• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.661-679
• /
• 1995

The concept of the structure conformal vector field C on a Sasakian manifold M is defined. The existence of such a C on M is determined by an exterior differential system in involution. In this case M is a foliate manifold and the vector field C enjoys the property to be exterior concurrent. This allows to prove some interesting properties of the Ricci tensor and Obata's theorem concerning isometries to a sphere. Different properties of the conformal Lie algebra induced by C are also discussed.