## “Noncommutative heat equation” — a strange generalization of Killing vectors for a flat metric

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Let $(M,g)$ be a smooth (pseudo)Riemannian manifold with a flat metric $g$, and $X$, $Y$ be vector fields on $M$ such that $$L_X^2 (g)=L_Y(g). \hspace{70mm} \mbox{(1)}$$ where $L_Z$ is the Lie derivative along $Z$ and $L_X^2(g)\equiv L_X(L_X(g))$.

If $X=0$ then $Y$ is just a Killing vector for $g$ but

is there any (geometric?) interpretation for $X$ and $Y$ in the general case?

In fact I wonder whether Eq.(1), be it for fixed $g$ and unknown $X,Y$ or conversely for fixed $X,Y$ and unknown $g$, was studied systematically at all: I failed to find any relevant references.

Motivation: Equation (1) follows from the last formula in Proposition 5 from a paper on classification of compatible Hamiltonian structures that I have recently come across. It looks a bit like the heat equation for the metric, hence the title.

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## 1 Answer

Here is an observation which does not answer the question, but does at least tell where not to look for examples. It is shown that for compact Riemannian manifolds with non-positive Ricci curvature there are no interesting solutions to the stated equations, so to find interesting solutions one must look: a. in positive curvature, b. at indefinite metrics, c. on noncompact manifolds, or d. in infinite dimensions.

Suppose $M$ is compact and $g$ is Riemannian. It is claimed that if $g$ has non-positive Ricci curvature, then either the Ricci curvature of $g$ is somewhere negative and both $X$ and $Y$ are $0$, or $g$ is Ricci flat and both $X$ and $Y$ are parallel. To begin with, do not suppose anything about the Ricci curvature of $g$. Let $D$ be its Levi-Civita connection and raise and lower indices using `$g_{ij}$` and the inverse symmetric bivector `$g^{ij}$`. In what follows I use the abstract index notations, so square brackets (resp. parentheses) denote anti-symmetrization (resp. symmetrization) over the enclosed indices.

For any metric `$(L_{X}g)_{ij} = 2D_{(i}X_{j)}$` and ```\begin{equation}\label{e1}
(L_{X}^{2}g)_{ij} =  X^{p}D_{p}(L_{X}g)_{ij} + (D_{i}X^{p})(L_{X}g)_{pj} + (D_{j}X^{p})(L_{X}g)_{ip}. 
\end{equation}``` Trace this to obtain ```\begin{equation}\label{e2}
g^{ij}(L_{X}^{2}g)_{ij} = 2X^{p}D_{p}D^{q}X_{q} + 4D^{(p}X^{q)}D_{(p}X_{q)}. 
\end{equation}``` By assumption this equals `$g^{ij}(L_{Y}g)_{ij} = 2D^{p}Y_{p}$`. Since by assumption $M$ is compact and without boundary, integration by parts yields ```\begin{align}\label{e3} 
0 = 4\int_{M}D^{(p}X^{q)}D_{(p}X_{q)} - 2\int_{M}(D_{p}X^{p})^{2}.
\end{align}``` In general, this yields no obvious conclusions. Go back to the equation preceeding the integration and commute derivatives to obtain ```\begin{align}\label{e4}
g^{ij}(L_{X}^{2}g)_{ij} = 2X^{p}D^{q}D_{p}X_{q} + 4D^{(p}X^{q)}D_{(p}X_{q)} -2R_{pq}X^{p}X^{q},
\end{align}``` in which `$R_{ij}$` is the Ricci curvature of `$g_{ij}$`. Now integrating by parts yields ```\begin{align}\label{e5}
\begin{split}0 &= \int_{M}\left(4D^{(p}X^{q)}D_{(p}X_{q)} - 2D^{q}X^{p}D_{p}X_{q} - 2R_{pq}X^{p}X^{q}\right)\\
 & = 2\int_{M}\left(D^{(p}X^{q)}D_{(p}X_{q)} + D^{[p}X^{q]}D_{[p}X_{q]} -R_{pq}X^{p}X^{q}\right).
\end{split}
\end{align}``` Because $g$ is Riemannian, if the Ricci curvature is non-positive this implies that `$D_{(i}X_{j)} = 0$` and `$D_{[i}X_{j]} = 0$` so that `$D_{i}X_{j} = 0$` and $X$ is parallel. In the original equation this implies $Y$ is Killing. By the original Bochner argument, if the Ricci curvature is non-positive and somewhere negative then there is no non-zero Killing field, so the only possibility for non-trivial solutions is that $g$ be Ricci flat, in which case the Bochner argument forces $Y$ to be parallel.

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+1 : very nice observation.  – Willie Wong Dec 1 2010 at 10:44
Interesting! Thank you, Dan! – anonymous Dec 2 2010 at 8:55
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