On totally umbilical and minimal surfaces of the Lorentzian Heisenberg groups (Q6962019)

A pseudo-Riemannian metric \(g\) on an \(n\)-dimensional smooth manifold \(M\) is a symmetric, non-degenerate \((0,2)\)-tensor field on \(M\). The pseudo-Riemannian metric \(g\) is called flat if its curvature vanishes. If \(g\) is positive definite (resp. of signature \((1,n-1)\)), then \(g\) is called Riemannian (resp. Lorentzian). In the case where \(M\) is a Lie group \(G\) and all left-translations \(L_a:G\longrightarrow G\), \(b\longrightarrow a.b\) are isometries with respect to \(g\), then the pseudo-Riemannian metric \(g\) is said to be left-invariant. On the other hand, a submanifold \(N\) of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold is called totally umbilical if its second fundamental form is a multiple of the metric on \(N\).\N\NThe main goal of this paper under review is to study the (non)-existence of totally umbilical surfaces in the three dimensional Heisenberg Lie group \(H_3\) endowed with a left-invariant Lorentzian metric. Recall that \(H_3\) is the 2-step nilpotent Lie group defined by\N\[\NH_3=\left\{\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1&x&y\\0&1&z\\0&0&1\end{array}\right)/x,y,z\in\mathbb{R}\right\}.\N\]\NIt was shown in [\textit{N. Rahmani} and \textit{S. Rahmani}, Geom. Dedicata 118, 133--140 (2006; Zbl 1094.53065)] that there exist only three non-isometric left-invariant Lorentzian metrics on \(H_3\) denoted by \(g_1\), \(g_2\) and \(g_3\). Note that there is only one flat left-invariant Lorentzian metric on \(H_3\) denoted by \(g_3\). In the Riemannian case, there is only one kind of left-invariant metric on \(H_3\), and it was shown in [\textit{A. Sanini}, Boll. Unione Mat. Ital., VII. Ser., B 11, No. 2, 79--93 (1997; Zbl 0886.53018)] that \(H_3\) admits no totally umbilical surfaces in this case.\N\NIn the paper under review, the authors show that, as in the Riemannian case, if we endow the 3-dimensional Lie group \(H_3\) with a non-flat, left invariant Lorentz metric \(g_i\) (\(i=1,2\)), then \((H_3,g_i)\) (\(i=1,2\)) admits no totally umbilical surfaces. The authors also provide some explicit examples of minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces in \((H_3,g_i)\) (\(i=1,2\)).