On the pseudohermitian sectional curvature of a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold

We show that the pseudohermitian sectional curvature Hθ(σ) of a contact form θ on a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold M measures the difference between the lengths of a circle in a plane tangent at a point of M and its projection on M by the exponential map associated to the Tanaka-Webster connection of (M,θ). Any Sasakian manifold (M,θ) whose pseudohermitian sectional curvature Kθ(σ) is a point function is shown to be Tanaka-Webster flat, and hence a Sasakian space form of φ-sectional curvature c=−3. We show that the Lie algebra i(M,θ) of all infinitesimal pseudohermitian transformations on a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold M of CR dimension n has dimension ?²(n+1) and if dimRi(M,θ)=²(n+1) then Hθ(σ)= constant.