Fiberwise volume non-increasing diffeomorphisms on product manifolds (Q605091)

Let \(M\) and \(N\) be Hausdorff and second countable Riemannian manifolds and let \(n = \dim(M)\). If \(z \in N\) , then \(M \times \{z\} \subset M \times N\) is a manifold isometric to \(M\) and Vol\((M \times \{z\}) = \text{Vol}(M)\). Let \(f: M \times N \to M \times N\) be a diffeomorphism. Then \(f\) is said to be fiberwise volume non-increasing at \(z\) if Vol\((f(M \times \{z\}))\leq \text{Vol}(M)\), where \(f (M \times \{z\})\) has the induced metric from \(M \times N\). A diffeomorphism is fiberwise volume non-increasing (fni) if it is fiberwise volume non-increasing at each \(z \in N\). Further, assuming \(M\) is closed, \(M \times N\) is said to have minimal \(n\)-cohomology if \(H^n (M \times N; \mathbb{Z}_2 ) \cong \mathbb{Z}_2\). With these definitions, the main result of the paper is the following: Theorem 1. Let \(M\) be a closed connected Riemannian manifold and let \(N\) be a Riemannian manifold such that \(M \times N\) has minimal \(n\)-cohomology. If \(f : M \times N \to M \times N\) is a diffeomorphism which is fni at \(z \in N\), then there exists \(w \in N\) such that \(f (M \times \{z\}) = M \times \{w\}\). As a consequence, the authors show that the isometries of \(M \times N\) split, that is, \(\text{Iso}(M \times N ) = \text{Iso}(M) \times \text{Iso}(N )\). Finally, as a corollary, they prove a special case of an extension of Talelli's conjecture [\textit{O. Talelli}, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 37, No.~4, 547--554 (2005; Zbl 1079.20068)].