Almost Schouten solitons and almost cosymplectic manifolds (Q6168188)

This paper describes variations of Schouten solitons (including almost Schouten solitons and gradient Schouten solitons on almost cosymplectic manifolds) and what the authors call \(\alpha\)-almost cosymplectic manifolds. Schouten solitons are self-similiar solutions of the Schouten flow defined by \(\mathcal{L}_V g + 2S_t + 2\beta g = 0\), where \(S_t\) is the Schouten tensor defined by \[S(t) = \frac{1}{n-2} \left(S - \frac{r}{2(n-1)} \right) g ,\] \(\beta\) is a real number, \(\mathcal{L}_V\) is the Lie derivative in the direction of a potential vector field \(V\), \(S\) is a Ricci tensor, \(r\) is scalar curvature and \(g\) is a Riemannian metric. The simplest example of a Schouten soliton is an Einstein manifold. In [\textit{V. Borges}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl., Ser. A, Theory Methods 221, Article ID 112883, 15 p. (2022; Zbl 1489.35224)], an example of a gradient Schouten soliton in a Riemannian manifold is described. The authors generalize to an almost Schouten soliton by taking \(\beta\) above to be a real function. They also generalize the notion of a cosymplectic manifold to an ``almost cosymplectic manifold'', and further to an \(\alpha\)-cosymplectic manifold. The bulk of the paper characterizes almost Schouten solitons and gradient Schoulten solitons on an almost cosymplectic manifold.