Vacuum static spaces and Conformal vector fields

Abstract: In this paper, we show that if a compact $n$-dimensional vacuum static space $(M^n, g, f)$ admits a non-trivial closed conformal vector field $V$, then $(M, g)$ is isometric to a standard sphere ${\Bbb S}^n(c)$. We also prove that if a pair $(g, f)$ of a Riemannian metric and a function defined on a compact $n$-dimensional manifold $M^n$ satisfies the critical point equation and $(M, g)$ admits a non-trivial closed conformal vector field $V$, we have the same result. Finally, we prove a criterion for a nontrivial conformal vector field to be closed.