Critical metrics of the volume functional on complete manifolds
In this article, we investigate critical metrics of the volume functional on complete manifolds without boundary. We prove that any critical metric of the volume functional on a connected, complete manifold with parallel Ricci tensor is isometric to one of the standard models. Moreover, we show that a Bach-flat critical metric of the volume functional on a complete, simply connected manifold with proper potential function is isometric to one of the following: the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^n$, Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$, hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^n$, or a warped product $\mathbb{R} \times_{\varphi} \Sigma_c$, where $\Sigma_c$ is a regular level set of the potential function. In particular, we establish classification results in dimensions three and four under weaker assumptions on the Bach tensor.