Homogeneous contact Riemannian three-manifolds (Q1129873)

A contact manifold \((M,\omega)\) is said to be homogeneous [see \textit{W. M. Boothby} and \textit{H. C. Wang}, Ann. Math., II. Ser. 68, 721-734 (1958; Zbl 0084.39204)] if there is a connected Lie group \(G\) acting transitively as a group of diffeomorphisms on \(M\) which leave the contact form \(\omega\) invariant. As is well-known, this class extends the class of contact manifolds given by odd-dimensional spheres. If \(g\) is a metric associated to \(\omega\) and \(G\) is a group acting transitively as a group of isometries which leave \(\omega\) invariant, then \((\omega,g)\) is called a homogeneous contact Riemannian structure on \(M\). In this paper, the author proves that a simply connected homogeneous contact Riemannian 3-manifold is a Lie group equipped with a left invariant contact Riemannian structure. The Webster scalar curvature \(W\) and the torsion invariant, introduced by \textit{S. S. Chern} and \textit{R. S. Hamilton} [Lect. Notes Math. 1111, 279-305 (1985; Zbl 0561.53039)], characterize such manifolds. In particular, the 3-sphere is the only simply connected 3-manifold which admits a homogeneous contact Riemannian structure with positive scalar curvature. Moreover, the Heisenberg group \(H\) and the universal covering group of \(SL(2,\mathbb{R})\) are the only simply connected 3-manifolds which admit a unimodular homogeneous contact Riemannian structure with Webster scalar curvature \(W=0\). Furthermore, it is proved that every unimodular homogeneous contact Riemannian 3-manifold is locally \(\phi\)-symmetric.