Comment.Math.Univ.

Carolinae 35,3 1994565 573

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Semi-symmetric P-spaces
Eric Boeckx*

Abstract. We determine explicitly the local structure of a semi-symmetric P-space. Keywords: semi-symmetric spaces, Jacobi operators, C- and P-spaces Classi cation: 53B20, 53C25, 53C35

Symmetric spaces play a central role in di erential geometry and have been studied intensively because of their interesting characterizations and their remarkable geometric properties. These spaces are well-understood now. In the course of research, various generalizations were de ned, sharing some of the special features of symmetric spaces. We mention here two of them. The rst generalization is given by the so-called semi-symmetric spaces. These are Riemannian manifolds M; g of which the curvature tensor R satis es the algebraic condition RXY
R = 0 for all vector elds X and Y on M , where RXY acts as a derivation on R. This means that, at each point p of M , the curvature tensor Rp is the same as the curvature tensor of some symmetric space. This symmetric space can change with the point p, in general. Basic theorems about semi-symmetric spaces have been proved in the fundamental papers by Z.I. Szab o  Sz1 , Sz2 . For explicit classi cations and for more up-to-date information, we refer to the recent papers K , BKV , B2 . The second generalization has been given very recently by J. Berndt and L. Vanhecke in BeV1 . Their starting point is the following characterization of symmetric spaces by means of the Jacobi operators R along geodesics in the space see Section 3 for the de nitions: a Riemannian manifold M; g is locally symmetric if and only if, along every geodesic , the Jacobi operator R has constant eigenvalues and parallel eigenspaces. The authors then de ne Cspaces resp. P-spaces as Riemannian manifolds for which the Jacobi operator R along every geodesic has constant eigenvalues resp. R can be diagonalized by a parallel frame. They give non-trivial examples and prove nice properties of these spaces. See also BeV2 , BeV3 , BePV for further properties. In view of these two generalizations, the following natural question arises: What are the relations between the class of semi-symmetric spaces and the class of C-, resp. P-spaces?" This question is all the more interesting as this study
*Research Assistant of the National Fund for Scienti c Research Belgium

1. Introduction

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could provide us with new examples of C- and P-spaces in the class of semisymmetric spaces. Especially for P-spaces this is worthwhile as few examples of P-spaces are known, whereas a wealth of examples of C-spaces have been found. It was proved by J.T. Cho  C  and, independently and by a di erent method, by the present author  B1 , that every semi-symmetric C-space is locally symmetric. Hence, within the class of semi-symmetric spaces no new examples of C-spaces exist. The case of semi-symmetric P-spaces was also considered by J.T. Cho in C , but not in its full generality. Indeed, he studies only the case of complete semi-symmetric P-spaces and the case of semi-symmetric P-spaces of cone type  Sz1 , Sz2 . The only new examples of P-spaces he obtains are the cones. The general, non-complete case is not treated in his work. In this short paper, we ll this gap. Using results of our earlier research  B2 , we show the link between the class of semi-symmetric P-spaces and the class of planar semi-symmetric spaces as de ned in B2 . This allows us to give explicitly the local form for the metrics of such spaces Theorem 3.7. The paper is organized as follows: in Section 2, a short review about semisymmetric spaces is given insofar as it is needed for the purpose of this article. In Section 3, we introduce P-spaces and determine the structure of a semi-symmetric P-space. The author wishes to thank O. Kowalski and L. Vanhecke for their support and for useful discussions.

2. Semi-symmetric spaces
In this section we review brie y some facts about semi-symmetric spaces, in particular about semi-symmetric spaces foliated by Euclidean spaces of codimension two. For a more detailed treatment, the reader should consult the papers by Z.I. Szab  Sz1 , Sz2  and B2 . We shall restrict ourselves here to the minimum o necessary for the next section. We start with the following local structure theorem of Szab  Sz1, Theorem o 4.5 .

Proposition 2.1. Around the points of an everywhere dense open subset, a semi-

symmetric space is locally a de Rham product of symmetric spaces, two-dimensional surfaces, six types of cones and semi-symmetric Riemannian manifolds foliated by Euclidean leaves of codimension two. Symmetric spaces and two-dimensional surfaces are well-understood and the cones were explicitly constructed in Sz1 and Sz2 . The foliated semi-symmetric manifolds appearing in the above proposition have not been explored much until recently. For the recent developments, see K , BKV , B2 . In the following we give the necessary information about this class. In B2, Theorem 3.1 , it is shown that the metric g of a foliated semi-symmetric

P +2 space can locally always be given in the form g = n=1 !i !i , where i

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!1 = f w; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn dw; 2.1 !2 = Aw; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn  dx + C w; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn  dw; ! +2 = dy + H w; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn  dw; = 1; : : : ; n; in the coordinates w; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn, and the following partial di erential equa-

tions are satis ed: A1 AB 0 + B 0x = 0; A2 B 0w , R0 = 0; 0 + A0 B = 0; B1 AB  B2 S 0 + T B = 0; C1 A00 , AB B = 0; C2 T 0 , S B = 0; 00 = 0; D1 H  D2 H 00 x + AT 0 , AT 0 = 0: Here B , B , R, S and T are given by ,
B = 2Af ,1 H 0x + AC 0 , CA0  ; 0 X B = Af ,1 A0w , Cx , A0 H ;
0 R = A,1 fx , CB +

B H ;

S = f 0 + CB ; T = C 0 , fB :
In this notation, the Euclidean leaves are given by !1 = 0, !2 = 0 and the curvature tensor R has the following form 2.2 R = 4k !1 ^ !2 !1 ^ !2 : Here, kw; x; y1 ; : : : ; yn is the sectional curvature of the plane section determined by ! +2 = 0 for = 1; : : : ; n. It is given by the formula ,
0 X k = ,Af ,1 AB 0w + Rx + AS 0 : This function never vanishes by de nition  Sz1 , B2 , because the index of nullity of the curvature tensor R is supposed to be constant. In the next section we will need the covariant derivative of R. For that reason we also give the connection forms for the metric 2.1. These are given by X 1 0 !2 = Af ,1 fx !1 , B !2 + b ! +2 ; 2.3

!1 +2 = a !1 + b !2 +2 = c !1 + e +2 ! +2 = f ,1 H 0

!2 ; !2 ; !1 ;

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where we put, for the sake of simplicity, a = f ,1 f 0 ; b =B ; c = Af ,1 AC 0 , CA0  , B ; e = A,1 A0 : In the explicit classi cation of foliated semi-symmetric spaces in dimension three  K  and also in higher dimensions  B2  the existence of a special distribution on the manifold, the asymptotic distribution, plays a major role. De nition 2.2. An n + 1-dimensional distribution E on a foliated semi-symmetric space M n+2 ; g is an asymptotic distribution, if it is integrable, contains the nullity vector space of R at each point and is parallel along each ndimensional Euclidean leaf. This means the following: let E1 ; : : : ; En+2  be the local orthonormal frame dual to the coframe !1 ; : : : ; !n+2 . Then E +2 , = 1; : : : ; n, span the tangent space of the corresponding Euclidean leaf at each point, which, by 2.2, is the nullity vector space of R. The above de nition says that an n + 1-dimensional distribution E is an asymptotic distribution if the following three conditions hold for all vector elds X and Y in E : i X; Y 2 E , ii DE +2 X 2 E , = 1; : : : ; n, iii E +2 2 E , = 1; : : : ; n. It is proved in B2 that E must satisfy the equations 2.4 c !1 2 + e , a  !1 !2 , b !2 2 = 0; = 1; : : : ; n: De nition 2.3. A foliated semi-symmetric space which admits in nitely many asymptotic distributions is said to be planar. From 2.4 it follows that in a planar semi-symmetric space we have, in a neighbourhood of each point, 2.5 c = b = 0; e =a ; = 1; : : : ; n: Conversely, if 2.5 is satis ed, the space will be planar in the corresponding neighbourhood. Concerning the planar foliated semi-symmetric spaces, the following result is proved in B2 . Proposition 2.4. M n+2; g is a planar semi-symmetric space if and only if M n+2 ; g is locally isometric either to the product of a two-dimensional surface with Rn , or to M 3  Rn,1 where the metric of M 3 is locally determined by the orthonormal coframe !1 = f w; x y dw; 2.6 !2 = y dx; !3 = dy with f an arbitrary positive function of the variables w and x, and y 2 R+ . 0

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Remark. The metric given by 2.6 clearly belongs to a warped product M1 h M2 of a one-dimensional manifold M1 with a two-dimensional manifold M2 , where the warping function h is a linear function of the coordinate y on M1 . The class of warped products M1 h M2 occurs in the classi cation theorem for

three-dimensional P-spaces given in BeV1 . However, the result there guarantees that such a warped product is a P-space only in case the manifolds M1 and M2 and the function h are analytic. For the metric 2.6 above, we will show in the next section that analyticity is not needed. Let M; g be a Riemannian manifold with curvature tensor R and let be a geodesic in M; g. The symmetric operators R := R _
_ along determine the Jacobi operator eld along . Using these operators, a special class of Riemannian manifolds is de ned in BeV1 . De nition 3.1. A Riemannian manifold M; g is a P-space if the Jacobi operator along any geodesic can be diagonalized by a parallel orthonormal coframe along the geodesic. Moreover, the authors prove 0 Proposition 3.2. If M; g is a P-space, then the curvature condition RX ; RX 0 = D _ R 0, where = 0 is satis ed for all X 2 TM . Here RX = R 0 and RX is the unique geodesic such that _ 0 = X . Moreover, for analytic manifolds, this condition is also su cient. As both semi-symmetric manifolds and P-spaces are generalizations of symmetric spaces, it is interesting to know the relation between these two classes of manifolds. This problem was rst studied by J.T. Cho  C . He considered the di erent factors in Szab 's local structure theorem for semi-symmetric spaces o Proposition 2.1 and checked whether these factors are P-spaces. This obviously is true for every two-dimensional surface see BeV1 . For the semi-symmetric cones and for foliated semi-symmetric manifolds, Cho obtained the following results: Proposition 3.3. Any semi-symmetric space of cone type is a P-space. Theorem 3.4. Let M; g be a complete, semi-symmetric P-space. Then M is a local product space of symmetric spaces and of LP M 2 ; Rk -spaces. In the analytic case, also the converse holds. Here LP M 2; Rk  denotes the class of local product spaces of a two-dimensional Riemannian space and a Euclidean space. Note that the last theorem only deals with complete semi-symmetric manifolds, and that the spaces of cone type are never complete. In what follows, we will determine all semi-symmetric P-spaces, i.e. we drop the completeness condition. As the only factor in Szab 's structure theorem that still requires treatment, o concerns foliated semi-symmetric spaces, we suppose that we have a metric g of

3. Semi-symmetric P-spaces

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the form 2.1 with curvature tensor R P by 2.2. We now calculate DX R given i using the well-known formulas DX !i = k !k X  !k and 2.3. We obtain DX R =4dkX  !1 ^ !2 !1 ^ !2  X  ,X
, 4k !1 X  a ! +2 ^ !2 + c !1 ^ ! +2 , X b ! +2 ^ !2 + X e !1 ^ ! +2
 !1 ^ !2 3.1 + !2 X  X  ,X
, 4k !1 ^ !2 !1 X  a ! +2 ^ !2 + c !1 ^ ! +2 , X b ! +2 ^ !2 + X e !1 ^ ! +2
: + ! 2 X  This and 2.2 yield 0 RE1 RE1 E +2 = k2 c E2 ; 0 RE1 RE1 E +2 = 0: Recall that the function k is never zero. Hence, if the space is a P-space, we must have 3.2 c = 0; for all : Similarly, from 0 RE2 RE2 E +2 = k2 b E1 ; 0 RE2 RE2 E +2 = 0; it follows that 3.3 b = 0; for all : Finally, from 0 RE1 +E2 RE1 +E2 E +2 = 2k2 a , e  E1 , E2 ; 0 RE1 +E2 RE1 +E2 E +2 = 0; we nd the condition 3.4 a = e ; for all : Conversely, if 3.2 3.4 are satis ed, then we have ,
,
RX = k !1 X !2 , !2 X !1 !1 X E2 , !2 X E1 ; , X a ! +2 X 
 0  RX = dkX  , 2k ,!1X !2 , !2 X !1
,!1X E , !2X E
; 2 1 0 from which it is clear that RX ; RX = 0 for all X 2 TM . On the other hand, the conditions 3.2 3.4 determine exactly the class of the planar semi-symmetric spaces see the previous section. So, we have proved

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Theorem 3.5. Every foliated semi-symmetric P-space is planar. Theorem 3.6.

and the formula 2.2 for the curvature tensor R to 00 3.6 R = ,4=fy2fxx + f  !1 ^ !2 !1 ^ !2 :

Further, if E1 ; E2 ; E3  is the dual orthonormal P of !1 ; !2 ; !3  given by frame 2.6, then by the standard formulas DX Ei = , j !ij X  Ej and by 3.5, we have 0 DX E1 = fx =fy !1X  E2 + 1=y !1 X  E3 ; 0 3.7 DX E2 = ,fx=fy !1X  E1 + 1=y !2X  E3 ; DX E3 = ,1=y !1X  E1 , 1=y !2 X  E2 : Now, let t = wt; xt; yt be an arbitrary unit-speed geodesic. We decompose its velocity vector eld _ with respect to the frame E1 ; E2 ; E3 : 3.8 _ t = a1 t E1  t + a2 t E2  t + a3 t E3  t: The functions a1 t, a2 t and a3 t are given by a1 t = f wt; xtytw t; _ a2 t = ytxt; _ 3.9 a3 t = yt: _ Using 3.7, we nd that D _ _ = 0 is equivalent to the system of ordinary di erential equations in the unknown functions wt, xt and yt 0 a1 , fx =fy a1a2 , 1=y a1 a3 = 0; _ 0 a2 + fx =fy a12 , 1=y a2 a3 = 0; _ 3.10

a3 + 1=y a1 2 + a2 2  = 0: _

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By 3.6 and 3.8, the Jacobi operator eld R has the following matrix form with respect to the frame E1 ; E2 ; E3  3.11

0 a 2 ,a a 0 1 2 1 2 00 fxx + f =fy2 @ ,a1 a2 a1 2 0 A :

orthonormal frame along . So, we suppose that a1 2 + a2 2 is nowhere zero. Then the eigenvalues of 3.11 are given by a1 2 + a2 2 with multiplicity one, and 0 with multiplicity two. The eigenspace belonging to the rst eigenvalue is spanned by a2 E1 , a1 E2 , the eigenspace belonging to the eigenvalue 0 by a1 E1 + a2 E2 and E3 . Using 3.7 and 3.10, it is easy to show that both are parallel along . This proves that the metric 2.6 determines a P-space. ii We remark that the product of P-spaces is again a P-space if all the manifolds involved are analytic  BeV1 . We show now that analyticity is not necessary when one of the spaces is a Euclidean space Rn . In view of Proposition 2.4 and part i above, this is su cient to prove Theorem 3.6 ii. So, let M m be an m-dimensional P-space and t =  1 t; 2 t a geodesic in M m  Rn . Clearly 1 resp. 2  is a geodesic in M m resp. in Rn . Moreover, RXY Z = 0 whenever X , Y or Z is tangent to Rn . Taking these considerations into account, it is clear that R Y = R 1 Y1 , where Y1 is the component of Y tangent to M m . As M m is a P-space, we can nd a parallel orthonormal frame F1  1 t; : : : ; Fm  1 t along 1 in M m . We can suppose that Fm = _ 1 . Using the natural embedding of T 1 t M m  in T t M m  Rn , we can consider the orthonormal vectors F1  t; : : : ; Fm,1  t along in M m  Rn . These are clearly parallel along , and eigenvectors of R t. Moreover, their orthogonal complement consists of eigenvalues of R with eigenvalue zero and is also parallel along . Hence, M m  Rn is also a P-space.  The above theorems, together with Proposition 3.3 and the classi cation theorem by Szab then yield: o Theorem 3.7. Around the points of an everywhere dense open subset, a semisymmetric P-space is locally a product of symmetric spaces, semi-symmetric cones, two-dimensional surfaces and three-dimensional spaces with the metric given by 2.6. Moreover, in the analytic case, the converse also holds. The last statement in this theorem follows from general results about the products of P-spaces proved in BeV1 .

If a1 t0  = a2 t0  = 0 for some t0 , then it follows readily from 3.9 that wt0  = xt0  = 0. By the uniqueness of geodesics we then have _ _ t = w0 ; x0 ; y0 + t and we see that a1 t = a2 t = 0 for all t. In that case R is identically zero along and hence, obviously diagonalizable by a parallel

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References

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BePV Berndt J., Prufer F., Vanhecke L., Symmetric-like Riemannian manifolds and geodesic symmetries, Proc. Royal Soc. Edingurgh, Sect. A, to appear. BeV1 Berndt J., Vanhecke L., Two natural generalizations of locally symmetric spaces, Di . Geom. Appl. 2 1992, 57 80. , Geodesic spheres and generalizations of symmetric spaces, Boll. Un. Nat. Ital. BeV2 7-A 1993, 125 134. BeV3 , Geodesic sprays and C- and P-spaces, Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Politec. Torino 50 1992, 343 358. B1 Boeckx E., Einstein-like semi-symmetric spaces, Arch. Math. Brno 29 1993, 235 240. B2 , Asymptotically foliated semi-symmetric spaces, preprint, 1993. BKV Boeckx E., Kowalski O., Vanhecke L., Non-homogeneous relatives of symmetric spaces, Di . Geom. Appl., to appear. C Cho J.T., Natural generalizations of locally symmetric spaces, Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 24 1993, 231 240. K Kowalski O., An explicit classi cation of 3-dimensional Riemannian spaces satisfying RX; Y 
R = 0, preprint, 1991. Sz1 Szab Z.I., Structure theorems on Riemannian manifolds satisfying RX; Y 
R = 0, I, o Local version, J. Di . Geom. 17 1982, 531 582. Sz2 , Structure theorems on Riemannian manifolds satisfying RX; Y 
R = 0, II, Global versions, Geom. Dedicata 19 1985, 65 108.
Department of Mathematics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Received December 3, 1993