Journal of the
Korean Mathematical Society JKMS

In this paper, we study the $\eta$-parallelism of the Ricci operator of almost Kenmotsu $3$-manifolds. First, we prove that an almost Kenmotsu $3$-manifold $M$ satisfying $\nabla_{\xi}h=-2\alpha h \varphi$ for some constant $\alpha$ has dominantly $\eta$-parallel Ricci operator if and only if it is locally symmetric. Next, we show that if $M$ is an $H$-almost Kenmotsu $3$-manifold satisfying $\nabla_{\xi}h=-2\alpha h \varphi$ for a constant $\alpha$, then $M$ is a Kenmotsu $3$-manifold or it is locally isomorphic to certain non-unimodular Lie group equipped with a left invariant almost Kenmotsu structure. The dominantly $\eta$-parallelism of the Ricci operator is equivalent to the local symmetry on homogeneous almost Kenmotsu $3$-manifolds.

Keywords: Almost Kenmotsu manifold, local symmetry, $\eta$-parallelism

MSC numbers: Primary 53D15, 53C25, 53C30

Supported by: The first named author is partially supported by Kakenhi JP19K03461, JP23K03081.