Killing tensor fields on spaces of constant curvature (Q5902770)

Let V be a finite dimensional vector space over \({\mathbb{R}}\) or \({\mathbb{C}}\). We consider the p-th tensor product \(\otimes^ p V\) and a linear endomorphism \(S_ p\) on \(\otimes^ p V\) defined by \[ S_ p(v_ 1\otimes...\otimes v_ p)=\frac{1}{p!}\sum_{\sigma \in G_ p}v_{\sigma (1)}\otimes...\otimes v_{\sigma (p)},\quad v_ i\in V,\quad i=1,...,p, \] where \(G_ p\) denotes the p-th symmetric group. We put \(S^ p(V)=\{s\in \otimes^ p V:\) \(S_ ps=s\}\), \(p\geq 0\), \(S(V)=\sum_{p\geq 0}S^ p(V)\) which becomes a commutative associative graded algebra by the symmetric product \(s\cdot t\in S^{p+q}(v)\), \(s\in S^ p(V)\), \(t\in S^ q(V)\). Let \(V^*\) be the dual space of V. Then \(S^ pV^*\) is identified with the space of symmetric p-multilinear forms on V and the space of homogeneous polynomials on V of degree p. Let M be a connected smooth manifold then \(S^ p(T^*M)=\cup_{x\in M}S^ p(T^*_ xM)\), where \(T^*_ xM\) is the cotangent space of M at x, has a natural structure of a smooth vector bundle over M. Let \(S^ p(M)\) denote the space of all smooth sections of \(S^ p(T^*M)\). Then \(S(M)=\sum_{p\geq 0}S^ p(M)\) becomes a commutative associative graded algebra over \({\mathbb{R}}\) by the symmetric product \(\xi\) \(\cdot n\). Let \(D_ p(M)\) be the space of all linear differential operators of order p acting on the space \(C^{\infty}(M)\). Then S(M) becomes an associative filtered algebra over \({\mathbb{R}}\). We assume that (M,g) is a Riemannian manifold. We define a linear differential operator \(\delta^*: S(M)\to S(M)\) of order 1 by \(\delta^*\xi =S_{p+1}(\nabla \xi)\) for \(\xi \in S^ p(M)\). The kernel of \(\delta^*\) is denoted by \(K^ p(M)\). Each element of \(K^ p(M)\) is called a Killing p-tensor field on (M,g). The main result of the paper can be stated as follows: If (M,g) is a two- point homogeneous space of constant sectional curvature with dim M\(=n\), then the algebra \(K(M,g)=\sum_{p\geq 0}K^ p(M)\) is generated by Killing 1-forms and \[ \dim K^ p(M,g)=\frac{1}{n}\left( \begin{matrix} n+p\\ p+1\end{matrix} \right)\left( \begin{matrix} n+p-1\\ p\end{matrix} \right),\quad p\geq 0. \]