Conformal properties of indefinite bi-invariant metrics (Q1981139)

A semi-Riemannian metric $g$ on a Lie group $G$ is bi-invariant if all the multiplications from left and right are isometries. A Lie group $G$ with a bi-invariant metric is said to be a metric Lie group. A bi-invariant metric of signature $(p,q)$ on $G$ induces a scalar product of signature $(p,q)$ on the Lie algebra $g$ of $G$ that is invariant under the adjoint representation of $G$ on $g$. A Lie algebra with an adjoint-invariant scalar product is called a metric Lie algebra. Riemannian metric Lie groups are always isometric to a product of Einstein manifolds. For indefinite metrics this statement is not true. In this paper the authors study the question whether a semi-Riemannian metric Lie group is conformal to an Einstein metric by considering properties of their Lie algebras. The authors obtain the following results for all three cases in the structure theorem by Medina and Revoy for indecomposable metric algebras: Simple Lie algebras are conformally Einstein when they are Einstein, or when equal to $\mathfrak{sl}_2\mathbb{C}$ and conformally flat. Double extensions of metric Lie algebras by simple algebras of rank greater than one are never conformally Einstein, and neither are double extensions of Lorentzian oscillator algebras, whereas the oscillator algebras themselves are conformally Einstein.