On Ricci curvature of metric structures on \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifolds (Q2032803)

For a Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\), a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifold means a smooth manifold \(M\) with a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-action, namely, a Lie algebra homomorphism \(\mathfrak{g} \to \mathfrak{X}(M)\), where \(\mathfrak{X}(M)\) is the Lie algebra of vector fields on \(M\). In this article, the authors study global geometry of \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifolds \(M\) whose \(\mathfrak{g}\)-action is locally free and preserves a Riemannian metric on \(M\). The orbits of such \(\mathfrak{g}\)-action yields the characteristic foliation, which is a Riemannian foliation with totally geodesic leaves. Sasakian manifolds, or more generally, almost \(K\)-contact manifolds are examples of such \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifolds with \(\mathfrak{g}\) of dimension one. Almost \(\mathcal{K}\)-manifolds are \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifolds which can be regarded as a higher-dimensional generalization of almost \(K\)-contact manifolds [\textit{D. E. Blair}, J. Differ. Geom. 4, 155--167 (1970; Zbl 0202.20903)]. In the first part, the authors prove several results on the Ricci curvature of \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifolds whose \(\mathfrak{g}\)-action is locally free and preserves a Riemannian metric. Among other results, they show that, if a compact Lie group \(G\) acts locally free and isometrically on a compact Riemannian manifold \(M\) and the orbit foliation is modeled on a manifold with a positive Ricci curvature, then \(M\) admits a Riemannian metric of positive Ricci curvature, and hence has a finite fundamental group by Myers's theorem. If \(\mathfrak{g}\) is abelian, by showing and using an analogous result in the negative Ricci curvature case, the authors prove that the characteristic foliation of a compact \(\mathfrak{g}\)-manifold given by an isometric action cannot be modeled on a manifold of negative Ricci curvature. These are generalizations of the results due to [\textit{D. Gromoll} and \textit{G. Walschap}, Metric foliations and curvature. Basel: Birkhäuser (2009; Zbl 1163.53001)] for Riemannian submersions with totally geodesic fibers. In the second part, they study Ricci solitons and Einstein metrics on almost \(\mathcal{S}\)-manifolds. Recall that a \(\mathcal{K}\)-manifold is defined by a smooth \((2n+p)\)-manifold \(M\) endowed with a Riemannian metric \(g\), unit vector fields \(\xi_1, \dots, \xi_p\), \(1\)-forms \(\eta_1, \dots, \eta_p\) and a \((1,1)\)-tensor \(\varphi\) such that \(\xi_i\) is the dual of \(\eta_i\) with respect to \(g\) for \(i=1,\dots,p\) and \(\varphi^2 = - \operatorname{id}_{TM} + \sum_i \eta^i \otimes \xi_i \). An almost \(\mathcal{S}\)-manifold is defined by an almost \(\mathcal{S}\)-manifold such that \(d\eta^i(X,Y)=g(X,\varphi(Y))\) for every \(X,Y \in \mathfrak{X}(M)\) and every \(i=1, \dots, p\). It is easy to see that \(\xi_1, \dots, \xi_p\) are Killing and span the kernel of \(\varphi\), which is an integrable distribution of rank \(p\). In the case where \(p=1\), for \(K\)-contact manifolds, \textit{C. P. Boyer} and \textit{K. Galicki} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 129, No. 8, 2419--2430 (2001; Zbl 0981.53027)] proved that Einstein \(K\)-contact manifolds are Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. The authors prove that, among other results, in the case where \(p>1\), compact almost \(\mathcal{S}\)-manifolds do not admit Einstein metrics. By combining a generalization of a result due to [\textit{J. T. Cho} and \textit{R. Sharma}, Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. 7, No. 6, 951--960 (2010; Zbl 1202.53063)], the authors prove that there is no compact almost \(\mathcal{S}\)-manifold that is a Ricci soliton for a vector field \(X\) tangent to \(\operatorname{ker} \varphi\).