Manifolds with commuting Jacobi operators (Q884684)

Let \(\nabla\) be the Levi-Civita connection of a connected \(m\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\). Let \(\mathcal{R}(x,y)=\nabla_x\nabla_y- \nabla_y\nabla_x-\nabla_{[x,y]}\) be the associated curvature operator. The Jacobi operator \(J(x)\) is defined by \(J(x):y\to \mathcal{R}(y,x)x\). This operator is intimately related with the underlying geometry of the manifold. Recently \textit{Y. T. Tsankov} [Banach Cent. Publ. 69, 205--209 (2005; Zbl 1091.53009)] gave a characterization of hypersurfaces in Euclidean space with constant sectional curvature in terms of the Jacobi operator by showing: Let \((M,g)\) be a hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^{m+1}\). If \(J(x)J(y)=J(y)J(x)\) for \(x\perp y\) and if \(m\geqslant 3\), then \((M,g)\) has constant sectional curvature. In the reviewed paper the authors remove the hypothesis that \((M,g)\) is a hypersurface and give a very pretty characterization of flat manifolds and manifolds of constant sectional curvature in terms of commutation properties of the Jacobi operator. Namely, they prove: 1. If \(J(x)J(y)=J(y)J(x)\) for all \(x,y\), then \((M,g)\) is flat. 2. If \(J(x)J(y)=J(y)J(x)\) for \(x\perp y\), then \((M,g)\) has constant sectional curvature. It is worth noticing that the authors work mainly in the purely algebraic context. They obtain the form of an algebraic curvature tensor under suitable assumptions and next derive their theorem.