Critical metrics with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor for volume functional on manifolds with boundary (Q2312737)

In this paper, the authors study the critical metrics with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor for volume functional on compact manifolds \((M^n,g)\), \((n\ge 3)\), with boundary \(\partial M\). A Riemannian metric \(g\) is said to be with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor if its Ricci tensor satisfies \(\nabla_X \mathrm{Ric}(Y,Z)+\nabla_Y \mathrm{Ric}(Z,X)+\nabla_Z \mathrm{Ric}(X,Y)=0\). Let \(f:M^n\to \mathbb{R}\) be a smooth function such that \(f^{-1}(0) =\partial M\) satisfies the overdetermined-elliptic system \(-(\Delta f)g+Hess_gf-f \mathrm{Ric}_g =g\), where \(Hess_gf\) is the Hessian of \(f\) with respect to the metric \(g\). Such a function \(f\) is called a potential function. A Miao-Tam critical metric is the 3-tuple \((M^n, g, f)\). Such metrics were studied by \textit{P. Miao} and \textit{L.-F. Tam} [Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 36, No. 2, 141--171 (2009; Zbl 1175.49043)]. In this paper, the authors show that the critical metric \((M^n, g, f)\) with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor is isometric to a geodesic ball in a simply connected space form \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(\mathbb{H}^n\) or \(\mathbb{S}^n\) under some extra conditions.