Einstein metrics on Boggino-Damek-Ricci type solvable Lie groups (Q696159)

Up to now, all known examples of nonflat, noncompact homogeneous Einstein manifolds are solvable Lie groups equipped with a left-invariant Einstein metric. In this paper, the author treats some particular classes. Let \(({\mathfrak n},\langle,\rangle_{\mathfrak n})\) be a 2-step nilpotent Lie algebra with a positive definite inner product, \({\mathfrak a}\) a one-dimensional real vector space and \(A\) a nonzero vector in \({\mathfrak a}\). Denote by \({\mathfrak z}\) the center of \({\mathfrak n}\) and by \({\mathfrak v}\) its orthogonal complement in \({\mathfrak n}\). Further, let \(f\) be the \(\mathbb{R}\)-linear map \(f:{\mathfrak a}\to \text{End}({\mathfrak n})\) defined by \[ f(A) X={k\over 2} X,\quad f(A)Z= kZ\quad\text{for }X\in{\mathfrak v},\quad Z\in{\mathfrak z} \] and a positive constant \(k\). Then \({\mathfrak s}= {\mathfrak n}\times_f{\mathfrak a}\) is a solvable Lie algebra. Now, on \({\mathfrak s}\) we define a positive definite inner product \(\langle,\rangle\) by \(\langle,\rangle=\langle,\rangle_{\mathfrak n}\oplus\langle, \rangle_{\mathfrak a}\) where \(\langle,\rangle_{\mathfrak a}\) is an inner product on \({\mathfrak a}\) such that \(\langle A,A\rangle_{\mathfrak a}= 1\). Then \({\mathfrak s}\) is called a Boggino-Damek-Ricci type Lie algebra (i.e., a BDR-type Lie algebra) and the corresponding connected and simply connected Lie group \(S\) with the induced left-invariant Riemannian product \(g\) is called a BDR-type space. Further, following Kaplan, we define the \(\mathbb{R}\)-algebra homomorphism \(J:{\mathfrak z}\to \text{End}({\mathfrak v})\) by \[ \langle J_Z U,V\rangle_{\mathfrak n}= \langle[U, V], Z\rangle_{\mathfrak n}\quad\text{for }U,V\in{\mathfrak v},\;Z\in{\mathfrak z}. \] \({\mathfrak n}\) is said to be an \(H\)-type algebra if there exists a positive constant \(\lambda\) such that \[ J^2_Z= -\lambda^2|Z|^2 \text{Id}_{\mathfrak v} \] for all \(Z\). A BDR-space \((S,g)\) is called a Damek-Ricci space (i.e., a DR-space) if the nilpotent part \({\mathfrak n}\) is of \(H\)-type. Moreover, it is called a standard DR-space if \(\lambda= k\). A DR-space is Einsteinian if and only if it is a standard DR-space. As is now well-known, such spaces provide examples of harmonic spaces. They all have nonpositive sectional curvature and are of strictly negative curvature if and only if they are rank one symmetric spaces. Starting from the computation of the connection \(\nabla\), the author obtains the expressions for the sectional curvature and the Ricci operator of a BDR-space. This leads to the Einstein condition and to a sufficient condition for nonpositive sectional curvature. Furthermore, the author provides a class of examples of Einsteinian BDR-spaces which are not of DR-type. Their sectional curvature is not always nonpositive but the author proves that their nonsymmetric Einsteinian BDR-spaces with negative sectional curvature. Explicit examples are given here, as well as for the case of nonpositive curvature.