A characterisation of complex Grassmann manifolds (Q788297)

The properties of the geodesic spheres in two-point homogeneous spaces have been studied by several people and some of them may be obtained by using Jacobi vector fields. \textit{T. J. Willmore} and the reviewer [Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb. Sect. A 82, 233-240 (1979; Zbl 0408.53011)] have used this method to characterize locally the two-point homogeneous spaces by means of some properties of the second fundamental form of the geodesic spheres. The purpose of the author is to consider a similar problem: Characterize, at least locally, the symmetric spaces by using properties of the second fundamental form of the geodesic spheres. In an earlier paper D. Blair and the author considered this problem for a special class of symmetric spaces, namely the real Grassmann manifolds and they gave such a characterization in terms of a special parallel tensor field of type (1,3) which satisfies several additional properties related to the second fundamental form. In this paper the author extends this result to the complex Grassmann manifolds and in a forthcoming paper he will consider a unified theory for all the Grassmannians. The results of Willmore and the reviewer turn out to be special cases of the results obtained by the authors mentioned above.