Infinitesimal rigidity of products of symmetric spaces (Q1118179)

Let (X,g) be a compact symmetric space. Then a 1-form or a symmetric 2- form on X satisfies the zero-energy condition if all its integrals over the closed geodesics of X vanish. The space (X,g) is infinitesimally rigid if the only symmetric 2-forms on X satisfying the zero-energy condition are the Lie derivatives of the metric g. This paper is a sequel to the earlier work of the authors. Here they investigate the infinitesimal rigidity of a product \(X=Y\times Z\) of compact symmetric spaces Y and Z and generalize the results concerning the product \(S^ 1\times RP^ n\). They give a criterion for the infinitesimal rigidity of \(Y\times Z\) mainly in terms of Y and Z from which they deduce the infinitesimal rigidity of an arbitrary product \(X_ 1\times...\times X_ r\), where each \(X_ i\) is either a projective space, different from a sphere, or a flat torus, or a complex quadric of dimension \(\geq 5\).