On Lorentzian manifolds with highest first Betti number (Q5962671)

The author considers Lorentzian manifolds with parallel light-like vector field \(V\). Since the vector field is parallel and light-like we obtain a parallel line bundle \(\mathbb{V}=\mathbb{R}V\), while the orthogonal complement distribution \[ \mathbb{V}^{\bot}=\{X\in \Gamma (TM)|g(X,V)=0\} \] defines a parallel sub-distribution of the tangent bundle of codimension one and \(\mathbb{V}\subset \mathbb{V}^{\bot}\). A general interest in this area is to find topological consequences on the manifold \(M\) if it admits such a Lorentzian metric. In light of this motivation, see [\textit{K. Lärz}, Global aspects of holonomy pseudo-Riemannian geometry. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität (PhD Thesis) (2011)] topological questions on Lorentzian manifolds which admit a parallel light-like vector field. He proved that every Lorentzian manifold with parallel light-like vector field such that the leaves of \(\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\)are compact and the Ricci curvature of \(g\) is non-negative on \(\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\times \mathbb{V}^{\bot}\), fulfills \(\varepsilon \leq b_1(M)\leq \mathrm{dim }M-1+\varepsilon\), where \(\varepsilon =1\) if \(M\) is compact and \(\varepsilon=0\) if \(M\) is non-compact. A natural question occurring in this context is, if one can describe the cases in which the upper bound for the first Betti number is actually reached. The main intention of this paper is to give a full answer to this question in the Lorentzian case under the assumptions that the leaves of \(\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\) are compact and the Ricci curvature of \(g\) is non-negative on \(\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\times\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\). The main theorem of the paper is the following: Let \((M,g)\) be an orientable \((n+2)\)-dimensional Lorentzian manifold with parallel light-like vector field \(V\). Assume that the leaves of the codimension-one foliation induced by the distribution \(\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\)are compact and \(\operatorname{Ric}|_{\mathbb{V}^{\bot}\times\mathbb{V}^{\bot}}\geq 0\). Then: (i) If \(M\) is compact, then \(b_1(M)\leq n+2\) and \(b_1(M)= n+2\) if and only if \(M\) is -- up to a finite cover -- diffeomorphic to the torus and \(g\) has light-like hypersurface curvature. (ii) If \(M\) is non-compact, then \(b_1(M)\leq n+1\) and \(b_1(M)= n+1\) if and only if \(M\) is isometric to \(\mathbb {R}\times\mathbb{T}^{n+1}\) and \(g\) has light-like hypersurface curvature. In both cases, the leaves of \(\mathbb {V}^{\bot}\)are all diffeomorphic to the torus \(\mathbb{T}^{n+1}\).