Invariant contact metric structures on tangent sphere bundles of compact symmetric spaces (Q6137728)

For a given Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\), let us consider the tangent bundle \(TM\) over \((M,g)\) and the tangent sphere bundle \(T_r M := \{u\in TM: g(u, u) = r^2\}\) of radius \(r>0\), equipped with their corresponding standard structures. In a recent paper [Mediterr. J. Math. 19, No. 5, Paper No. 227, 24 p. (2022; Zbl 1503.53112)], the author has proved that on each compact rank-one symmetric space there are invariant Riemannian metrics, for which the standard vector field \(\xi^S\) is Killing on the tangent sphere bundle of any radius. The main result of this paper is a new characterization for compact rank-one symmetric spaces (Theorem 4.4): A symmetric space \(G/K\) of compact type has rank one if and only if there exists a \(G\)-invariant Riemannian metric on the tangent sphere bundle \(T_r (G/K)\), for some \(r > 0\), for which the standard vector field \(\xi^S\) is Killing. In addition, the paper provides new examples of invariant contact metric structures on the tangent sphere bundle of a compact symmetric space of rank grater than or equal to two. The main technical tool to obtain the above results for compact symmetric spaces are restricted roots of Lie algebras of the corresponding isometry groups.