Chern-Simons invariants and isometric immersions of warped products (Q2270149)

Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian manifold, let \(E\) be a vector bundle over \(M\), and consider a connection on \(E\) with connection form \(\omega\in\Gamma(T^*M\otimes\text{End}(E))\), whose curvature is \(\Omega=d\omega+\omega\wedge\omega\). Then the Chern-Simons form is defined by \(\text{cs}(\omega)=\text{tr}(\omega\wedge d\omega+\frac{2}{3}\omega\wedge\omega\wedge\omega)=\text{tr}(\omega\wedge\Omega+\frac{1}{3}\omega\wedge\omega\wedge\omega)\). Suppose from now on that \(M\) is a compact \(3\)-manifold. Then \(d\,\text{cs}(\omega)=\text{tr}(\Omega\wedge\Omega)=0\). The Chern-Simons functional is defined by \(\text{CS}(\omega)=\frac{1}{8\pi^2}\int_M\text{cs}(\omega)\). Assume also from now on that the bundle \(E\) is trivial and \(M\) oriented. Then \(\text{CS}(\omega)\pmod 1\) is invariant by the action of the gauge group on the connection space. Moreover \textit{S.-S. Chern} and \textit{J. Simons} have proved [Ann. Math. 99, 48--69 (1974; Zbl 0283.53036); Asp. Math. Appl., 245--252 (1986; Zbl 0589.53011)] that: \(\text{CS}(M,g)=\text{CS}(\omega)\pmod 1\) depends only on the conformal class \([g]\) of the metric \(g\); \(\text{CS}(M,g)=0\) if \((M,g)\) can be conformally immersed into \(\mathbb{R}^4\); and the mapping \(g\mapsto\text{CS}(M,g)\) has a critical value at \(g\) if and only if \((M,g)\) is locally conformally flat. Now take \(M=SU(2)\approx S^3\). Let \(\{X_1,X_2,X_3\}\) be the frame of \(\mathfrak{su}(2)\) consisting of the Pauli matrices. Consider the Berger spheres \((M,g_\epsilon)\), where \(g_\epsilon\) is the left invariant metric with orthonormal frame \(\{\epsilon^{-1}X_1,X_2,X_3\}\); the standard metric on the \(S^3\) is obtained for \(\epsilon=1\). The first result of the paper, mentioned by Chern-Simons without proof, states that \(\text{CS}(M,g_\epsilon)=2(\epsilon^4-2\epsilon^2+2)\), and \((M,g_\epsilon)\) is locally conformally flat if and only if \(\epsilon=1\). Thus \(\text{CS}(M,g_\epsilon)=0\) means that \(2(\epsilon^4-2\epsilon^2+2)\in\mathbb{Z}\), which provides many examples of non-locally conformally flat compact oriented Riemannian manifolds \((M,g)\) with \(\text{CS}(M,g)=0\). The rest of the paper studies the case where \(M\) is a closed oriented \(3\)-manifold equipped with a doubly warped product metric, \(g=\lambda^2(x)\,dx^2+\phi^2(x)\,dy^2+\psi^2(x)\mu^2(y)\,dz^2\). It is proved that \(\text{CS}(M,g)=0\), the condition on \((M,g)\) to be locally conformally flat is studied for some particular cases, and the existence of isometric immersions of \((M,g)\) into \(\mathbb{R}^4\) is characterized with differential equations involving \(\lambda\), \(\phi\), \(\psi\) and \(\mu\).