Variational properties of quadratic curvature functionals (Q2273758)

In this paper, the authors study a class of general quadratic curvature functionals \[ \mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}[g]=\int_{M}|\mathrm{Rm}|^2dV_g+s\int_M|\mathrm{Ric}|^2dV_g+\tau\int_M\mathrm{R}^2dV_g, \] on the space \(\mathcal{M}_1(M^n)\) of Riemannian metrics \(g\) with unit volume on an \(n\)-dimensional \((n\geq 3)\) compact smooth manifold \(M\), where \(s,\tau\) are some constants. The quadratic curvature functionals have been widely studied in the literature as cited in this paper. By calculating the first variation of \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\), it is proved in Section 2 that any metric with constant sectional curvature is a critical point of \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\) restricted to the space \(\mathcal{M}_1(M^n)\). Then the main focus of this paper is the stability of \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\) at a critical point \(g\) which has constant sectional curvature. In Section 3, the authors calculate the second variations of \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\) with respect to the transverse-traceless (TT) variations of the metric, and the conformal variations of the metric separately. By analysing the sign of the second variation of \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\) at the critical point with constant sectional curvature \(\lambda=0,\pm 1\), subjecting to some conditions on the parameters \(s\) and \( \tau\), the authors prove the main theorems which characterize the stability of the functional \(\mathcal{F}_{s,\tau}\).