Characterizations of model manifolds by means of certain differential systems (Q2909648)

Characterizations of space-forms as complete manifolds supporting solutions of certain second-order differential systems have been investigated by \textit{M. Obata} [J. Math. Soc. Japan 14 333--340 (1962; Zbl 0115.39302)]; \textit{Y. Tashiro} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 117 251--275 (1965; Zbl 0136.17701)] and \textit{M. Kanai} [Tokyo J. Math. 6 143--151 (1983; Zbl 0534.53037)]. More recently, \textit{E. García-Río, D. N. Kupeli} and \textit{B. Ünal} [J. Differ. Equations 194, No. 2, 287--299 (2003; Zbl 1058.53027)] gave a characterization of Euclidean spheres in terms of a nonzero vector field satisfying a differential equation equivalent to that of Obata. In this paper, the authors generalize this work to model manifolds, defined to be Riemannian manifolds with radial sectional curvature \(-G(r)\) for some smooth, even function \(G:{\mathbb R}\rightarrow {\mathbb R}\).