On the geometry of conullity two manifolds (Q6149167)

A manifold \(M^{n+2}\) has conullity two if, at every point \(p\in M\), the kernel \(\Gamma_{p}\) of the curvature tensor defines a co-dimension two distribution. A vector \(T \in \Gamma_{p}\) is called a nullity vector and a geodesic \(\gamma\) is called a nullity geodesic if \(\gamma'(t)\) is a nullity vector for all \(t\). The paper studies the topology of manifolds with conullity two. Among results we mention the following one: Theorem. Let \(M\) be a complete manifold with conullity two, which is locally irreducible. If the scalar curvature is constant along nullity geodesics, then the fundamental group of \(M\) is either trivial or \(\mathbb{Z}\).