scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1065030
Let \(X\) be a real analytic manifold of dimension \(n\geq 3\), let \(TX\) (resp. \(T^*X)\) be its tangent (resp. cotangent) bundle, and let \(S^2(T^*X)\) be the second symmetric product of \(T^*X\). Any section \(R\) of \(S^2(T^*X)\) can be viewed as a morphism \(R^\flat:TX\to T^*X\). The paper under review concerns two problems involving the Ricci tensor field \(\text{Ric} (g)\) of a Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(X\). The first problem consists in solving the equation \(\text{Ric} (g)=R\) with respect to \(g\), where \(R\) is a given section of \(S^2(T^*X)\) over \(X\), which is degenerate at every point of \(X\) but has constant rank. In fact, if the distribution determined by the kernel \(K\) of the morphism \(R^\flat:TX\to T^*X\) is integrable and \(n\geq 7\), the authors give a sufficient condition for the local solvability of this equation. In the special case when \(K\) is a line bundle, a necessary and sufficient condition for the local solvability is made obvious. For complete proofs of these results, the authors refer the reader to another paper [\textit{D. DeTurck} and \textit{H. Goldschmidt}, `Metrics with prescribed curvature of constant rank. I: The integrable case', Adv. Math., to appear]. The first definitive results concerning this problem were obtained by \textit{D. DeTurck} [Invent. Math. 65, 179-207 (1981; Zbl 0489.53014)]. He showed that, if the symmetric quadratic form \(R(x_0)\) at a given point \(x_0\in X\) is nondegenerate on \(T_{x_0}X\), then there exists a Riemannian metric \(g\) which solves above equation in a neighborhood of \(x_0\). Moreover, the authors show that the Bianchi identity for the Ricci tensor field is the only obstruction to local solvability in this case. The case of a degenerate \(R\) involves some fairly delicate analysis. The second problem deals with prescribing the principal Ricci curvatures of a Riemannian metric. More precisely, let \(\lambda_1, \dots, \lambda_n\) be real analytic, real valued functions on \(X\) and assume that the values \(\lambda_1 (x_0), \dots, \lambda_n (x_0)\) of these functions at a point \(x_0\in X\) are distinct. Then the authors prove that there exists a real analytic Riemannian metric \(g\) in a neighborhood of \(x_0\) such that \(\text{det (Ric} (g)-\lambda_k g)=0\), \(k=1, \dots,n\), in this neighborhood. The proof of this result relies on finding a noncharacteristic direction for the system of equations corresponding to this problem at each generic 2-jet of a Riemannian metric, which is in some way similar to what happened for the nondegenerate case of the first problem [see \textit{D. DeTurck}, loc. cit.]. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0869.00033].
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