Bochner identity for Killing vector fields

ID: bochner-identity-for-killing-vector-fields

On a closed Riemannian manifold, a Killing vector field satisfies for the nonnegative rough Laplacian. This follows by differentiating , contracting and commuting covariant derivatives; the contraction also gives . Taking the inner product with and using integration by parts gives the displayed identity. If Ricci curvature is nonpositive, the nonnegative left side must vanish, so is a parallel vector field. In particular every Killing vector field on a closed flat Riemannian manifold is a parallel vector field.

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