Manifolds with indefinite metrics whose skew-symmetric curvature operator has constant eigenvalues

Abstract

Relative to a non-degenerate metric of signature (p, q), an algebraic curvature tensor is said to be IP if the associated skew-symmetric curvature operator R(π) has constant eigenvalues and if the kernel of R(π) has constant dimension on the Grassmanian of non-degenerate oriented 2-planes. A pseudo-Riemannian manifold with a non-degenerate indefinite metric of signature (p, q) is said to be IP if the curvature tensor of the Levi-Civita connection is IP at every point; the eigenvalues are permitted to vary with the point. In the Riemannian setting (p, q) = (0, m), the work of Gilkey, Leahy, and Sadofsky and the work of Ivanov and Petrova have classified the IP metrics and IP algebraic curvature tensors if the dimension is at least 4 and if the dimension is not 7. We use techniques from algebraic topology and from differential geometry to extend some of their results to the Lorentzian setting (p, q) = (1, m – 1) and to the setting of metrics of signature (p, q) = (2, m – 2).