International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences

Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 461383, 14 pages

doi:10.1155/2012/461383

Research Article

Index of Quasiconformally Symmetric Semi-Riemannian Manifolds

Mukut Mani Tripathi,¹ Punam Gupta,² and Jeong-Sik Kim³

¹Department of Mathematics and DST-CIMS, Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India

²Department of Mathematics, School of Applied Sciences, KIIT University, Odisha, Bhubaneswar 751024, India

³GwangJu Jeil High School, Donlibro, Buk-gu, GwangJu 237 33, Republic of Korea

Received 26 March 2012; Accepted 30 May 2012

Academic Editor: Nageswari Shanmugalingam

Copyright © 2012 Mukut Mani Tripathi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract.

We find the index of -quasiconformally symmetric and -concircularly symmetric semi-Riemannian manifolds, where is metric connection.

1. Introduction

In 1923, Eisenhart [1] gave the condition for the existence of a second-order parallel symmetric tensor in a Riemannian manifold. In 1925, Levy [2] proved that a second-order parallel symmetric nonsingular tensor in a real-space form is always proportional to the Riemannian metric. As an improvement of the result of Levy, Sharma [3] proved that any second-order parallel tensor (not necessarily symmetric) in a real-space form of dimension greater than is proportional to the Riemannian metric. In 1939, Thomas [4] defined and studied the index of a Riemannian manifold. A set of metric tensors (a metric tensor on a differentiable manifold is a symmetric nondegenerate parallel tensor field on the differentiable manifold) is said to be linearly independent if

implies that

The set is said to be a complete set if any metric tensor can be written as

More precisely, the number of linearly independent metric tensors in a complete set of metric tensors of a Riemannian manifold is called the index of the Riemannian manifold [4, page 413]. Thus, the problem of existence of a second-order parallel symmetric tensor is closely related with the index of Riemannian manifolds. Later, in 1968, Levine and Katzin [5] studied the index of conformally flat Riemannian manifolds. They proved that the index of an -dimensional conformally flat manifold is or according as it is a flat manifold or a manifold of nonzero constant curvature. In 1981, Stavre [6] proved that if the index of an -dimensional conformally symmetric Riemannian manifold (except the four cases of being conformally flat, of constant curvature, an Einstein manifold or with covariant constant Einstein tensor) is greater than one, then it must be between and . In 1982, Starve and Smaranda [7] found the index of a conformally symmetric Riemannian manifolds with respect to a semisymmetric metric connection of Yano [8]. More precisely, they proved the following result: "Let a Riemannian manifold be conformally symmetric with respect to a semisymmetric metric connection . Then (a) the index is if there is a vector field such that and , where and are the Einstein tensor field and the scalar curvature with respect to the connection , respectively; and (b) the index satisfies if ."

A real-space form is always conformally flat, and a conformally flat manifold is always conformally symmetric. But the converse is not true in both the cases. On the other hand, the quasiconformal curvature tensor [9] is a generalization of the Weyl conformal curvature tensor and the concircular curvature tensor. The Levi-Civita connection and semisymmetric metric connection are the particular cases of a metric connection. Also, a metric connection is Levi-Civita connection when its torsion is zero and it becomes the Hayden connection [10] when it has nonzero torsion. Thus, metric connections include both the Levi-Civita connections and the Hayden connections (in particular, semisymmetric metric connections).

Motivated by these circumstances, it becomes necessary to study the index of quasiconformally symmetric semi-Riemannian manifolds with respect to any metric connection. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we give the definition of the index of a semi-Riemannian manifold and give the definition and some examples of the Ricci symmetric metric connections . In Section 3, we give the definition of the quasiconformal curvature tensor with respect to a metric connection . We also obtain a complete classification of -quasiconformally flat (and in particular, quasiconformally flat) manifolds. In Section 4, we find out the index of -quasiconformally symmetric manifolds and -concircularly symmetric manifolds. In the last section, we discuss some of applications in theory of relativity.

2. Index of a Semi-Riemannian Manifold

Let be an -dimensional differentiable manifold. Let be a linear connection in . Then torsion tensor and curvature tensor of are given by

for all , where is the Lie algebra of vector fields in . By a semi-Riemannian metric [11] on , we understand a nondegenerate symmetric tensor field . In [4], a semi-Riemannian metric is called simply a metric tensor. A positive definite symmetric tensor field is well known as a Riemannian metric, which, in [4], is called a fundamental metric tensor. A symmetric tensor field of rank less than is called a degenerate metric tensor [4].

Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold. A linear connection in is called a metric connection with respect to the semi-Riemannian metric if . If the torsion tensor of the metric connection is zero, then it becomes Levi-Civita connection , which is unique by the fundamental theorem of Riemannian geometry. If the torsion tensor of the metric connection is not zero, then it is called a Hayden connection [10, 12]. Semisymmetric metric connections [8] and quarter symmetric metric connections [13] are some well-known examples of Hayden connections.

Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold. For a metric connection in , the curvature tensor with respect to the satisfies the following condition:

for all , where

The Ricci tensor and the scalar curvature of the semi-Riemannian manifold with respect to the metric connection is defined by

where is any orthonormal basis of vector fields in the manifold and . The Ricci operator with respect to the metric connection is defined by

Define

Then, consider

The tensor is called tensor of Einstein [14] with respect to the metric connection . If is symmetric, then is also symmetric.

Definition 2.1. A metric connection with symmetric Ricci tensor will be called a “Ricci-symmetric metric connection.”

Example 2.2. In a semi-Riemannian manifold , a semisymmetric metric connection of Yano [8] is given by

where is Levi-Civita connection, is a vector field, and is its associated form given by . The Ricci tensor with respect to is given by

where is the Ricci tensor, and is a tensor field defined by

The Ricci tensor is symmetric if form, is closed.

Example 2.3. An -almost para contact metric manifold is given by

where is a tensor field of type , is form, is a vector field and . An -almost para contact metric manifold satisfying

is called an -para Sasakian manifold [15]. In an -para Sasakian manifold, the semisymmetric metric connection given by

is a Ricci symmetric metric connection.

Example 2.4. An almost contact metric manifold is given by

where is a tensor field of type , is -form and is a vector field. An almost contact metric manifold is a Kenmotsu manifold [16] if

and is a Sasakian manifold [17] if

In an almost contact metric manifold , the semisymmetric metric connection given by

is a Ricci symmetric metric connection if is Kenmotsu, but the connection fails to be Ricci symmetric if is Sasakian.

Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection . A symmetric tensor field , which is covariantly constant with respect to , is called a special quadratic first integral (for brevity SQFI) [18] with respect to . The semi-Riemannian metric is always an SQFI. A set of SQFI tensors with respect to is said to be linearly independent if

implies that

The set is said to be a complete set if any SQFI tensor with respect to can be written as

The “index” [4] of the manifold with respect to , denoted by , is defined to be the number of members in a complete set .

We will need the following Lemma.

Lemma 2.5. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with a Ricci symmetric metric connection . Then the following statements are true.

(a)If , then . Conversely, if is constant and then .(b)If and is a nonvanishing differentiable function such that and are linearly dependent, then .

The proof is similar to Lemmas 1.2 and  1.3 in [7] for a semisymmetric metric connection and is therefore omitted.

3. Quasiconformal Curvature Tensor

Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection . The conformal curvature tensor with respect to the is defined by [19, page 90] as follow:

and the concircular curvature tensor with respect to is defined by ([20], [21, page 87]) as follows:

As a generalization of the notion of conformal curvature tensor and concircular curvature tensor, the quasiconformal curvature tensor with respect to is defined by [9] as follows:

where and are constants. In fact, we have

Since there is no restrictions for manifolds if and , therefore it is essential for us to consider the case of or . From (3.4) it is clear that if and , then ; if and , then .

Now, we need the following.

Definition 3.1. A semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection is said to be

(a)-quasiconformally flat if ,(b)-conformally flat if , and (c)-concircularly flat if .

In particular, with respect to the Levi-Civita connection , -quasiconformally flat, conformally flat, and -concircularly flat become simply quasiconformally flat, conformally flat, and concircularly flat, respectively.

Definition 3.2. A semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with a metric connection is said to be

(a)-quasiconformally symmetric if ,(b)-conformally symmetric if , and(c)-concircularly symmetric if .

In particular, with respect to the Levi-Civita connection , -quasiconformally symmetric, -conformally symmetric, and -concircularly symmetric become simply quasiconformally symmetric, conformally symmetric, and concircularly symmetric, respectively.

Theorem 3.3. Let be a semi-Riemannian manifold of dimension . Then is -quasiconformally flat if and only if one of the following statements is true:

(i), , and is -conformally flat,(ii), , is -conformally flat, and -concircularly flat,(iii), and Ricci tensor with respect to satisfies

where is the scalar curvature with respect to .

Proof. Using in (3.3), we get

from which we obtain the following:

Case 1 ( and ). Then from (3.3) and (3.1), it follows that , which gives . This gives the statement (i).

Case 2 ( and ). Then from (3.7)

Using (3.8) in (3.6), we get

Since , then by (3.2) and by using (3.9), (3.8) in (3.1), we get . This gives the statement (ii).

Case 3 ( and , we get (3.5)). This gives the statement (iii). Converse is true in all cases.

Corollary 3.4 (see [22], Theorem  5.1). Let be a semi-Riemannian manifold of dimension . Then is quasiconformally flat if and only if one of the following statements is true:

(i), , and is conformally flat,(ii), ,and is of constant curvature, and(iii), , and is Einstein manifold.

Remark 3.5. In [23], the following three results are known.

(a)[23, Proposition  1.1]. A quasiconformally flat manifold is either conformally flat or Einstein.(b)[23, Corollary  1.1]. A quasiconformally flat manifold is conformally flat if the constant .(c)[23, Corollary  1.2]. A quasiconformally flat manifold is Einstein if the constants and .

However, the converses need not be true in these three results. But, in Corollary 3.4 we get a complete classification of quasiconformally flat manifolds.

4. -Quasiconformally Symmetric Manifolds

Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold equipped with the metric connection . Let be the curvature tensor of with respect to the metric connection . If is a parallel symmetric tensor with respect to the metric connection , then we easily obtain that

The solutions of (4.1) is closely related to the index of quasiconformally symmetric and concircularly symmetric manifold with respect to the .

Lemma 4.1. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and . Then

Proof. Using (2.7) in (3.3), we get the following:

Taking covariant derivative of (4.3) and using , we get

Contracting (4.4) with respect to and and using (2.2), we get

Using (4.5), we get (4.2).

Theorem 4.2. If is an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and , then (4.1) takes the form

If , then (4.6) has the general solution

where is an arbitrary nonvanishing differentiable function.

Proof. Using (4.4) in (4.1), we get

Let be an orthonormal basis of vector fields in . Taking in (4.8) and summing up to terms, then, using (4.2), we have

Interchanging and in (4.9) and subtracting the so-obtained formula from (4.9), we deduce that

Now, interchanging and , , and in (4.8) and taking the sum of the resulting equation and (4.8) and using (4.9) and (4.10), we get (4.6). If , then using (2.7) leads to (4.7).

Theorem 4.3. If is an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and , and if there is a vector field so that

then the solution of (4.1) is , where is a differentiable nonvanishing function.

Proof. Using (4.11), (4.8) becomes

Interchanging and , and in (4.12) and taking the sum of the resulting equation and (4.12), we get

Therefore, the tensor fields and are proportional.

Theorem 4.4. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and . If there is a vector field satisfying the condition (4.11), then .

Proof. By Theorem 4.3 and from the fact that and , it follows that is constant. Thus, .

Theorem 4.5. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and , for which the tensor field is not covariantly constant with respect to the Ricci symmetric metric connection . If , then there is a vector field , so that the equation

has the fundamental solutions

where is a differentiable nonvanishing function.

Proof. Given that , there is so that the tensorial equation (4.1) has general solution which depends on . is obviously a solution of (4.14) because , also satisfies the tensorial equation (4.1), and given by (4.7) is also a solution of (4.14). Equation (4.14) has at least two solution as . These two solutions are independent.  By Lemma 2.5(b) and are independent and we get two fundamental solution of which is , where is a differentiable nonvanishing function.

Theorem 4.6. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -quasiconformally symmetric manifold, and , for which the tensor field is not covariantly constant with respect to the metric connection . Then .

Proof. Let , be independent vector fields, for which

and let and be the fundamental solutions of . Obviously , as are independent. Therefore, we have solutions. This completes the proof.

Remark 4.7. The previous results of this section will be true for -conformally symmetric semi-Riemannian manifold, where is any Ricci symmetric metric connection.

Theorem 4.8. If be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -concircularly symmetric manifold, then the (4.1) takes the form

Proof. Taking covariant derivative of (3.2) and using , we get

which, when used in (4.1), yields

Now, we interchange with and with in (4.19) and take the sum of the resulting equation and (4.19), and we get (4.17).

Theorem 4.9. Let be an -dimensional semi-Riemannian -concircularly symmetric manifold. Then .

Proof. By Theorem 4.8 and from the fact that and , we get .

5. Discussion

A semi-Riemannian manifold is said to be decomposable [4] (or locally reducible) if there always exists a local coordinate system so that its metric takes the form

where are functions of and are functions of . A semi-Riemannian manifold is said to be reducible if it is isometric to the product of two or more semi-Riemannian manifolds; otherwise, it is said to be irreducible [4]. A reducible semi-Riemannian manifold is always decomposable but the converse needs not to be true.

The concept of the index of a (semi-)Riemannian manifold gives a striking tool to decide the reducibility and decomposability of (semi-)Riemannian manifolds. For example, a Riemannian manifold is decomposable if and only if its index is greater than one [4]. Moreover, a complete Riemannian manifold is reducible if and only if its index is greater than one [4]. A second-order -symmetric parallel tensor is also known as a special Killing tensor of order two. Thus, a Riemannian manifold admits a special Killing tensor other than the Riemannian metric if and only if the manifold is reducible [1], that is the index of the manifold is greater than . In 1951, Patterson [24] found a similar result for semi-Riemannian manifolds. In fact, he proved that a semi-Riemannian manifold admitting a special Killing tensor , other than , is reducible if the matrix has at least two distinct characteristic roots at every point of the manifold. In this case, the index of the manifold is again greater than .

By Theorem 4.6, we conclude that a -quasiconformally symmetric Riemannian manifold (where is any Ricci symmetric metric connection, not necessarily Levi-Civita connection) is decomposable, and it is reducible if the manifold is complete.

It is known that the maximum number of linearly independent Killing tensors of order in a semi-Riemannian manifold is , which is attained if and only if is of constant curvature. The maximum number of linearly independent Killing tensors in a four-dimensional spacetime is , and this number is attained if and only if the spacetime is of constant curvature [25]. But, from Theorem 4.6, we also conclude that the maximum number of linearly independent special Killing tensors in a -dimensional Robertson-Walker spacetime [11, page 341] is .

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