Conformal diffeomorphisms preserving the Ricci tensor

Abstract

We characterize semi-Riemannian manifolds admitting a global conformal transformation such that the difference of the two Ricci tensors is a constant multiple of the metric. Unless the conformal transformation is homothetic, the only possibilities are standard Riemannian spaces of constant sectional curvature and a particular warped product with a Ricci flat Riemannian manifold.