On the curvature ODE associated to the Ricci flow (Q2339889)

In the vector space of algebraic curvature operators, the authors study the reaction ODE \[ \frac{dR}{dt}=R^2+R^{\sharp}=Q(R)\,\,\,\,\,\, (1) \] which is associated to the evolution equation of the Riemann curvature operator along the Ricci flow. Let \(s(R)\) be the scalar curvature of \(R\). Define the vector field \(\widetilde{Q}\) on the hyperplane \[ S_1=\{R\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^n) : s(R)=1\}\subset S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^n) \] by \[ \widetilde{Q}:R\longmapsto \widetilde{Q}(R)=Q(R)-{||\mathrm{Ric}(R)||}^2R, \,\,\,R\in S_1. \] The main results of the paper are the following: {Theorem 1.} (1) The only algebraic curvature operator \(R\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^4)\) which is a zero of \(Q\) is the zero curvature operator. (2) If \(R\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^4)\) is an Einstein algebraic curvature operator which is a zero of \(\widetilde{Q}\), then \(R\) is the curvature operator of a (locally) symmetric space with unit scalar curvature. {Theorem \, 2.} For dimension \(n+1, \, n\geq3\); if \(R\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^{n+1})\) is an algebraic curvature operator of Ricci type which is not a multiple of the identity operator and \(\widetilde{Q}(R)=0\), then up to the action of the orthogonal group, \(R\) is the curvature operator of \(S^n\times \mathbb{R}\) corresponding to the standard product metric normalized to unit scalar curvature. {Theorem \, 3.} Let \(\breve{R}\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^{n+k})\, (k\geq0)\) be a product curvature operator of the form of a block matrix whose first block is \(\widehat{R}\) and whose other blocks are zero matrices, where \(\widehat{R}\in S^2_B(\wedge^2\,\mathbb{R}^{n})\) is an Einstein algebraic curvature operator with positive scalar curvature satisfying \(Q(\widehat{R})=\lambda \widehat{R}\) for some \(\lambda>0\). Assume further that \(\widehat{R}\) is not a multiple of the identity operator when \(k=0\). Then the ODE (1) behaves unstably near \(\breve{R}\). {Corollary.} The reaction ODE (1) behaves unstably near the curvature operator of the Riemannian product \(M\times \mathbb{R}^k\) for \(k\geq0\), where \(M\) is an Einstein symmetric space with positive scalar curvature and not a spherical space form when \(k=0\).