Classification of superpotentials for cohomogeneity one Ricci solitons

Abstract

We classify superpotentials for the Hamiltonian system corresponding to the cohomogeneity one gradient Ricci soliton equations. Aside from recovering known examples of superpotentials for steady solitons, we find a new superpotential on a specific case of the Bérard Bergery–Calabi ansatz. The latter is used to obtain an explicit formula for a steady complete soliton with an equidistant family of hypersurfaces given by circle bundles over $S^2\times S^2$. There are no superpotentials in the non-steady case in dimensions greater than 2, even if polynomial coefficients are allowed. We also briefly discuss generalised first integrals and the limitations of some known methods of finding them.