On the curvature of metric contact pairs (Q1949861)

A contact pair on an even-dimensional manifold is a pair \((\alpha_1,\alpha_2)\) of \(1\)-forms such that the restriction of \(\alpha_1\) to \(\ker(\alpha_2)\) is a contact form and vice versa. A metric contact pair is a contact pair together with a \((1,1)\)-tensor field \(\phi\) and a Riemannian metric \(g\) such that certain compatibility conditions (involving the Reeb vector fields \(Z_1,Z_2\) of \(\alpha_1,\alpha_2\)) are satisfied. A contact pair is normal [\textit{G.\ Bande} and \textit{A.\ Hadjar}. Int. J. Math. 21, No. 6, 737--754 (2010; Zbl 1200.53070)]) if the associated almost-complex structures are integrable. The paper under review proves some properties of the curvature tensor \(R\) and the Ricci curvature for manifolds with metric contact pairs. The main theorem classifies manifolds with \(R_{X,Y}Z_1=R_{X,Y}Z_2\equiv 0\). In particular it is shown that the metric of normal contact pairs with decomposable \(\phi\) is not flat. As a special case, non-Kählerian Vaisman manifolds can not be flat.