Some Unstable Critical Metrics for $L^{\frac{n}{2}}$-norm of the Curvature Tensor

Abstract

We consider the Riemannian functional defined on the space of Riemannian metrics with unit volume on a closed smooth manifold $M$ given by $\mathcal{R}_{\frac{n}{2}}(g):= \int_M |R(g)|^{\frac{n}{2}}dv_g$ where $R(g)$, $dv_g$ denote the Riemannian curvature and volume form corresponding to $g$. We show that there are locally symmetric spaces which are unstable critical points for this functional.