Remarks on the product of harmonic forms (Q2431640): Difference between revisions

A metric is formal if all products of harmonic forms are again harmonic [\textit{D. Sullivan}, ``Infinitesimal computations in topology'', Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 47, 269--331 (1977; Zbl 0374.57002)]. A closed manifold is called geometrically formal if it admits a formal Riemannian metric [\textit{D. Kotschick}, ``On products of harmonic forms'', Duke Math. J. 107, No. 3, 521--531 (2001; Zbl 1036.53030)]. The authors study geometrically formal warped products and show that a warped product metric on a compact manifold is formal if and only if the warping function is constant. They also derive some topological obstructions to the existence of formal metrics. The authors also study compact Vaisman manifolds, whose universal cover is a special type of warped product, i.e. a Riemannian cone, and they determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for a Vaisman metric to be geometrically formal. They include several computational facts and their proofs in the Appendix.