Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/ii/paper-1/37d/d/solution

The Killing equation gives and . Commuting derivatives once and contracting the Ricci identity gives
Therefore, using the contracted Bianchi identity and symmetry of ,
Since is antisymmetric, swapping the two contracted index names shows that the left side equals its derivative-antisymmetrized form:
Now set . The right side is the contracted commutator . By the curvature commutator on a covariant tensor, it is a sum of contractions of the symmetric Ricci tensor with the antisymmetric tensor , and hence vanishes. Thus
so the Killing vector preserves scalar curvature.

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