Homogeneous structures of 3-dimensional Sasakian space forms (Q6979699)

Sasaki space forms are a very special class of contact manifolds. In dimension 3, the following are the only simply connected Sasaki space forms:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item The unit three-sphere with its standard contact structure.\N\item The one-parameter family of Berger three-spheres, equipped with a contact structure obtained by deforming the above-mentioned standard contact structure on \(S^3\).\N\item The three-dimensional Heisenberg group with its standard contact structure.\N\item The universal covering of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\), adorned with a member of a one-parameter family of contact structures explicitly described in the article under consideration.\N\end{itemize}\NWe note that, in each case, the manifold can be viewed as a Lie group and the Sasaki structure is left-invariant. At the same time, each 3-dimensional simply connected Sasaki space form \(M\) can be represented as \(M=(G\ltimes \mathrm{SO}(2))/\mathrm{SO}(2)\).\N\NIn this article, both representations are used to study homogeneous Riemannian structures on the above spaces. More precisely, the authors provide a classification of all homogeneous Riemannian structures on a Sasaki space form \(M(c)\), where \(c\in \mathbb{R}\) represents the so-called holomorphic sectional curvature. The case \(c=1\) corresponds to the standard three-sphere, which was already understood; hence the article focuses on \(c\neq 1\). In the case \(c\geq -3\), it is shown that there is a one-parameter family of homogeneous Riemannian structures. For \(c<-3\), there is also a one-parameter family, which is however supplemented by a single additional structure corresponding to the representation of the universal covering of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) as a solvable Lie group. In each case, the structures are explicitly described. The proof starts by using Ambrose and Singer's description [\textit{W. Ambrose} and \textit{I. M. Singer}, Duke Math. J. 25, 647--669 (1958; Zbl 0134.17802)] of local homogeneity in terms of a \((1,2)\)-tensor field \(S\) such that \(\nabla + S\) has nice properties (\(\nabla\) being the Levi-Civita connection). Using a local (co)frame, finding tensor fields with the required properties amounts to solving a system of differential equations, which the authors manage to do explicitly to obtain the classification.\N\NThe material is presented in a clear and detailed manner. In particular, the authors go to some lengths to carefully introduce all the requisite background material, making the article readable for non-experts.