Quasi-Einstein Metrics and a curvature identity associated with the Ricci flow

Abstract

Quasi-Einstein manifolds are well-studied generalizations of Einstein manifolds. This includes gradient Ricci solitons and has a natural correspondence with the warped product Einstein manifolds. A quasi-Einstein metric is said to be rigid when it reduces to an Einstein metric. On a different note, Einstein metrics can be viewed as fixed points of the Ricci flow up to homothety. While gradient Ricci solitons are generalized fixed points of the Ricci flow, not much is known, in general, about the evolution of quasi-Einstein metrics under the Ricci flow. In this paper, we employ an identity associated to the evolution of curvature along the Ricci flow, to conclude the rigidity of certain closed quasi-Einstein manifolds.