Contact metric manifolds with <Emphasis Type="Italic">η</Emphasis>-parallel torsion tensor

We show that a non-Sasakian contact metric manifold with η-parallel torsion tensor and sectional curvatures of plane sections containing the Reeb vector field different from 1 at some point, is a (k, μ)-contact manifold. In particular for the standard contact metric structure of the tangent sphere bundle the torsion tensor is η-parallel if and only if M is of constant curvature, in which case its associated pseudo-Hermitian structure is CR- integrable. Next we show that if the metric of a non-Sasakian (k, μ)-contact manifold (M, g) is a gradient Ricci soliton, then (M, g) is locally flat in dimension 3, and locally isometric to E ⁿ⁺¹ × S ⁿ (4) in higher dimensions.      

Holomorphically planar conformal vector fields on contact metric manifolds

We study holomorphically planar conformal vector fields (HPCV) on contact metric manifolds under some curvature conditions. In particular, we have studied HPCV fields on (i) contact metric manifolds with pointwise constant ξ-sectional curvature (under this condition M is either K-contact or V is homothetic), (ii) Einstein contact metric manifolds (in this case M becomes K contact), (iii) contact metric manifolds with parallel Ricci tensor (under this condition M is either K-contact Einstein or is locally isometric to E ⁿ⁺¹×S ⁿ (4)).     

Almost Ricci solitons and K-contact geometry

We give a short Lie-derivative theoretic proof of the following recent result of Barros et al. “A compact non-trivial almost Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is gradient, and isometric to a Euclidean sphere”. Next, we obtain the result: a complete almost Ricci soliton whose metric \(g\) is \(K\) -contact and flow vector field \(X\) is contact, becomes a Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature. In particular, for \(X\) strict, \(g\) becomes compact Sasakian Einstein.     

The structure of some classes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-contact manifolds

We study projective curvature tensor in K-contact and Sasakian manifolds. We prove that (1) if a K-contact manifold is quasi projectively flat then it is Einstein and (2) a K-contact manifold is ξ-projectively flat if and only if it is Einstein Sasakian. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a K-contact manifold to be quasi projectively flat and φ-projectively flat are obtained. We also prove that for a (2n + 1)-dimensional Sasakian manifold the conditions of being quasi projectively flat, φ-projectively flat and locally isometric to the unit sphere S ²ⁿ⁺¹ (1) are equivalent. Finally, we prove that a compact φ-projectively flat K-contact manifold with regular contact vector field is a principal S ¹-bundle over an almost Kaehler space of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 4.     

Stability of the Reeb vector field of H-contact manifolds

It is well known that a Hopf vector field on the unit sphere S ²ⁿ⁺¹ is the Reeb vector field of a natural Sasakian structure on S ²ⁿ⁺¹. A contact metric manifold whose Reeb vector field ξ is a harmonic vector field is called an H-contact manifold. Sasakian and K-contact manifolds, generalized (k, μ)-spaces and contact metric three-manifolds with ξ strongly normal, are H-contact manifolds. In this paper we study, in dimension three, the stability with respect to the energy of the Reeb vector field ξ for such special classes of H-contact manifolds (and with respect to the volume when ξ is also minimal) in terms of Webster scalar curvature. Finally, we extend for the Reeb vector field of a compact K-contact (2n+1)-manifold the obtained results for the Hopf vector fields to minimize the energy functional with mean curvature correction. Supported by funds of the University of Lecce and M.I.U.R.(PRIN).     

Bach-flat gradient steady Ricci solitons

In this paper we prove that any n-dimensional (n ≥ 4) complete Bach-flat gradient steady Ricci soliton with positive Ricci curvature is isometric to the Bryant soliton. We also show that a three-dimensional gradient steady Ricci soliton with divergence-free Bach tensor is either flat or isometric to the Bryant soliton. In particular, these results improve the corresponding classification theorems for complete locally conformally flat gradient steady Ricci solitons in Cao and Chen (Trans Am Math Soc 364:2377–2391, 2012) and Catino and Mantegazza (Ann Inst Fourier 61(4):1407–1435, 2011).     

A generalization of K-contact and (k, μ)-contact manifolds

We study a generalization of K-contact and (k, μ)-contact manifolds, and show that if such manifolds of dimensions ≥ 5 are conformally flat, then they have constant curvature +1. We also show under certain conditions that such manifolds admitting a non-homothetic closed conformal vector field are isometric to a unit sphere. Finally, we show that such manifolds with parallel Ricci tensor are either Einstein, or of zero ${\xi}$ -sectional curvature.     

Almost contact metric manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic section

We investigate almost contact metric manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic unit vector field, equivalently a harmonic section. We first consider an arbitrary Riemannian manifold and characterize the harmonicity of a unit vector field ??, when ??? is symmetric, in terms of Ricci curvature. Then, we show that for the class of locally conformal almost cosymplectic manifolds whose Reeb vector field ?? is geodesic, ?? is a harmonic section if and only if it is an eigenvector of the Ricci operator. Moreover, we build a large class of locally conformal almost cosymplectic manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic section. Finally, we exhibit several classes of almost contact metric manifolds where the associated almost contact metric structures ?? are harmonic sections, in the sense of Vergara-Diaz and Wood?[25], and in some cases they are also harmonic maps.     

Contact Hypersurfaces of a Bochner–Kaehler Manifold

We have studied contact metric hypersurfaces of a Bochner–Kaehler manifold and obtained the following two results: (1) a contact metric constant mean curvature (CMC) hypersurface of a Bochner–Kaehler manifold is a (k, μ)-contact manifold, and (2) if M is a compact contact metric CMC hypersurface of a Bochner–Kaehler manifold with a conformal vector field V that is neither tangential nor normal anywhere, then it is totally umbilical and Sasakian, and under certain conditions on V, is isometric to a unit sphere.     

A note on rigidity of the almost Ricci soliton

The aim of this paper is to prove that a gradient almost Ricci soliton ${(M^{n}, g, \nabla f, \lambda )}$ whose Ricci tensor is Codazzi has constant sectional curvature. In particular, in the compact case, we deduce that (M ⁿ , g) is isometric to a Euclidean sphere and f is a height function. Moreover, we also classify gradient almost Ricci solitons with constant scalar curvature R provided a suitable function achieves a maximum in M ⁿ .     

Almost Contact Lagrangian Submanifolds of Nearly Kaehler 6-Sphere

For a Lagrangian submanifold M of S ⁶ with nearly Kaehler structure, we provide conditions for a canonically induced almost contact metric structure on M by a unit vector field, to be Sasakian. Assuming M contact metric, we show that it is Sasakian if and only if the second fundamental form annihilates the Reeb vector field ξ, furthermore, if the Sasakian submanifold M is parallel along ξ, then it is the totally geodesic 3-sphere. We conclude with a condition that reduces the normal canonical almost contact metric structure on M to Sasakian or cosymplectic structure.     

Einstein–Weyl structures on contact metric manifolds

In this paper we study Einstein-Weyl structures in the framework of contact metric manifolds. First, we prove that a complete K-contact manifold admitting both the Einstein-Weyl structures W ^± = (g, ±ω) is Sasakian. Next, we show that a compact contact metric manifold admitting an Einstein-Weyl structure is either K-contact or the dual field of ω is orthogonal to the Reeb vector field, provided the Reeb vector field is an eigenvector of the Ricci operator. We also prove that a contact metric manifold admitting both the Einstein-Weyl structures and satisfying is either K-contact or Einstein. Finally, a couple of results on contact metric manifold admitting an Einstein-Weyl structure W = (g, f η) are presented.      

Some Applications of the Hodge-de Rham Decomposition to Ricci Solitons

The aim of this paper is to present a link between the Perelman potential for a compact Ricci soliton M ⁿ and the Hodge-de Rham decomposition theorem, we shall use this result to present an integral formula which enables us to establish conditions under which the Ricci soliton is trivial. Moreover, given a Ricci soliton such that its associated vector field X is a conformal vector field we show that in the compact case X is a Killing vector field, while for the non-compact case, either the soliton is Gaussian or X is a Killing vector field.     

H-contact unit tangent sphere bundles of Riemannian manifolds

A contact metric manifold is said to be H-contact, if its characteristic vector field is harmonic. We prove that the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold M equipped with the standard contact metric structure is H-contact if and only if M is 2-stein.     

Real Hypersurfaces in Nearly Kaehler 6-Sphere

In this paper we study real hypersurfaces in the nearly Kaehler 6-sphere S ⁶ and show that there are three almost contact metric structures on a real hypersurface. Then we use a conformal vector field on the 6-sphere S ⁶ and study its influence on the almost contact metric structures on the real hypersurface M and use it to characterize the hyperspheres in S ⁶.     

Compact almost Ricci solitons with constant scalar curvature are gradient

The aim of this note is to prove that any compact non-trivial almost Ricci soliton $\big (M^n,\,g,\,X,\,\lambda \big )$ with constant scalar curvature is isometric to a Euclidean sphere $\mathbb {S}^{n}$ . As a consequence we obtain that every compact non-trivial almost Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is gradient. Moreover, the vector field $X$ decomposes as the sum of a Killing vector field $Y$ and the gradient of a suitable function.     

Generalized quasi-Einstein manifolds with harmonic Weyl tensor

In this paper we introduce the notion of generalized quasi-Einstein manifold that generalizes the concepts of Ricci soliton, Ricci almost soliton and quasi-Einstein manifolds. We prove that a complete generalized quasi-Einstein manifold with harmonic Weyl tensor and with zero radial Weyl curvature is locally a warped product with (n ? 1)-dimensional Einstein fibers. In particular, this implies a local characterization for locally conformally flat gradient Ricci almost solitons, similar to that proved for gradient Ricci solitons.     

A Class of Conformally flat Contact Metric 3-Manifolds

It is shown that a conformally flat contact metric 3-manifold with Ricci curvature vanishing along the characteristic vector field, has non-positive scalar curvature. Such a manifold is flat if (i) it is compact, or (ii) the scalar curvature is constant, or (iii) the norm of the Ricci tensor is constant.     

Singular Ricci Solitons and Their Stability under the Ricci Flow

We introduce certain spherically symmetric singular Ricci solitons and study their stability under the Ricci flow from a dynamical PDE point of view. The solitons in question exist for all dimensions n + 1 ≥ 3, and all have a point singularity where the curvature blows up; their evolution under the Ricci flow is in sharp contrast to the evolution of their smooth counterparts. In particular, the family of diffeomorphisms associated with the Ricci flow “pushes away” from the singularity causing the evolving soliton to open up immediately becoming an incomplete (but non-singular) metric. The main objective of this paper is to study the local-in time stability of this dynamical evolution, under spherically symmetric perturbations of the singular initial metric. We prove a local well-posedness result for the Ricci flow in suitably weighted Sobolev spaces, which in particular implies that the “opening up” of the singularity persists for the perturbations as well.     

Some Results on Contact Metric Manifolds

If the sectional curvatures of plane sections containing the characteristic vector field of a contact metric manifold M are non-vanishing, then we prove that a second order parallel tensor on M is a constant multiple of the associated metric tensor. Next, we prove for a contact metric manifold of dimension greater than 3 and whose Ricci operator commutes with the fundamental collineation that, if its Weyl conformal tensor is harmonic, then it is Einstein. We also prove that, if the Lie derivative of the fundamental collineation along the characteristic vector field on a contact metric 3-manifold M satisfies a cyclic condition, then M is either Sasakian or locally isometric to certain canonical Lie-groups with a left invariant metric. Next, we prove that if a three-dimensional Sasakian manifold admits a non-Killing projective vector field, it is of constant curvature 1. Finally, we prove that a conformally recurrent Sasakian manifold is locally isometric to a unit sphere.