Harmonic almost complex structures with respect to general natural metrics (Q2255087)

Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian manifold and let \((TM,G)\) be its tangent bundle endowed with a (semi-)Riemannian metric \(G\). An almost complex structure \(J\) on \((TM,G)\) is harmonic if the codifferential of \(J\) with respect to the Levi-Civita connection \(\nabla\) of \(G\) vanishes, i.e., \(\text{trace } (\nabla. J)\cdot =0\), where the trace is taken with respect to \(G\). The authors study the harmonicity of the canonical almost complex structure \(J\) with respect to some special types of metric \(G\) introduced by \textit{V. Oproiu} [Publ. Math. 55, No. 3--4, 261--281 (1999; Zbl 0992.53053)]. Especially, they prove that the canonical almost complex structure \(J\) on the tangent bundle of a space form \((M(c),g)\) is harmonic with respect to the Sasaki metric if and only if the base manifold is flat. We point out that the authors treat here the Sasaki metric on \(TM\) as a particular case of the natural diagonal lift of \(g\).