English

Killing vector fields on Riemannian and Lorentzian 3-manifolds

Differential Geometry 2023-09-06 v3

Abstract

We give a complete local classification of all Riemannian 3-manifolds (M,g)(M,g) admitting a nonvanishing Killing vector field TT. We then extend this classification to timelike Killing vector fields on Lorentzian 3-manifolds, which are automatically nonvanishing. The two key ingredients needed in our classification are the scalar curvature SS of gg and the function Ric(T,T)\text{Ric}(T,T), where Ric\text{Ric} is the Ricci tensor; in fact their sum appears as the Gaussian curvature of the quotient metric obtained from the action of TT. Our classification generalizes that of Sasakian structures, which is the special case when Ric(T,T)=2\text{Ric}(T,T) = 2. We also give necessary, and separately, sufficient conditions, both expressed in terms of Ric(T,T)\text{Ric}(T,T), for gg to be locally conformally flat. We then move from the local to the global setting, and prove two results: in the event that TT has unit length and the coordinates derived in our classification are globally defined on R3\mathbb{R}^3, we give conditions under which SS completely determines when the metric will be geodesically complete. In the event that the 3-manifold MM is compact, we give a condition stating when it admits a metric of constant positive sectional curvature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.01144,
  title  = {Killing vector fields on Riemannian and Lorentzian 3-manifolds},
  author = {Amir Babak Aazami and Robert Ream},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.01144},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Final published version; minor changes; fixed a typo in the statement of Theorem 1

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:51:23.863Z