Our main aim is to present a geometrically meaningful formula for the fundamental solutions to a second order sub-elliptic differential equation and to the heat equation associated with a sub-elliptic operator in the sub-Riemannian geometry on the unit sphere $\mathbb S^3$. Our method is based on the Hamiltonian approach, where the corresponding Hamitonian system is solved with mixed boundary conditions. A closed form of the modified action is given. It is a sub-Riemannian invariant and plays the role of a distance on $\mathbb S^3$.
In this paper we construct smooth Riemannian metrics on the sphere which admit smooth Zoll families of minimal hypersurfaces. This generalizes a theorem of Guillemin for the case of geodesics. The proof uses the Nash-Moser Inverse Function Theorem in the tame maps setting of Hamilton. This answers a question of Yau on perturbations of minimal hypersurfaces in positive Ricci curvature. We also consider the case of the projective space and characterize those metrics on the sphere with minimal equators.
The key condition A3w of Ma, Trudinger and Wang for regularity of optimal transportation maps is implied by the nonnegativity of a pseudo-Riemannian curvature -- which we call cross-curvature -- induced by the transportation cost. For the Riemannian distance squared cost, it is shown that (1) cross-curvature nonnegativity is preserved for products of two manifolds; (2) both A3w and cross-curvature nonnegativity are inherited by Riemannian submersions; and (3) the $n$-dimensional round sphere satisfies cross-curvature nonnegativity. From these results, a large new class of Riemannian manifolds …
We prove the existence of branched immersed constant mean curvature 2-spheres in an arbitrary Riemannian 3-sphere for almost every prescribed mean curvature, and moreover for all prescribed mean curvatures when the 3-sphere is positively curved. To achieve this, we develop a min-max scheme for a weighted Dirichlet energy functional. There are three main ingredients in our approach: a bi-harmonic approximation procedure to obtain compactness of the new functional, a derivative estimate of the min-max values to gain energy upper bounds for min-max sequences for almost every choice of mean curvat…
Given a 3-dimensional Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, we prove that if $(Φ_k)$ is a sequence of Willmore spheres (or more generally area-constrained Willmore spheres), having Willmore energy bounded above uniformly strictly by $8 π$, and Hausdorff converging to a point $\bar{p}\in M$, then $Scal(\bar{p})=0$ and $\nabla Scal(\bar{p})=0$ (resp. $\nabla Scal(\bar{p})=0$). Moreover, a suitably rescaled sequence smoothly converges, up to subsequences and reparametrizations, to a round sphere in the euclidean 3-dimensional space. This generalizes previous results of Lamm and Metzger contained in \cite{…
We show that a Riemannian foliation on a topological $n$-sphere has leaf dimension 1 or 3 unless n=15 and the Riemannian foliation is given by the fibers of a Riemannian submersion to an 8-dimensional sphere. This allows us to classify Riemannian foliations on round spheres up to metric congruence.
Singular Riemannian Foliations are particular types of foliations on Riemannian manifolds, in which leaves locally stay at a constant distance from each other. Singular Riemannian Foliations in round spheres play a special role, since they provide "infinitesimal information" about general Singular Riemannian Foliations. In this paper we show that Singular Riemannian Foliations in spheres, of dimension at most 3, are orbits of an isometric group action.
We determine the lengths of all closed sub-Riemannian geodesics on the three-sphere. Our methods are elementary and allow us to avoid using explicit formulas for the sub-Riemannian geodesics.
We discuss the integrability of orthogonal almost complex structures on Riemannian products of even-dimensional round spheres and give a partial answer to the question raised by E. Calabi concerning the existence of complex structures on a product manifold of a round 2-sphere and a round 4-sphere.
In this paper, we study biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface into and biharmonic Riemannian submersion from 3-dimensional Berger spheres. We obtain a classification of proper biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface with constant mean curvature into Berger 3-spheres. We also give a complete classification of proper biharmonic Hopf tori in Berger 3-sphere. For Riemannian submersions, we prove that a Riemannian submersion from Berger 3-spheres into a surface is biharmonic if and only if it is harmonic.
The unit sphere $\mathbb S^3$ can be identified with the unitary group SU(2). Under this identification the unit sphere can be considered as a non-commutative Lie group. The commutation relations for the vector fields of the corresponding Lie algebra define a 2-step sub-Riemannian manifold. We study sub-Riemannian geodesics on this sub-Riemannian manifold making use of the Hamiltonian formalism and solving the corresponding Hamiltonian system.
We prove that any Riemannian two-sphere with area at most 1 can be continuously mapped onto a tree in a such a way that the topology of fibers is controlled and their length is less than 7.6. This result improves previous estimates and relies on a similar statement for Riemannian two-disks.
In this paper we give bounds for the first eigenvalue of the conformal Laplacian and the Yamabe invariant of a compact Riemannian manifold, by using conditions on the Ricci curvature and the diameter and deduce certain conditions on the manifold to be conformal to a sphere.
The present paper shows that for a given integer k greater than 2 it is possible to construct an at least k-differentiable Riemannian metric on the sphere of a certain dimension such that the cut locus of a point of it becomes a fractal. Moreover, we show that this construction can be extended to the case of Finsler sphere as well.
We prove the existence of immersed closed curves of constant geodesic curvature in an arbitrary Riemannian 2-sphere for almost every prescribed curvature. To achieve this, we develop a min-max scheme for a weighted length functional.
Using representations of Clifford algebras we construct indecomposable singular Riemannian foliations on round spheres, most of which are non-homogeneous. This generalizes the construction of non-homogeneous isoparametric hypersurfaces due to by Ferus, Karcher and Munzner.
We consider a $3$-dimensional differentiable manifold with two circulant structures -- a Riemannian metric and an additional structure, whose third power is the identity. The structure is compatible with the metric such that an isometry is induced in any tangent space of the manifold. Further, we consider an associated metric with the Riemannian metric, which is necessary indefinite. We find equations of a sphere and of a circle, which are given in terms of the associated metric, with respect to the Riemannian metric.
The following Theorem is proved: Let M be an n-dimensional (n>2) submanifold of a Riemannian manifold N. Suppose that through each point p of M there exist two (n-1)-dimensional extrinsic spheres of N, which are contained in M in a neighbourhood of p and are tangent to each other at p. Then M is totally geodesic in N or an extrinsic sphere of N.
A contact metric manifold is said to be $H$-contact, if the characteristic vector field is harmonic. We prove that the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold $M$ equipped with the standard contact metric structure is $H$-contact if and only if $M$ is $2$-stein.
We consider the sub-Riemannian $3$-sphere $(\mathbb{S}^3,g_h)$ obtained by restriction of the Riemannian metric of constant curvature $1$ to the planar distribution orthogonal to the vertical Hopf vector field. It is known that $(\mathbb{S}^3,g_h)$ contains a family of spherical surfaces $\{\mathcal{S}_λ\}_{λ\geq 0}$ with constant mean curvature $λ$. In this work we first prove that the two closed half-spheres of $\mathcal{S}_0$ with boundary $C_0=\{0\}\times\mathbb{S}^1$ minimize the sub-Riemannian area among compact $C^1$ surfaces with the same boundary. We also see that the only $C^2$ solut…
We extend the Lyapunov-Schmidt analysis of outlying stable CMC spheres in the work of S. Brendle and the second-named author to the "far-off-center" regime and to include general Schwarzschild asymptotics. We obtain sharp existence and non-existence results for large stable CMC spheres that depend very delicately on the behavior of scalar curvature at infinity.
In this paper we study almost complex and almost para-complex Cayley structures on six-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian spheres in the space of purely imaginary octaves of the split Cayley algebra $\mathbf{Ca}'$. It is shown that the Cayley structures are non-integrable, their basic geometric characteristics are calculated. In contrast to the usual Riemann sphere $\mathbb{S}^6$, there exist (integrable) complex structures and para-complex structures on the pseudospheres under consideration.
We show that every paracomplex space form is locally isometric to a modified Riemannian extension and give necessary and sufficient conditions so that a modified Riemannian extension is Einstein. We exhibit Riemannian extension Osserman manifolds of signature (3,3) whose Jacobi operators have non-trivial Jordan normal form and which are not nilpotent. We present new four dimensional results in Osserman geometry.
We define a class of Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian 2-step nilpotent Lie groups with nondegenerate centers that generalize the H-type groups of Kaplan. Examples are given and geometric properties are investigated.
The paper is devoted to the variational analysis of the Willmore, and other L^2 curvature functionals, among immersions of 2-dimensional surfaces into a compact riemannian m-manifold (M^m,h) with m>2. The goal of the paper is twofold, on one hand, we give the right setting for doing the calculus of variations (including min max methods) of such functionals for immersions into manifolds and, on the other hand, we prove existence results for possibly branched Willmore spheres under various constraints (prescribed homotopy class, prescribed area) or under curvature assumptions for M^m. To this ai…
Let $(M, g)$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold that is asymptotic to Schwarzschild with positive mass and whose scalar curvature vanishes. We \textsl{unconditionally} characterize the large, embedded stable constant mean curvature spheres in $(M, g)$.
We construct a co-dimension $3$ completely non-holonomic sub-bundle on the Gromoll-Meyer exotic $7$ sphere based on its realization as a base space of a Sp(2)-principal bundle with the structure group Sp(1). The same method is valid for constructing a co-dimension 3 completely non-holonomic sub-bundle on the standard 7 sphere (or more general on a $4n+3$ dimensional standard sphere). In the latter case such a construction based on the Hopf bundle is well-known. Our method provides an alternated simple proof for the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^7$.
The famous theorems of Cartan, related to the axiom of $r$-planes, and Leung-Nomizu about the axiom of $r$-spheres were extended to Kähler geometry by several authors. In this paper we replace the strong notions of totally geodesic submanifolds ($r$-planes) and extrinsic spheres ($r$-spheres) by a wider class of special isometric immersions such that theorems of type "axioms of $r$-special submanifolds" could hold. We verify also that there are plenty of special submanifolds in real and complex space forms and, in the codimension one case, in Einstein manifolds.
In this article we study the sub-Riemannian geometry of the spheres $S^{2n+1}$ and $S^{4n+3}$, arising from the principal $S^1-$bundle structure defined by the Hopf map and the principal $S^3-$bundle structure given by the quaternionic Hopf map respectively. The $S^1$ action leads to the classical contact geometry of $S^{2n+1}$, while the $S^3$ action gives another type of sub-Riemannian structure, with a distribution of corank 3. In both cases the metric is given as the restriction of the usual Riemannian metric on the respective horizontal distributions. For the contact $S^7$ case, we give a…
Inspired by the Lichnerowicz-Obata theorem for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian, we define a new family of invariants $\{Ω_k(g)\}$ for closed Riemannian manifolds. The value of $Ω_k(g)$ delicately reflects the spherical part of the manifold. Indeed, $Ω_1(g)$ and $Ω_2(g)$ characterize the standard sphere.
The simple length spectrum of a Riemannian manifold is the set of lengths of its simple closed geodesics. We prove a theorem claimed by Lusternik: in any Riemannian 2-sphere whose simple length spectrum consists of only one element L, any geodesic is simple closed with length L.
We use the modified Riemannian extension of an affine surface to construct Bach flat manifolds. As all these examples are VSI (vanishing scalar invariants), we shall construct scalar invariants which are not of Weyl type to distinguish them. We illustrate this phenomena in the context of homogeneous affine surfaces.
We consider the conformal class of the Riemannian product $g_0 + g$, where $g_0$ is the constant curvature metric on $S^m$ and $g$ is a metric of constant scalar curvature on some closed manifold. We show that the number of metrics of constant scalar curvature in the conformal class grows at least linearly with respect to the square root of the scalar curvature of $g$. This is obtained by studying radial solutions of the equation $Δu -λu + λu^p =0$ on $S^m$, and the number of solutions in terms of $λ$.
Let $M$ be a Riemannian $2$-sphere. A classical theorem of Lyusternik and Shnirelman asserts the existence of three distinct simple non-trivial periodic geodesics on $M$. In this paper we prove that there exist three simple periodic geodesics with lengths that do not exceed $20d$, where $d$ is the diameter of $M$. We also present an upper bound that depends only on the area and diameter for the lengths of the three simple periodic geodesics with positive indices that appear as minimax critical values in the classical proofs of the Lyusternik-Shnirelman theorem. Finally, we present better bound…
Let $M$ be a complete Sasakian sub-Riemannian $3$-manifold of constant Webster scalar curvature $κ$. For any point $p\in M$ and any number $λ\in\mathbb{R}$ with $λ^2+κ>0$, we show existence of a $C^2$ spherical surface $\mathcal{S}_λ(p)$ immersed in $M$ with constant mean curvature $λ$. Our construction recovers in particular the description of Pansu spheres in the first Heisenberg group and the sub-Riemannian $3$-sphere. Then, we study variational properties of $\mathcal{S}_λ(p)$ related to the area functional. First, we obtain uniqueness results for the spheres $\mathcal{S}_λ(p)$ as critical…
We prove that the systolic ratio of a sphere of revolution $S$ does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if $S$ is Zoll. More generally, we consider the rotationally symmetric Finsler metrics on a sphere of revolution which are defined by shifting the tangent unit circles by a Killing vector field. We prove that in this class of metrics the systolic ratio does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if the metric is Riemannian and Zoll.
We define a new version of the exterior derivative on the basic forms of a Riemannian foliation to obtain a new form of basic cohomology that satisfies Poincaré duality in the transversally orientable case. We use this twisted basic cohomology to show relationships between curvature, tautness, and vanishing of the basic Euler characteristic and basic signature.
We give a sufficient condition ensuring that the mean curvature flow commutes with a Riemannian submersion and we use this result to create new examples of evolution by mean curvature flow. In particular we consider evolution of pinched submanifolds of the sphere, of the complex projective space, of the Heisenberg group and the tangent sphere bundle equipped with the Sasaki metric.
In this paper we develop new methods of study of generalized normal homogeneous Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we obtain a complete classification of generalized normal homogeneous Riemannian metrics on spheres. We prove that for any connected (almost effective) transitive on $S^n$ compact Lie group $G$, the family of $G$-invariant Riemannian metrics on $S^n$ contains generalized normal homogeneous but not normal homogeneous metrics if and only if this family depends on more than one parameters. Any such family (that exists only for $n=2k+1$) contains a metric $g_{\can}$ of constant sect…
For a singular Riemannian foliation $\mathcal{F}$ on a Riemannian manifold, a curve is called horizontal if it meets the leaves of $\mathcal{F}$ perpendicularly. For a singular Riemannian foliation $\mathcal{F}$ on a unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n}$, we show that if $\mathcal{F}$ is a polar foliation or if $\mathcal{F}$ is given by the orbits of an infinitesimally polar action, then the horizontal diameter of $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ is $π$, i.e., any two points in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ can be connected by a horizontal curve of length $\leqπ$.
The first aim of the present paper is to compare various sub-Riemannian structures over the three dimensional sphere $S^3$ originating from different constructions. Namely, we describe the sub-Riemannian geometry of $S^3$ arising through its right Lie group action over itself, the one inherited from the natural complex structure of the open unit ball in $\comp^2$ and the geometry that appears when considering the Hopf map as a principal bundle. The main result of this comparison is that in fact those three structures coincide. In the second place, we present two bracket generating distribution…
Let $M$ be an $n-$dimensional differentiable manifold equipped with a torsion-free linear connection $\nabla $ and $T^{\ast }M$ its cotangent bundle. The present paper aims to study a metric connection $\widetilde{% \nabla }$ with nonvanishing torsion on $T^{\ast }M$ with modified Riemannian extension ${}\bar{g}_{\nabla ,c}$. First, we give a characterization of fibre-preserving projective vector fields on $(T^{\ast }M,{}\bar{g}%_{\nabla ,c})$ with respect to the metric connection $\widetilde{\nabla }$. Secondly, we study conditions for $(T^{\ast }M,{}\bar{g}_{\nabla ,c})$ to be semi-symmetric…
Given a sweepout of a Riemannian 2-sphere which is composed of curves of length less than L, we construct a second sweepout composed of curves of length less than L which are either constant curves or simple curves. This result, and the methods used to prove it, have several consequences; we answer a question of M. Freedman concerning the existence of min-max embedded geodesics, we partially answer a question due to N. Hingston and H.-B. Rademacher, and we also extend the results of [CL] concerning converting homotopies to isotopies in an effective way.
Let $M$ be an $n-$dimensional differentiable manifold with a symmetric connection $\nabla $ and $T^{\ast}M$ be its cotangent bundle. In this paper, we study some properties of the modified Riemannian extension $% \widetilde{g}_{\nabla,c}$ on $T^{\ast}M$ defined by means of a symmetric $% (0,2)$-tensor field $c$ on $M.$ We get the conditions under which $T^{\ast}M $ endowed with the horizontal lift $^{H}J$ of an almost complex structure $J$ and with the metric $\widetilde{g}_{\nabla,c}$ is a Kähler-Norden manifold. Also curvature properties of the Levi-Civita connection and another metric conne…
Let $G$ be the identity component of the isometry group for an arbitrary curved two-point homogeneous space $M$. We consider algebras of $G$-invariant differential operators on bundles of unit spheres over $M$. The generators of this algebra and the corresponding relations for them are found. The connection of these generators with two-body problem on two-point homogeneous spaces is discussed.
We study a family of spheres with constant mean curvature (CMC) in the Riemannian Heisenberg group $H^1$. These spheres are conjectured to be the isoperimetric sets of $H^1$. We prove several results supporting this conjecture. We also focus our attention on the sub-Riemannian limit.
We consider generalized Hodge-Laplace operators $αd δ+ βδd$ for $α, β> 0$ on $p$-forms on compact Riemannian manifolds. In the case of flat tori and round spheres of different radii, we explicitly calculate the spectrum of these operators. Furthermore, we investigate under which circumstances they are isospectral.
In this paper, we prove a Laplacian comparison theorem for non-symmetric diffusion operator on complete smooth $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold having a lower bound of modified $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor under $m\leq 1$ in terms of vector fields. As consequences, we give the optimal conditions for modified $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor under $m\leq1$ such that the (weighted) Myers' theorem, Bishop-Gromov volume comparison theorem, Ambrose-Myers' theorem, Cheng's maximal diameter theorem, and the Cheeger-Gromoll type splitting theorem hold. Some of these results were well-studied for $m$-Ba…
A closed Riemannian manifold is said to have cross blocking if whenever distinct points p and q are at distance less than the diameter, all light rays from p can be shaded away from q with at most two point shades. Similarly, a closed Riemannian manifold is said to have sphere blocking if for each point p, all the light rays from p are shaded away from p by a single point shade. We prove that Riemannian manifolds with cross and sphere blocking are isometric to round spheres.
We show that the quantization of energy for Willmore spheres into closed Riemannian manifolds holds provided that the Willmore energy and the area are uniformly bounded. The analogous energy quantization result holds for Willmore surfaces of arbitrary genus, under the additional assumptions that the immersion maps weakly converge to a limiting (possibly branched, weak immersion) map from the same surface, and that the conformal structures stay in a compact domain of the moduli space.
In this paper we discuss the stability of geodesic spheres in $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ under constrained curvature flows. We prove that under some standard assumptions on the speed and weight functions, the spheres are stable under perturbations that preserve a volume type quantity. This extends results by Escher and Simonett, 1998, and the author, 2015, to a Riemannian manifold setting.
We study stable surfaces, i.e., second order minima of the area for variations of fixed volume, in sub-Riemannian space forms of dimension $3$. We prove a stability inequality and provide sufficient conditions ensuring instability of volume-preserving area-stationary $C^2$ surfaces with a non-empty singular set of curves. Combined with previous results, this allows to describe any complete, orientable, embedded and stable $C^2$ surface $Σ$ in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}^1$ and the sub-Riemannian sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$ of constant curvature $1$. In $\mathbb{H}^1$ we conclude that $Σ$ is a E…
We consider modified scalar curvature functions for Riemannian manifolds equipped with smooth measures. Given a Riemannian submersion whose fiber transport is measure-preserving up to constants, we show that the modified scalar curvature of the base is bounded below in terms of the scalar curvatures of the total space and fibers. We give an application concerning the scalar curvature of a smooth limit space arising in a bounded curvature collapse.
In some other context, the question was raised how many nearly Kähler structures exist on the sphere $§^6$ equipped with the standard Riemannian metric. In this short note, we prove that, up to isometry, there exists only one. This is a consequence of the description of the eigenspace to the eigenvalue $λ= 12$ of the Laplacian acting on 2-forms. A similar result concerning nearly parallel $\G_2$-structures on the round sphere $§^7$ holds, too. An alternative proof by Riemannian Killing spinors is also indicated.
This article studies the harmonicity of vector fields on Riemannian manifolds, viewed as maps into the tangent bundle equipped with a family of Riemannian metrics. Geometric and topological rigidity conditions are obtained, especially for surfaces and vector fields of constant norm, and existence is proved on two-tori. Classifications are given for conformal, quadratic and Killing vector fields on spheres. Finally, the class of metric considered on the tangent bundle is enlarged, permitting new vector fields to become harmonic.
