No label defined (Q4398588)

Let \(M\) be a Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n\) and \({\mathcal H}\) the almost CR structure on the tangent sphere bundle \(U(M)\) induced by the natural almost complex structure of \(T(M)\). The authors prove the equivalence of the following statements: (i) \((U(M),{\mathcal H})\) is a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold of CR dimension \(n-1\) whose Webster connection has a vanishing pseudo-Hermitian torsion; (ii) \(M\) is an elliptic space form \(M^{n}(c)\) of sectional curvature \(c=1\). Moreover, they show that the natural pseudo-Hermitian structure of \(U(M^{n}(1))\) is globally pseudo-Einstein, that is, the Ricci tensor of the Webster connection is proportional to the Levi form. In particular, \(U(M^{n}(1))\) has positive pseudo-Hermitian scalar curvature and the first Chern class of its CR structure \({\mathcal H}\) vanishes.