On conformally flat Lorentzian spaces satisfying a certain condition on the Ricci tensor (Q1901570)

Conformally flat, complete Riemannian manifolds have been classified by K. Sekigawa and H. Takagi under the additional condition \(R(X, Y)Q =0\), where \(R\) is the curvature tensor and \(Q\) is a symmetric endomorphism associated to the Ricci tensor. In this paper, the authors deal with the analogous problem for Lorentzian manifolds. Since the metric is Lorentzian, \(Q\) may adopt four canonical forms. By analyzing each of this possibilities separately and considering independently the cases of dimension three or greater, they prove that if \(M\) is a complete conformally flat \(n\)-dimensional manifold (\(n\) at least 3) which satisfies \(R(X, Y)Q=0\), then \(M\) must be a space of constant curvature or a locally product space of two spaces of constant curvature or a locally product space of a space of constant curvature and a 1-dimensional space.