Special directions on contact metric three-manifolds

Blair [5] has introduced special directions on a contact metric 3-manifolds with negative sectional curvature for plane sections containing the characteristic vector field and, when is Anosov, compared such directions with the Anosov directions. In this paper we introduce the notion of Anosov-like special directions on a contact metric 3-manifold. Such directions exist, on contact metric manifolds with negative -Ricci curvature, if and only if the torsion is -parallel, namely (1.1) is satisfied. If a contact metric 3-manifold M admits Anosov-like special directions, and is -parallel, where is the Berger-Ebin operator, then is Anosov and the universal covering of M is the Lie group (2,R). We note that the notion of Anosov-like special directions is related to that of conformally Anosow flow introduced in [9] and [14] (see [6]).Supported by funds of the M.U.R.S.T. and of the University of Lecce. 1991.