Given a geodesic inside a simply-connected, complete, non-positively curved Riemannian (NPCR) manifold M, we get an associated geodesic inside the asymptotic cone Cone(M). Under mild hypotheses, we show that if the latter is contained inside a bi-Lipschitz flat, then the original geodesic supports a non-trivial, orthogonal, parallel Jacobi field. As applications we obtain (1) constraints on the behavior of quasi-isometries between complete, simply connected, NPCR manifolds, and (2) constraints on the NPCR metrics supported by certain manifolds, and (3) a correspondence between metric splittings of complete, simply connected NPCR manifolds, and metric splittings of its asymptotic cones. Furthermore, combining our results with the Ballmann-Burns-Spatzier rigidity theorem and the classic Mostow rigidity, we also obtain (4) a new proof of Gromov's rigidity theorem for higher rank locally symmetric spaces.
We prove that if a geodesic metric measure space satisfies a comparison condition for isoperimetric profile and if the observable variance is maximal, then the space is foliated by minimal geodesics, where the observable variance is defined to be the supremum of the variance of 1-Lipschitz functions on the space. Our result can be considered as a variant of Cheeger-Gromoll's splitting theorem and also of Cheng's maximal diameter theorem. As an application, we obtain a new isometric splitting theorem for a complete weighted Riemannian manifold with a positive Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature.
Conformally compact asymptotically hyperbolic metrics have been intensively studied. The goal of this note is to understand what intrinsic conditions on a complete Riemannian manifold (M,g) will ensure that g is asymptotically hyperbolic in this sense. We use the geodesic compactification by asymptotic geodesic rays to compactify M and appropriate curvature decay conditions to study the regularity of the conformal compactification. We also present an interesting example that shows our conclusion is nearly optimal for our assumptions.
We give a definition of weak geodesics on prox-regular subsets of Riemannian manifolds as continuous curves with some weak regularities. Then obtaining a suitable Lipschitz constant of the projection map, we characterize weak geodesics on a prox-regular set with assigned end points as viscosity critical points of the energy functional.
Let $M$ be a differentiable manifold, $T_xM$ be its tangent space at $x\in M$ and $TM=\{(x,y);x\in M;y \in T_xM\}$ be its tangent bundle. A $C^0$-Finsler structure is a continuous function $F:TM \rightarrow \mathbb [0,\infty)$ such that $F(x,\cdot): T_xM \rightarrow [0,\infty)$ is an asymmetric norm. In this work we introduce the Pontryagin type $C^0$-Finsler structures, which are structures that satisfy the minimum requirements of Pontryagin's maximum principle for the problem of minimizing paths. We define the extended geodesic field $\mathcal E$ on the slit cotangent bundle $T^\ast M\backsl…
Let $X$ be a Hadamard manifold with pinched negative curvature $-b^2\leqκ\leq -1$. Suppose $Σ\subseteq X$ is a totally geodesic, codimension-1 submanifold and consider the geodesic flow $Φ^ν_t$ on $X$ generated by a unit normal vector field $ν$ on $Σ$. We say the normal growth exponent of $Σ$ in $X$ is at most $β$ if \[ \lim_{t \rightarrow \pm \infty} \frac{ \Vert d Φ_t^ν\Vert_{\infty} }{ e^{β\vert t \vert}} < \infty, \] where $\Vert d Φ_t^ν\Vert_{\infty} $ is the supremum of the operator norm of $d Φ_t^ν$ over all points of $Σ$. We show that if $Σ$ is bi-Lipschitz to hyperbolic $n$-space $\ma…
This paper is connected with the problem of describing path metric spaces that are homeomorphic to manifolds and biLipschitz homogeneous, i.e., whose biLipschitz homeomorphism group acts transitively. Our main result is the following. Let $X = G/H$ be a homogeneous manifold of a Lie group $G$ and let $d$ be a geodesic distance on $X$ inducing the same topology. Suppose there exists a subgroup $G_S$ of $G$ that acts transitively on $X$, such that each element $g \in G_S$ induces a locally biLipschitz homeomorphism of the metric space $(X,d)$. Then the metric is locally biLipschitz equivalent to…
We find a different approach to define convex functions in the sub-Riemannian setting. A function on a sub-Riemannian manifold is nonholonomically geodesic convex if its restriction to any nonholonomic (straightest) geodesic is convex. In the case of Carnot groups, this definition coincides with that by Danniell-Garofalo-Nieuhn (equivalent to that by Lu-Manfredi-Stroffolini). Nonholonomic geodesics are defined using the horizontal connection. A new distance corresponding to the horizontal connection has been introduced and near regular points proven to be equivalent to the Carnot-Carathèodory …
We show the existence of a global unique and analytic solution for the mean curvature flow, the surface diffusion flow and the Willmore flow of entire graphs for Lipschitz initial data with small Lipschitz norm. We also show the existence of a global unique and analytic solution to the Ricci-DeTurck flow on euclidean space for bounded initial metrics which are close to the euclidean metric in $L^\infty$ and to the harmonic map flow for initial maps whose image is contained in a small geodesic ball.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a complete simply connected $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with curvature bounds $\operatorname{Sect}_g\leq κ$ for $κ\leq 0$ and $\operatorname{Ric}_g\geq(n-1)Kg$ for $K\leq 0$. We prove that for any bounded domain $Ω\subset M^n$ with diameter $d$ and Lipschitz boundary, if $Ω^*$ is a geodesic ball in the simply connected space form with constant sectional curvature $κ$ enclosing the same volume as $Ω$, then $σ_1(Ω) \leq C σ_1(Ω^*)$, where $σ_1(Ω)$ and $ σ_1(Ω^*)$ denote the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalues of $Ω$ and $Ω^*$ respectively, and $C=C(n,κ, K, d)$ is an explic…
