I'm trying to work out the details of this example by R. Bryant. He considers a Riemannian manifold $(N ^n, h)$ of constant sectional curvature $k$ and constructs the following quadratic form on $\mathbb{R}^+ \times N$:
$$ g = \frac{\mathrm{d}u^2}{k-a\,u^2+ b\,u^{1-n}} + u^2\,h $$
on $M^{n+1} = \mathbb{R}^+\times N$, where $a$ and $b$ are constants and $u>0$ is the coordinate on $\mathbb{R}^+$. It is clear that If $I\subset\mathbb{R}^+$ is an interval on the $u$-line on which $k-a\,u^2+ b\,u^{1-n} >0$, then $g$ is a Riemannian metric on $I\times N$. There are several claims of his that I thought would follow from straightforward calculations that I'm having a hard time verifying, though. One of them is the following: according to Bryant, the scalar curvature of this metric ($g$) is constant and equal to $$S = n(n{+}1)a$$
Here's how I tried to calculate the scalar curvature: letting $\psi(u) = (k-a\,u^2+ b\,u^{1-n})^{-1}$, we can define a metric $\widetilde{g}$ on $I$ by setting $\widetilde{g} = \psi \cdot \mathrm{d} u^2$. This allows us to see $g$ as a warped product $g = \widetilde{g} + u^2 h$. This is useful because the scalar curvature of a warped product has been calculated before several times in the literature. We have the following formula for a general multiply warped product:
Let $M = B \times_{h_1} N_1^{d_1} \times \cdots \times_{h_k} N_{k}^{d_k}$ be a multiply warped product with metric $g = g_{B} \oplus h_1^2 g_{N_1} \oplus \cdots \oplus h_{k}^2 g_{N_k}$. Then the scalar curvature of $M$ is given by $$ \begin{aligned} R_{M} = R_{B} &- 2 \sum_{1 \leq i \leq k} d_i \frac{\Delta_B h_i}{h_i} + \sum_{1 \leq i \leq k} \frac{R_{N_i}}{h_i^2} - \sum_{1 \leq i \leq k} d_i(d_i - 1) \frac{\| \text{grad}_B h_i \|_B^2}{h_i^2} \\ &+ \sum_{1 \leq i \leq k} \sum_{\substack{1 \leq \ell \leq k \\ \ell \neq i \\ }} d_i d_{\ell} \frac{g_B(\text{grad}_B h_i, \text{grad}_B h_{\ell})}{h_i h_{\ell}} \end{aligned} $$
So let's use this for our specific example, where $M = I \times N$. Since $B = I$ is one-dimensional, $R_B = 0$. Furthermore, we have the following formula for the Laplacian of a conformal change of metric (which we'll apply to $\widetilde{g} = \psi \cdot \mathrm{d} u^2 = e^{2 \varphi} \cdot \mathrm{d} u^2$, where $\varphi = \frac{\ln(\psi)}{2}$)
$$ \Delta_{\widetilde{g}} = e^{-2 \varphi} \Delta_g + (n-2) e^{-2 \varphi} g^{ij} \frac{\partial \varphi}{\partial x_j} \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i} $$
In our case, we have $\Delta_{ \mathrm{d} u^2} u = 0$, which leads to
$$\Delta_{\widetilde{g}} u = - \psi^{-1} \widetilde{g}^{11} (\partial_{1} \varphi) = - \psi^{-1} \cdot \left(au + \frac{1}{2} b (n-1) u^{-n} \right)$$
Therefore:
$$- 2 \frac{n}{u} \Delta_{\widetilde{g}} u = \psi^{-1} \cdot \left( 2 n a + bn(n-1)u^{-n-1} \right)$$
It is also trivial that $\|\nabla u \|^2_{\widetilde{g}} = \psi$, and since $N$ has constant sectional curvature $k$, it is in particular an Einstein manifold with $R_{N} = n(n-1)k$. So we get:
$$R_{M} =\psi^{-1} \cdot \left( 2 n a + bn(n-1)u^{-n-1} \right) + \frac{n(n-1)k}{u^2}- \frac{n(n-1) \psi}{u^2}$$
instead of $R_M = n(n+1) a$, as Bryant states. So I probably made a mistake in my calculations, but despite having tried really hard several times now, I fail to see where such a mistake could have occurred. Can anyone spot any mistakes in my calculations? I'd really appreciate any help (if anyone can think of an easier way to calculate the scalar curvature, please let me know!). Thanks in advance!
EDIT: My mistake was in claiming "It is also trivial that $\|\nabla u \|^2_{\widetilde{g}} = \psi$". It is most definitely not trivial. It is in fact wrong. While $\mathrm{d} f$ does not depend on the metric $g$, the vector field $\nabla f$ DOES depend on the metric. Moreover, doing the calculations via the moving frame method (as per Deane's answer) is a lot better.