A characterization of the Cartan hypersurface in a sphere (Q1079201)

A hypersurface in a 4-dimensional sphere \(S^ 4(1)\) defined by \[ 2x^ 3_ 5+2(x^ 2_ 1+x^ 2_ 2)-6(x^ 2_ 3+x^ 2_ 4)+3\sqrt{3}(x^ 2_ 1-x\quad^ 2_ 2)x_ 4+6\sqrt{3} x_ 1x_ 2x_ 3=2 \] was investigated by E. Cartan, who proved that it is a homogeneous Riemannian manifold \(SO(3)/{\mathbb{Z}}_ 2\times {\mathbb{Z}}_ 2\) and the principal curvatures are equal to \(\sqrt{3}\), 0, -\(\sqrt{3}\) everywhere. A compact minimal isoparametric hypersurface in a sphere with three distinct principal curvatures is thus called a Cartan hypersurface. A 3-dimensional Cartan hypersurface was characterized by \textit{R. Takagi} [Tôhoku Math. J., II. Ser. 23, 49-58 (1971; Zbl 0213.487)] as the only connected homogeneous hypersurface in \(S^ 4\) whose type number is equal to 2 at some point. On the other hand, Peng and Terng investigated the Cartan hypersurface in \(S^ 4\) by the square length of the second fundamental form. In this paper another characterization of Cartan hypersurfaces in a sphere is given from the standpoint of Ricci tensors. Let M be a closed hypersurface in a sphere with constant mean curvature. If the Ricci tensor R of M is cyclic-parallel, i.e., it satisfies \(\sigma \nabla R=0\), then M is congruent to one of Cartan hypersurfaces, where \(\sigma\) denotes the cyclic sum.