Ricci soliton homogeneous nilmanifolds (Q5947415)

The article is devoted to metrics on a Riemannian manifold satisfying \(\text{Ric}_g= cI+D\) for some \(c\in\mathbb{R}\) and some derivation \(D\) of the Lie algebra \({\mathfrak n}\) of a nilpotent Lie group \(N\), where \(\text{Ric}_g\) denotes the Ricci operator of \((N,g)\). This condition on \(g\) is equivalent to the condition of \(g\) being a Ricci soliton. It is proved that a Ricci soliton left invariant metric on \(N\) is unique up to isometry and scaling. Relations with a solvmanifold \((S,\widetilde g)\) of \((N,g)\) are outlined such that there is a correspondence between a Ricci soliton \((N,g)\) and an Einstein manifold \((S,\widetilde g)\). Theorem 5.1. If \(N\) is a semisimple Lie group, then a left invariant metric \(g\) on \(N\) satisfies \(\text{Ric}_g= cI+ D\) for some \(c\in\mathbb{R}\) and \(D\in\text{Der}({\mathfrak n})\) if and only if it is Einstein. If \({\mathcal N}\) is a set of nilpotent Lie algebra brackets on \({\mathfrak n}\) and \({\mathcal S}= \{\mu\in \Lambda^2{\mathfrak n}^*\otimes{\mathfrak n}:\|\mu\|= 1\}\) then the following theorem is accomplished. Theorem 4.2. For an element \(\mu\in {\mathcal N}\cap{\mathcal S}\subset \Lambda^2{\mathfrak n}^*\otimes {\mathfrak n}\), the following properties are equivalent: (i) \((N_\mu,\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle)\) is a Ricci nilsoliton; (ii) \(\mu\) is a critical point of \(F\) restricted to \({\mathcal S}\), where \(F(\mu)= \text{tr Ric}^2_\mu\); (iii) \(\mu\) is a critical point of \(F\) restricted to \(\text{GL}({\mathfrak n})\), \(\mu\cap{\mathcal S}\).