Mean value operators, differential operators and D'Atri spaces (Q1284573)

Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian manifold and denote by \(G_m(r)\) a geodesic sphere with center \(m\) and sufficiently small radius \(r\). The operator \(M_r\) defined by \[ M_r[\varphi](m)= \int_{G_m(r)}\varphi dp \] for \(\varphi\in L_2(M)\) and where \(dp\) denotes the volume form on \(G_m(r)\), is called the (unnormed) first mean value operator. Further, the second mean value operator \(L_r\) is defined by \[ L_r[\varphi](m)= {1\over\omega_{n-1}} \int_{S^{n-1}(1)}\varphi(\exp_mru)du \] where \(du\) is the volume form of the unit sphere \(S^{n-1}(1)\) in the tangent space \(T_m(M)\), centered at \(m\), and \(\omega_{n-1}\) is its volume. Finally, let \(L\) be the second order differential operator defined by \(L=\zeta^{ij} \nabla_i \nabla_j+\zeta^i \nabla_i+ \zeta\). These operators have been studied at several occasions. In particular, one has concentrated on the commutativity of these operators (for special \(L)\). The commutativity relations have also been used to define special classes of Riemannian manifolds such as probabilistic commutative, commutative and D'Atri spaces (i.e., spaces such that all geodesic symmetries are volume-preserving, up to sign). In this paper, the authors continue this study about the commutativity and derive several conclusions. Probably the most striking one says that every D'Atri space is ball-homogeneous (i.e., roughly speaking, the volume of sufficiently small geodesic spheres \(G_m(r)\) (or equivalently, of the corresponding geodesic balls \(B_m(r))\) does not depend on the center \(m\).