Higher-dimensional Osserman metrics with non-nilpotent Jacobi operators (Q658531)

A pseudo-Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is called an Osserman manifold if the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operators are constant along the unit pseudo-sphere bundles \(S^{\pm}(TM,g)\). There are non-symmetric Osserman pseudo-Riemannian metrics in signatures different from Riemannian and Lorentzian ones. Because in the indefinite case the eigenvalues need not determine the conjugacy class of a self-adjoint operator, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold is called Jacobi-Osserman if the Jordan normal form of the Jacobi operators are constant on \(S^{\pm}(TM,g)\). An affine manifold \((M,D)\) is an affine Osserman manifold if the Jacobi operators are nilpotent, or equivalently \(0\) is the only eigenvalue. For an affine manifold \((M,D)\) of dimension \(n\), the Riemannian extension \(g_D\) or the modified Riemannian extension \(g_N\) are special pseudo-Riemannian metrics of the neutral signature \((n,n)\) on the cotangent bundle \(N=T^*M\). They are used to relate the pseudo-Riemannian properties of \(N\) with the affine properties of \((M,D)\) and they are related to Osserman manifolds. In dimensions 2 and 3, Osserman metrics have constant sectional curvature. In dimension 4, the algebraic curvature tensor is Osserman if and only if it is Einstein and self-dual. This case was studied in many previous works. In higher dimensions, the structure of a Jordan-Osserman algebraic curvature tensor depends on the signature \((p,q)\). For the neutral signature \(p=q\), the Jordan normal form can be arbitrarily complicated. In previously known examples of Osserman metrics, Jacobi operators were either diagonalizable or nilpotent. In a previous work, the authors found six-dimensional Osserman metrics with non-nilpotent (and non-diagonalizable) Jacobi operators. In the present paper, this construction is further investigated, and it is shown that, for any affine Osserman manifold \((M,g)\), the cotangent bundle \(N=T^*M\) equipped with the modified Riemannian extension is an Osserman manifold whose Jacobi operators, in general, are neither diagonalizable nor nilpotent.