Manifolds with harmonic Weyl tensor and nonnegative curvature operator of the second kind (Q6141363)

The Riemannian curvature tensor field \(R\) of a Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(n\geq 4\) decomposes as \[ R = W +\frac{1}{n - 2}\overset{\circ}{Ric}\bigcirc\hspace{-4.6mm}\wedge~ g+\frac{s}{2n(n - 1)}g\bigcirc\hspace{-4.6mm}\wedge~g, \] where \(W\) stands for the Weyl curvature tensor, \(Ric\) for the Ricci tensor, \(\overset{\circ}{Ric} = Ric - \frac{s}{n}g\) for the trace-free Ricci tensor and \(s\) for the scalar curvature. The Weyl curvature tensor and the Riemannian curvature are called harmonic if they are divergence free. Denoting by \(V\) the tangent space of a Riemannian manifold, by \(\wedge^2(V)\) the space of skew symmetric 2-tensors over \(V\) and by \(S^2_0(V)\) the space of trace-free symmetric \(2-\)tensors over \(V\), one defines the curvature operator of the first kind, \(\hat{R}:\wedge^2(V)\rightarrow\wedge^2(V)\) and the curvature operator of the second kind \(\overset{\circ}{R}:S^2_0(V)\rightarrow S^2_0(V)\), respectively by \[ \hat{R}(e_i\wedge e_j)=\frac{1}{2}\sum_{k,l}R_{ijkl}e_k\wedge e_l,\quad \overset{\circ}{R}=Pr_{S^2_0(V)}\circ\overline{R}_{|S^2_0(V)}, \] where the curvature operator \(\overline{R}\) acting on \(S^2(V)\) has the expression \[ \overline{R}(e_i\odot e_j)=\sum_{k,l}R_{ijkl}e_k\odot e_l, \] with \[ e_i\odot e_j=e_i\otimes e_j+e_j\otimes e_i. \] \textit{T. Kashiwada} proved in [Nat. Sci. Rep. Ochanomizu Univ. 44, No. 2, 69--73 (1993; Zbl 1044.53504)] that Riemannian manifolds with harmonic curvature tensor and with nonnegative (respectivelly positive) curvature operator of the second kind are locally symmetric spaces (respectively spaces of constant curvature). The author extends Kashiwada's results to Riemannian manifolds of dimension \(n\geq4\) with nonnegative curvature operator of the second kind. He shows that if such a manifold has harmonic Weyl tensor (respectively harmonic curvature), then the manifold is globally conformally equivalent to a space of positive constant curvature or is isometric to a flat manifold (respectivelly isometric to a space form of constant curvature or a flat manifold).