Solvable extensions of negative Ricci curvature of filiform Lie groups

Abstract

We give necessary and sufficient conditions of the existence of a left-invariant metric of strictly negative Ricci curvature on a solvable Lie group the nilradical of whose Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ is a filiform Lie algebra $\mathfrak{n}$. It turns out that such a metric always exists, except for in the two cases, when $\mathfrak{n}$ is one of the algebras of rank two, $L_n$ or $Q_n$, and $\mathfrak{g}$ is a one-dimensional extension of $\mathfrak{n}$, in which cases the conditions are given in terms of certain linear inequalities for the eigenvalues of the extension derivation.