No label defined (Q4941279)

This paper continues L. Vanhecke's research together with various collaborators on the problem of determining ``the extent to which the properties of certain families of geometric objects influence, or even characterize, the geometry (or curvature) of a (pseudo-) Riemannian manifold'' (see the Introduction). Here, the authors define two new classes of Riemannian manifolds: mean curvature homogeneous (respectively scalar curvature homogeneous), characterized by the independence of the total mean curvature (respectively total scalar curvature) of small geodesic spheres on the center. Locally homogeneous spaces provide examples for both classes. Characterizations of the two classes are then obtained in dimensions \(3\) (here only mean curvature homogeneity is relevant), \(4\) and \(5\) assuming, eventually, other properties or structures on the manifold, such as Einstein, Kähler or Sasaki. In the last section of the paper, the two studied classes are related to the one of semi-symmetric spaces.