the Levi-Civita connection is flat. However when one tries to think about flatness in terms of pure manifolds (not manifolds plus metric tensor/connection) the natural questions arises:
Question 1 Are there manifolds $M$ with the property that each connection on $M$ is never flat?
Question 2 Is it possible to find a manifold $M$ with the following property: for each Riemannian metric tensor $g$ the corresponding Levi Civita connection is not flat but still there are flat torsion-free connections on $M$?
Question 3 Is it possible to find a manifold $M$ with the following property: each torsion free connection cannot be flat but still there are some flat connections on $M$?

Best Answer

For question 1 : if a vector bundle admits a flat connection, it comes from a representation of the fundamental group. Thus if $TM$ admits a flat connection and $M$ is simply-connected, $TM$ is trivial. Hence any simply-connected $M$ with $TM$ nontrivial gives an example, for instance $M=\mathbb{S}^2$.

Related Question