Date of Award
2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate Group
Mathematics
First Advisor
Wolfgang Ziller
Abstract
The curvature tensor is the most important isometry invariant of a Riemannian metric.
We study several related conditions on the curvature tensor to obtain topological and geo-
metrical restrictions. The first condition is the that the kernel of the curvature tensor has
codimension either two or three. In which case, we conclude that positive curvature can
only occur on topologically trivial manifolds (for arbitrary dimension when the kernel is
codimension two and only in dimension 4 for codimension three kernel). In the last half, we
study the three dimensional manifolds with constant Ricci eigenvalues (λ, λ, 0). We obtain
new examples of these, show that the fundamental group is free under basic assumptions,
and give more explicit descriptions of the general case of these metrics.
Recommended Citation
Brooks, Thomas Gunnison, "Riemannian Geometry Of The Curvature Tensor" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2872.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2872