Second covariant derivative of a Killing vector

For a Killing vector field and the curvature convention $[{\nabla }_{\mu },{\nabla }_{\nu }]V^{\alpha }=R^{\alpha }{}_{\beta \mu \nu }{V}^{\beta }$,The identity follows by combining the Ricci identity, Killing equation, and first Bianchi identity.

Every Killing vector field $K$ preserves the scalar curvature: ${\mathcal{L}}_{K}R=K^{\alpha }{\nabla }_{\alpha }R=0$. One index proof rewrites this derivative as a doubly contracted curvature commutator acting on the antisymmetric tensor ${\nabla }_{[\mu }{K}_{\lambda ]}$; both terms vanish by symmetry of the Ricci tensor.