The Prescribed Ricci Curvature Problem on Three-Dimensional Unimodular Lie Groups

Abstract: Let G be a three-dimensional unimodular Lie group, and let T be a left-invariant symmetric (0, 2)-tensor field on G. We provide the necessary and sufficient conditions on T for the existence of a pair (g, c) consisting of a left-invariant Riemannian metric g and a positive constant c such that Ric(g) = cT, where Ric(g) is the Ricci curvature of g. We also discuss the uniqueness of such pairs and show that, in almost all cases, there exists at most one positive constant c such that Ric(g) = cT is solvable for some left-invariant Riemannian metric g.