The Riemannian Bianchi identities of metric connections with skew torsion and generalized Ricci solitons

Abstract

Curvature properties of a metric connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion are investigated. It is shown that if either the 3-form $T$ is harmonic, $dT=\delta T=0$ or the curvature of the torsion connection $R\in S^2\Lambda^2$ then the scalar curvature of a $\nabla$-Einstein manifold is determined by the norm of the torsion up to a constant. It is proved that a compact generalized gradient Ricci soliton with closed torsion is Ricci flat if and only if either the norm of the torsion or the Riemannian scalar curvature are constants. In this case the torsion 3-form is harmonic and the gradient function has to be constant. Necessary and sufficient conditions a metric connection with skew torsion to satisfy the Riemannian first Bianchi identity as well as the contracted Riemannian second Binachi identity are presented. It is shown that if the torsion connection satisfies the Riemannian first Bianchi identity then it satisfies the contracted Riemannian second Bianchi identity. It is also proved that a metric connection with skew torsion satisfying the curvature identity $R(X,Y,Z,V)=R(Z,Y,X,V)$ must be flat.