When is the unit tangent sphere bundle semi-symmetric? (Q1769453)

A Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is called locally symmetric if its curvature tensor \(R\) satisfies the condition \[ \nabla R=0. \] If the condition \(R(X,Y)\cdot R=0\) holds for all vector fields \(X\) and \(Y\) on \(M\) then \(M\) is called semi-symmetric, where \(R\) acts as a derivation on \(R\). It is well-known that if \(M\) is locally symmetric then it is semisymmetric. But the converse statement is not true in general. In this paper, the authors study the unit tangent sphere bundle of a Riemannian manifold. They prove the following main Theorem: The unit tangent sphere bundle of a Riemannian manifold is semi-symmetric if and only if it is locally symmetric, i.e., the base manifold is either flat or it is two-dimensional with constant curvature 1.