Houston Journal of Mathematics

c 2011 University of Houston

Volume 37, No. 4, 2011

CURVATURES AND SYMMETRIES OF TANGENT SPHERE

BUNDLES

JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Communicated by Min Ru

Dedicated to professor Yoshio Matsuyama on the occasion of his 60th birthday

Abstract. This paper has two purposes. (1) Holomorphic sectional cur-
vature and ξ-sectional curvature of tangent sphere bundles are investigated.
In particular, tangent sphere bundles of constant holomorphic sectional cur-
vature or of constant ξ-sectional curvature are classified. (2) Hypersurface
geometry of tangent sphere bundles is developed. Tangent sphere bundles
with pseudo-parallel shape operator or η-parallel shape operator are classi-
fied.

Introduction
In his study on closed geodesics on ovaloids, H. Poincaré introduced a Rie-
mannian metric on the unit tangent sphere bundles of ovaloids.
S. Sasaki [28, II] generalized Poincaré’s Riemannian metric to the unit tangent
sphere bundles over arbitrary Riemannian manifolds. The Riemannian metric
due to Poincaré and Sasaki is now referred as the Sasaki lift metric. The Sasaki
lift metric together with canonical contact structure on the unit tangent sphere
bundle defines a contact metric structure. The Reeb vector field (characteristic
vector field) ξ of the canonical contact structure is traditionally called the geodesic
spray or geodesic flow vector field. The geodesic spray plays a fundamental role
in the study of geodesics. See [21].
Differential geometry of (unit) tangent sphere bundles have been studied ex-
tensively from two viewpoints: (1) Riemannian geometric viewpoints and (2)

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 53C20, 53D10, 53C42.

Key words and phrases. Tangent sphere bundles, contact metric manifolds, pseudo-parallel
hypersurfaces.
1125
1126 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

contact geometric (or CR-geometric) viewpoints. From Riemannian geometric

viewpoints, it is shown that the local symmetry is a too strong restriction for the
tangent sphere bundles.
In fact, by a result due to D. E. Blair [4], the tangent sphere bundle T (r) M of
a Riemannian manifold M with radius r is locally symmetric if and only if M is
flat or a surface of constant positive curvature 1/r2 .
E. Boeckx and G. Calvaruso [7] generalized this result. More precisely they
showed that T (r) M is semi-symmetric if and only if M is flat or a surface of
constant positive curvature 1/r2 . The present authors showed that the tangent
sphere bundle of a Riemannian 2-manifold is pseudo-symmetric if and only if the
base surface is of constant curvature.
Boeckx pointed out that Riemannian geometry of tangent sphere bundles de- √
pends on the radius. For example, the tangent sphere bundle of radius 1/ 2
equipped with (normalized) Sasaki lift metric is isometric to the unit tangent
sphere bundle with metric induced from the Cheeger-Gromoll metric.
O. Kowalski, M. Sekizawa and Z. Vlášek, [23], [24] studied curvature properties
of tangent sphere bundles. In particular, they showed that the sign of the scalar
curvature of the tangent sphere bundles over constant positive curvature spaces
depends on the radius.
For Riemannian geometry of tangent sphere bundles, we refer to a survey article
[9] due to Boeckx and Vanhecke.
From contact geometric viewpoints, Y. Tashiro [30] showed that the unit tan-
gent sphere bundle is K-contact if and only if the base manifold is of constant
curvature 1. Local ϕ-symmetry of unit tangent sphere bundles is studied by
Boeckx and L. Vanhecke. See [8] and references therein. Th. Koufogiorgos [22]
studied holomorphic sectional curvatures of tangent sphere bundles. The charac-
teristic Jacobi operator with respect to Tanaka-Webster connection of the tangent
sphere bundles was investigated by S. H. Chun and the first named author [12].
For more informations on contact metric geometry of tangent sphere bundles,
see [9] and [11].
The present paper has two purposes. First, we shall study curvature properties
of tangent sphere bundles. We generalize Koufogiorgos’ result [22] on unit tangent
sphere bundles to tangent sphere bundles of arbitrary radii. Next, we shall study
tangent sphere bundles with constant ξ-sectional curvature. More precisely, in
Section 2, we shall show that a tangent sphere bundle of radius r has constant
ξ-sectional curvature if and only if the base manifold is of constant curvature 0
or 1/r2 .
 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1127

The second purpose is to study tangent sphere bundles as hypersurfaces in the

tangent bundles.
As far as the authors know, there are very few works on hypersurface geometry
of tangent sphere bundles.
In Section 3, we study covariant derivative of the shape operator in detail. By
using the explicit formulas of covariant derivative of the second fundamental form
(shape operator), we shall study extrinsic symmetries of tangent sphere bundles.
As an extrinsic analogue of local symmetry, we can classify tangent sphere
bundles with parallel second fundamental form. As in the case of local symmetry,
the property “parallel second fundamental form” is still a strong restriction for
tangent sphere bundles. In fact we shall show that the tangent sphere bundle has
parallel second fundamental form if and only if the base manifold is flat.
More generally, the second fundamental form is pseudo-parallel if and only if
the base manifold is flat.
Thus, unfortunately, extrinsic symmetry is still a strong restriction for tangent
sphere bundles.
In the differential geometry of real hypersurfaces in complex projective space
CPn , the non-existence of semi-parallel real hypersurfaces was obtained by S. Maeda
[25] (n ≥ 3) and R. Niebergall and P. J. Ryan [27] (n = 2) . In stead of par-
allelism or semi-parallelism, the notion of η-parallelism for real hypersurfaces is
introduced.
Standard real hypersurfaces (so-called type A and type B real hypersurfaces)
are characterized as the only Hopf hypersurface with η-parallel second fundamen-
tal form in complex projective space and complex hyperbolic space ([20], [29]).
These results motivate us to study η-parallel tangent sphere bundles. In the
final section, we shall prove that the tangent sphere bundle is η-parallel if and
only if the base manifold is of constant curvature.

1. Tangent sphere bundles

1.1. Let M be an n-manifold with tangent bundle T M . Every element of T M
is a tangent vector of M and can be represented as a pair (x; u), where x is a
point of M and u is a tangent vector of M at x. The tangent space of M at x
is denoted by Tx M . Denote by π the natural projection of T M . Take a local
coordinate system (x1 , x2 , · · · , xn ) then this coordinate system induces a local
coordinate system on T M :

(x̄1 , x̄2 , · · · , x̄n ; u1 , u2 , · · · , un ), x̄i := xi ◦ π, ui := dxi .

1128 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

The natural projection π : T M → M induces a foliation V = Ker (dπ). This

foliation and its associated distribution are called the vertical foliation and vertical
subbundle of T M .
Two linear spaces Tx M and Vu have same dimensions. Moreover there exists
a canonical linear isomorphism v : Tx M → Vu , called the vertical lift.
In fact, for any tangent vector w ∈ Tx M with local expression:
∂
w = wi ,
∂xi x

the vertical lift wv to Tu (T M ) is defined by

∂
(1.1) wv = wi .
∂ui u
This definition is independent of the choice of local coordinate system.
We can easily see that
(1.2) wu = (wv )u , u, w ∈ Tx M.
Namely the canonical isomorphism Tx M → Tu (Tx M ) is a vertical lift operation
Tx M → Vu ⊂ Tu (T M ). Thus we conclude that
(1.3) Vu = Tu (Tx M ), x ∈ M, u ∈ Tx M.
This fundamental fact implies the following isomorphism of vector bundles:
π∗ T N ∼
= V.
Here π ∗ T M is the pulled back bundle of T M by π : T M → M .
It is easy to check that
∂
(1.4) U = ui
∂ui
is a vertical vector field globally defined on T M . This definition of U is indepen-
dent of the choice of local coordinate system. The vertical vector field U is called
the canonical vertical vector field of T M . The canonical vertical vector field U is
regarded as the position vector field of T M .

1.2. Now let (M, g) be a Riemannian manifold. Then the Levi-Civita connection
∇ defines a splitting of the tangent bundle T (T M ) of T M :
T (T M ) = H ⊕ V.
The complimentary subbundle H is called the horizontal distribution of T M de-
termined by ∇. For a vector X ∈ Tx M , the horizontal lift of X to a point
 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1129

u = (x; u) ∈ T M is a unique vector X h ∈ Hu such that π∗u Xuh = X. The vertical

and horizontal lifting operations are extended naturally to those for vector fields.
The canonical almost complex structure J = J∇ of T M associated to ∇ is
defined by
JX h = X v , JX v = −X h , X ∈ Γ (T M ).
The Sasaki lift metric g S of T M is defined by ([28]):
g S (X h , Y h ) ◦ π = g S (X v , Y v ) ◦ π = g(X, Y ), g S (X h , Y v ) ◦ π = 0,
for all X, Y ∈ Γ (T M ).
One can see that g S is Hermitian with respect to J. Moreover the resulting
almost Hermitian manifold (T M, g S , J) is an almost Kähler manifold.
Proposition 1.1. ([17]) The canonical almost complex structure J is integrable
if and only if (M, g) is flat.
The Levi-Civita connection ∇S of the Sasaki-lift metric is given by:

1
(1.5) (∇SX h Y h )u = (∇X Y )hu − {R(X, Y )u}v ,
2
1
(1.6) (∇SX h Y v )u = − {R(Y, u)X}h + (∇X Y )vu ,
2
1
(1.7) (∇SX v Y h )u = − {R(X, u)Y }hu ,
2
(1.8) (∇SX v Y v )u = 0.
For general theory of almost Kähler structure of (T M, g S ), we refer to [4] and
[26].
1.3. The tangent sphere bundle of radius r > 0 is the hypersurface
T (r) M := {(x; u) ∈ T M | gx (u, u) = r2 }.
One can see that n := U /r is a global unit normal vector field to T (r) M . We
denote by ḡ the Riemannian metric on T (r) M induced by g S .
For any vector filed X ∈ Γ (T M ), its horizontal lift X h is tangent to T (r) M
at each point u ∈ T (r) M . Yet, in general, the vertical lift X v is not tangent to
T (r) M . Boeckx and Vanhecke [8] introduced the following new lifting operation;
The tangential lift X t of X is a vector field defined by
(1.9) Xut = Xuv − ḡu (X v , n)n, u, X ∈ Tx M.
One can see that
1
Xut = Xuv − gx (X, u)n.
r
1130 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Proposition 1.2. The tangent space Tu (T (r) M ) of T (r) M at a point u = (x; u)

is given by

(1.10) Tu (T (r) M ) = {X h + Y t | X, Y ∈ Tx M, gx (Y, u) = 0 }.

The induced metric ḡ is given by

ḡu (X h , Y h ) = gx (X, Y ),
ḡu (X h , Y t ) = 0,
1
ḡu (X t , Y t ) = gx (X, Y ) − g(X, u)g(Y, u)
r2

for arbitrary vector fields X and Y on M . Take a vector field Y on M . Then the
correspondence u ∈ T (r) M 7→ g(Y, u) is naturally regarded as a smooth function
on T (r) M . The derivatives of this function by X h and X t are computed as

X h (g(Y, u)) = g(∇X Y, u),

X t (g(Y, u)) = g(X, Y ) ◦ π − g(X, u)g(Y, u).

¯ of (T (r) M, ḡ) is computed as

The Levi-Civita connection ∇

¯ X h Y h )u 1
(1.11) (∇ = (∇X Y )hu − {R(X, Y )u}t ,
2
¯ X h Y t )u 1
(1.12) (∇ = − {R(Y, u)X}h + (∇X Y )tu ,
2
¯ X t Y h )u 1
(1.13) (∇ = − {R(X, u)Y }hu ,
2
¯ X t Y t )u 1
(1.14) (∇ = − 2 gx (Y, u)Xut
r

for arbitrary vector fields X and Y on M .

1.4. Now we collect the formulas for the Riemannian curvature R̄ of (T (r) M, ḡ)
from [24]. In order to simplify the curvature formulas, we make the following
convention.
The tangential lift operation t : Tx M → Tu (T (r) M ) is applied only to the
tangent vectors of Tx M which are orthogonal to u.
 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1131

(1.15) R̄u (X h , Y h )Z h
= {R(X, Y )Z}hu
1 h
+ [R(R(Y, Z)u, u)X − R(R(X, Z)u, u)]u
4
1
− {R(R(X, Y )u, u)Z}hu
2
1
+ {(∇Z R)(X, Y )u}tu
2

(1.16) R̄u (X h , Y h )Z t
1 h
= [(∇X R)(u, Z)Y − (∇Y R)(u, Z)X]u
2
+{R(X, Y )Z}tu
1 t
+ [R(R(u, Z)Y, X)u − R(R(u, Z)X, Y )u]u
4

(1.17) R̄u (X h , Y t )Z h
1
= {(∇X R)(u, Y )Z}hu
2
1 1
+ {R(X, Z)Y }tu − {R(X, R(u, Y )Z)u}tu
2 4

(1.18) R̄u (X h , Y t )Z t
1 1
= − {R(Y, Z)X}hu − {R(u, Y )R(u, Z)X}hu ,
2 4

(1.19) R̄u (X t , Y t )Z h
1 h
= {R(X, Y )Z}hu + [R(u, X)R(u, Y )Z − R(u, Y )R(u, X)Z]u ,
4

(1.20) R̄u (X t , Y t )Z t
1 t
= 2 [g(Y, Z)X − g(Z, X)Y ]u .
r
1132 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

2. Associated contact metric structure

2.1. An odd-dimensional Riemannian manifold (M, g) admits an almost contact
metric structure compatible to g if it admits a vector field ξ, one-form η and an
endomorphism field ϕ such that

ϕ2 = −I + η ⊗ ξ, η(ξ) = 1,
g(ϕX, ϕY ) = g(X, Y ) − η(X)η(Y ),

for all X, Y ∈ Γ (T M ).
An odd-dimensional Riemannian manifold (M, g) together with an almost con-
tact metric structure is called an almost contact metric manifold.
A plane section P ⊂ Tx M of an almost contact metric manifold is said to be
holomorphic if it is invariant under ϕx , i.e., ϕx (P ) = P .

2.2. The almost Kähler structure (J, g S ) of the tangent bundle T M of a Rie-
mannian manifold (M, g) induces an almost contact metric structure (ϕ, ξ, η, ḡ)
on the tangent sphere bundle T (r) M in the following way.

(2.1) JE = ϕE + η(E)n, E ∈ Γ (T (T (r) M )),

(2.2) ξ = −Jn.

The Reeb vector field ξ is given explicitly by

h
ui

∂
ξ= .
r ∂xi

Note that for the unit tangent bundle T (1) M , ξ is called the spray [1] or geodesic
flow vector field [28].
Direct computation show that the following formula;

ḡ(E, ϕF ) = 2r dη(E, F ), E, F ∈ Γ (T (T (r) M )).

This formula implies the following equation:

(2.3) ¯ E ξ, F ) − ḡ(∇
ḡ(E, ϕF ) = r{ḡ(∇ ¯ F ξ, E)}.
 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1133

The almost contact structure of T (r) M satisfies

ϕXuh = X t ,
1
ϕXut = −Xuh + g(X, u)ξu ,
r
h 1
ηu (X ) = gx (X, u),
r
ηu (X t ) = 0,
for all vector fields X and Y on M . The covariant derivative of ξ is given by

(2.4) ¯ X h ξ = − 1 {R(X, u)u}tu ,

∇
2r
¯ 1 1
(2.5) ∇X t ξ = − ϕXut − {R(X, u)u}hu .
r 2r
From (2.3), one can see that ξ is a Killing vector field if and only if
¯ E ξ = − 1 ϕ E,
∇
2r
where ∇ ¯ is the Levi-Civita connection of (T (r) M, ḡ).
The Killing property of ξ is characterized by Tashiro [30]–[31] as follows (see
also [3, p. 136]):
Proposition 2.1. On the tangent sphere bundle T (r) M , ξ is Killing if and only
if M is of constant curvature 1/r2 .
Remark. An almost contact metric manifold (M, g; ϕ, ξ, η) is said to be a contact
metric manifold if it satisfies
dη(X, Y ) = g(X, ϕY ), X, Y ∈ Γ (T M ).
If one wish to normalize the structure tensors on T (r) M to adopt with contact
metric geometry [3], the following normalization is required:
1 1
η̃ = η, ξ˜ = 2rξ, ϕ̃ = ϕ, g̃ = 2 ḡ.
2r 4r
˜ η̃, g̃) is a contact metric manifold (in the sense of [3]).
Then (T (r) M, ϕ̃, ξ,
Now, we prove
Theorem 2.2. Let M be an n-dimensional Riemannian manifold, n > 2, of
constant curvature c. The tangent sphere bundle (T (r) M, ḡ) has constant holo-
√
morphic sectional curvature if and only if M is of constant curvature c = 2±r2 5 .
2 2
In this case, the holomorphic sectional curvature is c 4r .
1134 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Proof. Take a tangent plane P ⊂ Tu (T (r) M ) spanned by X1h + Y1t and X2h + Y2t
which are orthonormal. Then we have |X1 |2 + |Y1 |2 = |X2 |2 + |Y2 |2 = 1, and
gx (X1 , X2 ) = gx (Y1 , Y2 ) = 0. Moreover, assume that P is holomorphic, that is
ϕ(X1h + Y1t ) = X1t − Y1h . So, we may choose X2 = −Y1 and Y2 = X1 . Here, we
recall the sectional curvature formula due to [23]:
1
K̄(P ) =g(Rx (X1 , X2 )X2 , X1 ) + 3gx (X1 , X2 )Y2 , Y1 ) + |Y1 |2 |Y2 |2
r2
3 1 1
− |Rx (X1 , X2 )u|2 + |Rx (u, Y2 )X1 |2 + |Rx (u, Y1 )X2 |2
4 4 4
1
+ g(Rx (u, Y1 )X2 , Rx (u, Y2 )X1 ) − g(Rx (u, Y1 )X1 , Rx (u, Y2 )X2 )
2
+ g((∇X1 R)x (u, Y1 )X2 , X1 ) + g((∇X2 R)x (u, Y1 )X1 , X2 ).

Then by using this sectional curvature formula, we can show that if T (r) M is of
constant holomorphic sectional curvature, then M is of constant curvature as in
the similar way to [22].
Now we assume that M is of constant curvature c, then we obtain
1
K̄(P ) =c|X1 |2 |Y1 |2 + 3c|X1 |2 |Y1 |2 + |Y1 |2 |Y1 |2
r2
c2 c2 c2
+ |X1 |4 r2 + |Y1 |4 r2 − |X1 |2 |Y1 |2 r2
4 4 2
1 c2 r2 c2 r 2
=(4c + 2 − )|X1 |2 |Y1 |2 + (1 − 2|X1 |2 |Y1 |2 )
r 2 4
c2 r2 1
= + (4c + 2 − c2 r2 )|X1 |2 |Y1 |2 .
4 r
So, (T (r) M, ḡ) is of constant
√
holomorphic sectional curvature if and only if 4c +
1 2 2 2± 5 c2 r 2
r 2 − c r = 0 or c = r 2 , when the holomorphic sectional curvature is 4 . 

Corollary 2.3. ([22]) Let M be a Riemannian n-manifold of constant curvature c

of dimension n > 2. Then the unit tangent sphere bundle T (1) M with normalized
metric g̃ has constant holomorphic
√ sectional curvature if and only if M is of
constant curvature c = 2 ± 5. In this case, the holomorphic sectional curvature
is c2 .

As in contact metric geometry, we define two self-adjoint tensor fields h = 12 Lξ ϕ

and ` = R̄(·, ξ)ξ where L denotes Lie differentiation. Then it is shown that :

h(ξ) = 0 = `(ξ), hϕ = −ϕh.

 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1135

Moreover, we have

(2.6) ¯ = − 1 ϕ − ϕh,
∇ξ
2r

(2.7) ∇¯ ξ h = 1 ϕ − ϕh − ϕ`
4r2
(cf. [3], [6]). The ξ-sectional curvature σ(E) of a plane determined by {E, ξ} for
unit vector field E orthogonal to ξ is defined by σ(E) = ḡ(R̄(E, ξ)ξ, E). Suppose
that T (r) M has constant ξ-sectional curvature k. Then immediately we get
ḡu (R̄(F, ξ)ξ, F ) = kḡu (F, F )
for any vector field F ⊥ ξ. Moreover, we have the equivalent condition to this:
(2.8) ` = k(I − η ⊗ ξ),
where I denotes the identity transformation. But, from (2.7) we get

(2.9) ¯ ξ h) + 1 (I − η ⊗ ξ) − h2 .
` = ϕ(∇
4r2
From (2.8) and (2.9), we have
¯ ξ h) = (k − 1
ϕ(∇ )I − η ⊗ ξ + h2 .
4r2
or
(2.10) ¯ ξ h = ( 1 − k)ϕ − ϕh2 .
∇
4r2
From (2.10) we get
¯ ξ h = 0, 1
(2.11) ∇ h2 = ( − k)(I − η ⊗ ξ).
4r2
From the latter equation of (2.11), we easily have
Proposition 2.4. Suppose that T (r) M has constant ξ-sectional curvature k.
Then k ≤ 4r12 . If k = 4r12 , then M is K-contact. If k < 4r12 , then h restricted on
q
the contact distribution D = Ker η has two constant eigenvalues λ = 4r12 − k
and −λ with multiplicity n, respectively.
In order to compute ∇¯ ξ h, we first determine h. From (2.6) we have h =
¯ ξ + ϕ , so by using (2.4) and (2.5) it gives
ϕ∇ 1 2
2r
1 h 1 1
(2.12) hX h = − X + 2 gx (X, u)ξ + (Ru X)h ,
2r 2r 2r
1 t 1
(2.13) hX t = X − (Ru X) .t
2r 2r
1136 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Here Ru = R(·, u)u is the Jacobi operator with respect to the unit vector u. In
succeeding, from (2.12) and (2.13) by using (1.11) and (1.12) we obtain
¯ ξ h)X h = 1 1 1
(∇ (R0 X)h + 2 (Ru2 X)t − 2 (Ru X)t ,
2r2 u 2r 2r
(∇¯ ξ h)X t = − 1 (Ru X)h + 1 (Ru2 X)h − 1 (Ru0 X)t ,
2r2 2r2 2r2
where Ru0 = (∇u R)(·, u)u. Thus, we have
Theorem 2.5. The tangent sphere bundle (T (r) M, ḡ) has constant ξ-sectional
curvature if and only if M is of constant curvature c = 0 or c = 1/r2 , in the
latter case ξ is a Killing vector field.
Proof. We use the first equation of (2.11). Then from the above two equations
we have Ru0 X = 0, which implies (M, g) is a locally symmetric space (cf. [19],
[32]), and further we have Ru2 X − Ru X = 0. Thus we see that the eigenvalues of
Ru are constant and equal to 0 or 1, i.e., (M, g) is a globally Osserman space (i.e.,
the eigenvalues of Ru do not depend on the point x and not on the choice of unit
vector u at x). However, a locally symmetric globally Osserman space is locally
flat or locally isometric to a rank one symmetric space (cf. [2], [12]). Therefore,
we conclude that M is a space of constant curvature c = 0 or c = 1/r2 . In the
latter case, ξ is a Killing vector field. 

3. Extrinsic symmetries of tangent sphere bundles

3.1. Let (M, g) be a Riemannian manifold with its Levi-Civita connection ∇. A
tensor field F of type (1, 3);
Ψ : Γ (T M ) × Γ (T M ) × Γ (T M ) → Γ (T M )
is said to be curvature-like provided that Ψ has the symmetric properties of R.
For example,
(3.1) (X ∧ Y )Z = g(Y, Z)X − g(Z, X)Y, X, Y ∈ Γ (T M )
defines a curvature-like tensor field on M .
Every curvature-like tensor field Ψ acts on the space Γ (Ts1 (M )) of all smooth
sections of the tensor bundle Ts1 (M ) of type (1, s) on M as a derivation:
(F · Ψ)(X1 , · · · , Xs ; Y, X) = F (X, Y ){Ψ(X1 , · · · , Xs )}
Xs
− Ψ(X1 , · · · , F (X, Y )Xj , · · · , Xs ),
j=1

X1 , · · · , Xs ∈ Γ (T M ), Ψ ∈ Γ (Ts1 (M )).
 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1137

The derivative F · Ψ of Ψ by F is a tensor field of type (1, s + 2).

For a tensor filed Ψ of type (1, s), we denote the by Q(g, Ψ) the derivative of
Ψ with respect to the curvature-like tensor defined by (3.1).
A tensor field Ψ is said to be semi-parallel if R·Ψ = 0. More generally, Ψ is said
to be pseudo-parallel if there exists a function L such that (R · Ψ) = L Q(g, Ψ).
In particular, a pseudo-parallel tensor field Ψ is said to be proper if L 6= 0.
In particular, Ψ is said to be semi-parallel if R · Ψ = 0.

Definition 1. A Riemannian manifold (M, g) is said to be

• locally symmetric if R is parallel (∇R = 0).
• semi-symmetric if R is semi-parallel (R · R = 0).
• pseudo-symmetric if R is pseudo-parallel, i.e., R · R = L Q(g, R) for some
function L.

3.2. Both the local symmetry and conformal flatness are a very strong restrictions
for tangent sphere bundles. In fact, Blair and Koufogiorgos obtained the following
results.

Theorem 3.1. ([4]) The unit tangent sphere bundle T (1) M of a Riemannian
manifold M equipped with adjusted metric g̃ = ḡ/(4r2 ) is locally symmetric if and
only if either M is flat or M is a surface of constant curvature 1.

Theorem 3.2. ([5]) The unit tangent sphere bundle T (1) M of a Riemannian
manifold M equipped with adjusted metric g̃ is conformally flat if and only if M
is a surface of constant curvature 0 or 1.

Recently, Boeckx and Calvaruso generalized Theorem 3.1 as follows:

Theorem 3.3. ([7]) If the unit tangent sphere bundle (T (1) M, g̃) is semi-symmetric
then it is locally symmetric.

Recently, (only in the case, dim M = 2), the present authors generalized
Boeckx-Calvaruso’s result as follows:

Theorem 3.4 ([15]). The tangent sphere bundle T (r) M of a Riemannian 2-

manifold (M 2 , g) is pseudo-symmetric if and only if M is of constant curvature.

More generally, pseudo-symmetric contact metric 3-manifolds are investigated

in [13], [14], [16], [18].
As extrinsic analogues of the above intrinsic symmetries, we study the following
extrinsic symmetries for hypersurfaces:
1138 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Definition 2. Let (M, g) ⊂ (N, h) be an isometrically immersed hypersurface

in a Riemannian manifold N with unit normal vector filed n. Denote by A the
shape operator of M derived from n. Then M is said to be
• a parallel hypersurface if A is parallel (∇A = 0).
• a semi-parallel hypersurface if A is semi-parallel (R · A = 0).
• a pseudo-parallel hypersurface if A is pseudo-parallel, i.e., R·A = L Q(g, A)
for some function L.
3.3. Now we study hypersurface geometry of the tangent sphere bundles. The
shape operator A of T (r) M derived from n is defined by A = −∇S n. From
(1.5)–(1.11), we get
1
AX h = 0, AX t = − X t .
r
(r)
From these, one can see that T M can not be totally umbilical. The covariant
derivatives of A are given by

{(∇¯ X h A)Y h }u = − 1 {R(X, Y )u}t ,

2r
1
¯ X h A)Y t }u = {R(Y, u)X}t ,
{(∇
2r
¯ X t A)Y h }u = {(∇
{(∇ ¯ X t A)Y t }u = 0.
Hence we get
Proposition 3.5. The tangent sphere bundle T (r) M is a parallel hypsersurface
of T M if and only if (M, g) is flat.
¯ ξ A = 0.
Note that A is parallel if and only if ∇

3.4. Now we compute R̄ · A.

1
(3.2) {(R̄(X h , Y h )A)Z h }u = {(∇Z R)(X, Y )u}tu ,
2r
1 h
(3.3) {(R̄(X h , Y h )A)Z t }u = − [(∇X R)(u, Z) − (∇Y R)(u, Z)]u ,
2r
1 t
(3.4) {(R̄(X h , Y t )A)Z h }u = [2R(X, Z)Y − R(X, R(u, Y )Z)u]u ,
4r
1 1
(3.5) {(R̄(X h , Y t )A)Z t }u = {R(Y, Z)X}hu + {R(u, Y )R(u, Z)X}hu ,
2r 4r

(3.6) {(R̄(X t , Y t )A)Z h }u = 0,

 TANGENT SPHERE BUNDLES 1139

(3.7) {(R̄(X t , Y t )A)Z t }u = 0.

The equation (3.2) shows that if R̄ · A = 0, then M is locally symmetric.
Next, we consider the pseudo-parallel property of T (r) M , that is
R̄(E, F ) · A = L(E ∧ F ) · A
for some constant L. We compute
L((X h ∧ Y h )A)Z h = 0
L((X h ∧ Y h )A)Z t = 0
L
L((X h ∧ Y t )A)Z h = − g(Z, X)Y t
r
L
L((X h ∧ Y t )A)Z t = − g(Y, Z)X h
r
L((X t ∧ Y t )A)Z h = 0
L((X t ∧ Y t )A)Z t = 0

From (3.2)-(3.7) and the above equations, we see that T (r) M is a pseudo-parallel
hypersurface of T M if and only if M is locally symmetric and M satisfies
(3.8) 2R(X, Z)Y − R(X, R(u, Y )Z)u = −4Lg(Z, X)Y,
(3.9) 2R(Y, Z)X + R(u, Y )R(u, Z)X = −4Lg(Y, Z)X
for any vector fields X, Z and Y ⊥ u. If we put Z = u in (3.8) and taking the
u-component of it, then we obtain Ru X = 0. Thus by the similar arguments in
the proof of Theorem 2.2 we have

Theorem 3.6. The tangent sphere bundle T (r) M is a pseudo-parallel hypersur-

face of T M if and only if (M, g) is flat.

Corollary 3.7. The tangent sphere bundle T (r) M is a semi-parallel hypersurface

of T M if and only if (M, g) is flat.

4. η-parallel tangent sphere bundles

As we saw in the preceding section, pseudo-parallelism is a strong restriction
for tangent sphere bundles.
In the differential geometry of real hypersurfaces in Kähler manifolds, η-parallelism
of the shape operator was introduced. In particular, η-parallel Hopf real hypersur-
faces in complex projective space and complex hyperbolic space were completely
classified by Kimura and Maeda [20] and Y. J. Suh [29].
1140 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

¯ E A)F is proportional to ξ for any

Let us consider η-parallelism, that is, (∇
vector fields E,F orthogonal to ξ for tangent sphere bundles.
Theorem 4.1. For a Riemannian n-manifold M with n > 2, the tangent sphere
bundle T (r) M is an η-parallel hypersurface of T M if and only if (M, g) is of
constant curvature.
¯
Proof. From the equations for ∇A, T (r) M is a η-parallel hypersurface if and
only if
gx (R(X, Y )u, Y ) = 0
for an orthogonal triple X, Y, u. Then by the result of Cartan ([10]), we see that
M is of constant curvature when n ≥ 3. 
Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank professors Masami Sek-
izawa and Kouei Sekigawa for their useful comments.
The first named author was supported by National Research Foundation of
Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (2009-0071643).

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1142 JONG TAEK CHO AND JUN-ICHI INOGUCHI

Received February 23, 2009

(J. T. C) Department of Mathematics, Chonnam National University, CNU The

Institute of Basic Science, Kwangju, 500–757, Korea
E-mail address: jtcho@chonnam.ac.kr

(J. I.) Department of Mathematics Education, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya,

321-8505, Japan
E-mail address: inoguchi@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp

(Current address) Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science,

Yamagata University, Yamagata, 990-8560, Japan
E-mail address: inoguchi@sci.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp