A pseudo-Riemannian manifold endowed with k > 2 orthogonal complementary distributions (called a Riemannian almost multi-product structure) appears in such topics as multiply warped products, the webs composed of several foliations, Dupin hypersurfaces and in studies of the curvature and Einstein equations. In this article, we consider the following two problems on the mixed scalar curvature of a Riemannian almost multi-product manifold with a linear connection: a) integral formulas and applications to splitting of manifolds, b) variation formulas and applications to the mixed Einstein-Hilbert action, and we generalize certain results on the mixed scalar curvature of pseudo-Riemannian almost product manifolds.

We examine the total mixed scalar curvature of a smooth manifold endowed with a distribution as a functional of a pseudo-Riemannian metric. We develop variational formulas for quantities of extrinsic geometry of the distribution and use this key and technical result to find the critical points of this action. Together with the arbitrary variations of the metric, we consider also variations that preserve the volume of the manifold or partially preserve the metric (e.g., on the distribution). For each of those cases, we obtain the Euler-Lagrange equation and its several solutions. Examples of critical metrics that we find are related to various fields of geometry such as contact and 3-Sasakian manifolds, geodesic Riemannian flows, codimension-one foliations, and distributions of interesting geometric properties (e.g., totally umbilical and minimal).

We develop variation formulas on almost-product (e.g. foliated) pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, and we consider variations of metric preserving orthogonality of the distributions. These formulae are applied to Einstein-Hilbert type actions: the total mixed scalar curvature and the total extrinsic scalar curvature of a distribution. The obtained Euler-Lagrange equations admit a number of solutions, e.g., twisted products, conformal submersions and isoparametric foliations. The paper generalizes recent results about the actions on codimension-one foliations for the case of arbitrary (co)dimension.

We continue our study of the mixed Einstein–Hilbert action as a functional of a pseudo-Riemannian metric and a linear connection. Its geometrical part is the total mixed scalar curvature on a smooth manifold endowed with a distribution or a foliation. We develop variational formulas for quantities of extrinsic geometry of a distribution on a metric-affine space and use them to derive Euler–Lagrange equations (which in the case of space-time are analogous to those in Einstein–Cartan theory) and to characterize critical points of this action on vacuum space-time. Together with arbitrary variations of metric and connection, we consider also variations that partially preserve the metric, e.g., along the distribution, and also variations among distinguished classes of connections (e.g., statistical and metric compatible, and this is expressed in terms of restrictions on contorsion tensor). One of Euler–Lagrange equations of the mixed Einstein–Hilbert action is an analog of the Cartan spin connection equation, and the other can be presented in the form similar to the Einstein equation, with Ricci curvature replaced by the new Ricci type tensor. This tensor generally has a complicated form, but is given in the paper explicitly for variations among semi-symmetric connections.

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