Homotheties and topology of tangent sphere bundles (Q742526)

In this paper, the author proves a theorem on homotheties between two given tangent sphere bundles. Let \((M, g)\) be a Riemannian manifold of dimension \(\geq 3\) and let \(S_rM = \{u \in TM\,:\, \| u\| = r\}\) be the tangent sphere bundle with variable radius \(r\) and induced weighted Sasaki metric \(g^{f_1, f_2} = f_1\pi^*g \oplus f_2 \pi^*g\). Note that \(r\) could be a positive function and \(S_rM\) can be considered as a submanifold of the tangent bundle \(TM\). Let \(\lambda = r^{-2}\) and consider the tangent sphere bundle \(S'_sM\) of radius \(s\) with respect to the conformal metric \(\lambda g\) so that \(S_rM = S'_1M\). Then the map \(h : S_rM \to S'_sM,\, h(u) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\lambda}} \frac{s}{r} u\) is a diffeomorphism. The author proves that the map \(h : (S_rM, g^{f_1, f_2}) \to (S'_sM, (\lambda g)^{f_1', f_2'})\) is a homothety if and only if \(\lambda\) is constant, \(\frac{f_1'}{f_1}\lambda = \frac{s^2}{r^2}\frac{f_2'}{f_2}\) and one of the following holds: (i) \(\frac{s}{r}\) is constant, or (ii) \(rs\) is constant. As a corollary, the author shows that, for a positive function \(r\) on \(M\), \((S_rM, g^{1,1})\) is isometric to \((S_{\frac{1}{r}}M, g^{1, r^4})\). Also as applications, the author obtains examples of manifolds having constant scalar curvature which are not Einstein. More precisely, let \(M(c)\) be the locus of \(x_1^2 + \cdots + x_n^2 \pm x_{n+1}^2 = c^2\) in \({\mathbb R}^{n+1}\), which has constant sectional curvature \(\pm \frac{1}{c^2}\). The author shows that for any \(c>0, f_1, f_2\), there exist a radius \(s>0\) sufficiently small such that \(S_sM(c)\) has constant positive scalar curvature or sufficiently large such that the same space has constant negative scalar curvature. Finally, the author computes the Chern and the Stiefel-Whitney characteristic classes of the manifold \(TM\) and \(S_rM\) by generalizing the well-known almost complex structure and symplectic structure of Sasaki by admitting weights and connections with torsion.