Isotropic almost complex structures on tangent bundles (Q1352984): Difference between revisions

Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian manifold. It is well-known that parallel translation on \(M\) determines two complementary distributions of maximal rank on the tangent bundle \(TM\). Associated to such vertical and horizontal distributions, the vertical and horizontal lift of a vector field may be defined by using the connection map. Then, the so-called Dombrowski-Tondeur almost complex structure on the tangent bundle, \(J_0\), is defined by means of \(J_0(X^H) =X^V\), \(J_0(X^V)= -X^H\). \((TM, J_0, g^S)\) is an almost Kähler manifold, where \(g^S\) is the Sasaki metric on \(TM\) induced by \(g\). Moreover, it is known that \(J_0\) is a complex structure if and only if \((M,g)\) is flat [\textit{P. Dombrowski}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 210, 73-88 (1962; Zbl 0105.16002); \textit{P. Tondeur}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 254, 407-408 (1962; Zbl 0112.36901)]. In the paper under review, the almost complex structure above is generalized by considering a broader class of almost complex structures \(J_{\alpha, \beta}\) defined on certain open subsets \({\mathcal A} \subset TM\) by \(J_{\alpha, \beta} (X^H)= \alpha X^V+ \beta X^H\), \(J_{\alpha, \beta} (X^V)= -\beta X^V- \delta X^H\), where \(\alpha, \beta,\delta\) are smooth functions on \({\mathcal A}\) with \(\alpha \delta- \beta^2=1\). It is shown that any such almost complex structure defines on \({\mathcal A}\) an almost Kähler structure whose fundamental form is the pullback to \(TM\) of the symplectic structure on \(T^*M\) via the Riemannian metric \(g\). Moreover, the main result shows that the integrability of some of the almost complex structures \(J_{\alpha, \beta}\) is equivalent to the constancy of the sectional curvature on \(\pi ({\mathcal A}) \subset M\), where \(\pi: TM \to M\) is the projection.