Almost Kenmotsu manifolds with conformal reeb foliation (Q657678)

An almost Kenmotsu manifold is an almost contact metric manifold \((M^{2n+1},\varphi,\xi,\eta,g)\) such that the \(1\)-form \(\eta\) is closed and \(d\Phi=2\eta\wedge\Phi\), where \(\Phi\) denotes the fundamental \(2\)-form \(\Phi:=g(\cdot,\varphi\cdot)\). Then, \(M\) is foliated by two mutually orthogonal foliations, one defined by \({\mathcal{D}}=\ker(\eta)\) and the other is a \(1\)-dimensional foliation \(\mathcal F\), called Reeb foliation, defined by the vector field \(\xi\). In the paper under review, the authors study almost Kenmotsu manifolds whose Reeb foliation is conformal, i.e., \[ ({\mathcal L}_{V}g)(X,Y)=\lambda(V)g(X,Y) \] for all \(V\in\Gamma(T{\mathcal{F}})\) and \(X,Y\in\Gamma({\mathcal D})\), where \(\lambda\) is a function depending on \(V\). The property of being conformal turns out to be equivalent to the fact that \(\xi\) belongs to the \((-1)\)-nullity distribution, that is, \[ R_{\xi X}Y = -g(X,Y)\xi + g(\xi,Y)X. \] Furthermore, the authors prove that, if an almost Kenmotsu manifold with conformal Reeb foliation \(M^{2n+1}\) is a hypersurface of a real space form \(\tilde{M}(c)\), then necessarily \(c\leq 1\) and, if \(c<1\), \(M^{2n+1}\) is Kenmotsu of constant sectional curvature \(K=-1\). Finally, in the last part of the paper, Eintein and \(\eta\)-Einstein conditions are discussed.