Cohomogeneity One Expanding Ricci Solitons and the Expander Degree

We consider the space of smooth gradient expanding Ricci soliton structures on $S^1 \times \mathbb{R}^3$ and $S^2 \times \mathbb{R}^2$ which are invariant under the action of $\text{SO}(3) \times \text{SO}(2)$. In the case of each topology, there exists a $2$-parameter family of cohomogeneity one solitons asymptotic to cones over the link $S^2 \times S^1$, as constructed by Nienhaus-Wink and Buzano-Dancer-Gallaugher-Wang. By analyzing the resultant soliton ODEs, we reconstruct the $2$-parameter families in each case and provide an alternate proof of conicality. Analogous to work of Bamler and Chen, we define a notion of expander degree for these cohomogeneity one solitons through a properness result. We then proceed to calculate this cohomogeneity one expander degree in the cases of the specific topologies.