Curvature homogeneous critical metrics in dimension three (Q2147845)

The main aim of the paper is to characterize semi-symmetric curvature homogeneous metrics which are critical for some quadratic curvature functional and provide local coordinates for all of them. Semi-symmetric curvature homogeneous manifolds behave differently with respect to curvature functionals depending on the structure of the Ricci operator. The authors study curvature homogeneous three-manifolds modeled on a symmetric space which are critical for some quadratic curvature functional. If the Ricci operator is diagonalizable, critical metrics are 1-curvature homogeneous Brinkmann waves and are critical for one specific functional. Otherwise, critical metrics are modeled on Cahen-Wallach symmetric spaces and they are Kundt spacetimes which are critical for all quadratic curvature functionals.