Some unstable critical metrics for the \(L^{\frac{n}{2}}\)-norm of the curvature tensor (Q743742)

Let \(M\) be a closed smooth manifold of dimension \(n\geq 3\) and \(\mathcal{M}_1\) denote the space of Riemannian metrics on \(M\) consisting of metrics with unit volume. The authors study the following Riemannian functional \(\mathcal{R}_p(g)=\int_M|R(g)|^pdv_g\), where \(R(g)\) and \(dv_g\) denote the corresponding Riemannian curvature and volume form and \(p\in[2,\infty)\). Note that for \(p = n/2\) the functional is scale-invariant. In [Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Math. Sci. 124, No. 3, 383--409 (2013; Zbl 1309.53037)] the second author proved that the Riemannian metrics with non-zero constant sectional curvature are strictly stable for \(\mathcal{R}_p\) for certain values of \(p\) and that they are strict local minimizer for \(\mathcal{R}_p\) for those values of \(p\). In this paper the authors prove that there are locally symmetric spaces \((M,g)\) of compact type which are unstable critical points for the functional \(\mathcal{R}_{\frac{n}{2}}(g):= \int_M |R(g)|^{\frac{n}{2}}dv_g\): If the universal cover of \(M\) is one of the following then \((M,g)\) is not weakly stable for \(\mathcal{R}_{\frac{n}{2}}\): \[ SU(q)\;(q\geq 3), \;\;Sp(q)\;(q\geq 2), \;\;\mathrm{Spin}(5), \;\;\mathrm{Spin}(6), \;\;SU(2q+2)/Sp(q+1), \] \[ Sp(q+l)/Sp(q)\times Sp(l) \;(l,q \geq 1), \;\;E_6/F_4, \;\;F_4/\mathrm{Spin}(9). \]