Hyper-Kahler Calabi Metrics, L^2 Harmonic Forms, Resolved M2-branes, and AdS_4/CFT_3 Correspondence

We obtain a simple explicit expression for the hyper-Kahler Calabi metric on the co-tangent bundle of CP^{n+1}, for all n, in which it is constructed as a metric of cohomogeneity one with SU(n+2)/U(n) principal orbits. These results enable us to obtain explicit expressions for an L^2-normalisable harmonic 4-form in D=8, and an L^2-normalisable harmonic 6-form in D=12. We use the former in order to obtain an explicit resolved M2-brane solution, and we show that this solution is invariant under all three of the supersymmetries associated with the covariantly-constant spinors in the 8-dimensional Calabi metric. We give some discussion of the corresponding dual N=3 three-dimensional field theory. Various other topics are also addressed, including superpotentials for the Calabi metrics and the metrics of exceptional G_2 and Spin(7) holonomy in D=7 and D=8. We also present complex and quaternionic conifold constructions, associated with the cone metrics whose resolutions are provided by the Stenzel T^S^{n+1} and Calabi T^\CP^{n+1} metrics. In the latter case we relate the construction to the hyper-Kahler quotient. We then use the hyper-K"ahler quotient to give a quaternionic rederivation of the Calabi metrics.