We prove that some Riemannian manifolds with boundary under an explicit integral pinching are spherical space forms. Precisely, we show that 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with totally geodesic boundary, positive scalar curvature and an explicit integral pinching between the $L^2$-norm of their scalar curvature and the $L^2$-norm of their Ricci tensor are spherical space forms with totally geodesic boundary. Moreover, we prove also that 4-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with umbilic boundary, positive Yamabe invariant and an explicit integral pinching between the total integral of their $(Q,T)$-curvature and the $L^2$-norm of their Weyl curvature are spherical space forms with totally geodesic boundary. As a consequence of our work, we show that a certain conformally invariant operator which plays an important role in Conformal Geometry has a trivial kernel and is non-negative if the Yamabe invariant is positive and verifies a pinching condition together with the total integral of the $(Q,T)$-curvature. As an application of the latter spectral analysis, we show the existence of conformal metrics with constant $Q$-curvature, constant $T$-curvature, and zero mean curvature under the latter assumptions.
We prove a curvature pinching result for the Ricci flow on asymptotically flat manifolds: if an asymptotically flat manifold of dimension $n\geq 3$ has scale-invariant integral norm of curvature sufficiently pinched relative to the inverse of its Sobolev constant, then the Ricci flow starting from this manifold exists for all positive times and converges to flat Euclidean space. In particular our result implies that the initial manifold must have been diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^n$.
In this article, we generalize the classical Bochner-Weitzenböck theorem for manifolds satisfying an integral pinching on the curvature. We obtain the vanishing of Betti numbers under integral pinching assumptions on the curvature, and characterize the equality case. In particular, we reprove and extend to higher degrees and higher dimensions a number of integral pinching results obtained by M. Gursky for four-dimensional closed manifolds.
In this note we consider versions of both Ricci and sectional curvature pinching for Riemannian manifold with density. In the Ricci curvature case the main result implies a diameter estimate that is new even for compact shrinking Ricci solitons. In the case of sectional curvature we prove a new sphere theorem.
We show that the 2-jet bundle of local Riemannian metrics on an arbitrary differentiable manifold admits a section which pointwise fulfills the curvature relation sec(g)=a for any real number a. It follows by Gromov's h-principle for open, invariant differential relations that every noncompact differentiable manifold carries arbitrarily pinched (incomplete) Riemannian metrics.
In this paper, by using monotonicity formulas for vector bundle-valued $p$-forms satisfying the conservation law, we first obtain general $L^2$ global rigidity theorems for locally conformally flat (LCF) manifolds with constant scalar curvature, under curvature pinching conditions. Secondly, we prove vanishing results for $L^2$ and some non-$L^2$ harmonic $p$-forms on LCF manifolds, by assuming that the underlying manifolds satisfy pointwise or integral curvature conditions. Moreover, by a Theorem of Li-Tam for harmonic functions, we show that the underlying manifold must have only one end. Fi…
Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian metric of sectional curvature within $[-a^2,-1]$ whose fundamental group contains a $k$-step nilpotent subgroup of finite index. We prove that $a\ge k$ answering a question of M. Gromov. Furthermore, we show that for any $ε>0$, the manifold $M$ admits a complete Riemannian metric of sectional curvature within $[-(k+ε)^2,-1]$.
We derive various pinching results for small Dirac eigenvalues using the classification of $\text{spin}^c$ and spin manifolds admitting nontrivial Killing spinors. For this, we introduce a notion of convergence for $\text{spin}^c$ manifolds which involves a general study on convergence of Riemannian manifolds with a principal $\mathbb{S}^1$-bundle. We also analyze the relation between the regularity of the Riemannian metric and the regularity of the curvature of the associated principal $\mathbb{S}^1$-bundle on $\text{spin}^c$ manifolds with Killing spinors.
We prove an estimate for solutions to the linearized Ricci flow system on closed 3-manifolds. This estimate is a generalization of Hamilton's pinching is preserved estimate for the Ricci curvatures of solutions to the Ricci flow on 3-manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. In our estimate we make no assumption on the curvature of the initial metric. We show that the norm of the solution of the Lichnerowicz Laplacian heat equation (coupled to the Ricci flow) is bounded by a constant (depending on time) times the scalar curvature plus a constant. This relies on a Bochner type formula and establ…
We study curvature pinching estimates of Ricci flow on complete 3- dimensional manifolds without bounded curvature assumption. We will derive some general curvature conditions which are preserved on any complete solution of 3-dim Ricci flow, these conditions include nonnegative Ricci curvature and sectional curvature as special cases. A local version of Hamilton-Ivey estimates is also obtained.
The famous pinching problem says that on a compact simply connected $n$-manifold if its sectional curvature satisfies $K_{min} > (1/4)K_{max} > 0$, then the manifold is homeomorphic to the sphere. In [8, problem 12], S. T. Yau proposed the following problem: If we replace $K_{max}$ by the scalar curvature, can we deduce similar pinching theorems? In our present note we give an answer to this question in dimension $n = 4.$}
Let $M^n$ be a closed convex hypersurface lying in a convex ball $B(p,R)$ of the ambient $(n+1)$-manifold $N^{n+1}$. We prove that, by pinching Heintze-Reilly's inequality via sectional curvature upper bound of $B(p,R)$, 1st eigenvalue and mean curvature of $M$, not only $M$ is Hausdorff close and almost isometric to a geodesic sphere $S(p_0,R_0)$ in $N$, but also its enclosed domain is $C^{1,α}$-close to a geodesic ball of constant curvature.
We examine volume pinching problems of CAT(1) spaces. We characterize a class of compact geodesically complete CAT(1) spaces of small specific volume. We prove a sphere theorem for compact CAT(1) homology manifolds of small volume. We also formulate a criterion of manifold recognition for homology manifolds on volume growths under an upper curvature bound.
In early 80's M.Gromov showed that there exists a constant $ε$ such that any compact Riemannian manifold $M^n$ with $|K|_{M^n} \cdot diam^2(M^n) \leq ε$ can be finitely covered by a nilmanifold. The present paper illustrates by an explicit example that the pinching constant $ε$ depends on the dimension $n$ of the manifold, in particular, it decreases with the dimension at least as $\frac{12}{n^2}.$
Motivated by a previous work of Zheng and the second named author, we study pinching constants of compact Kähler manifolds with positive holomorphic sectional curvature. In particular we prove a gap theorem following the work of Petersen and Tao on Riemannian manifolds with almost quarter-pinched sectional curvature.
We study the mean curvature flow of smooth $n$-dimensional compact submanifolds with quadratic pinching in a Riemannian manifold $\mathcal{N}^{n+m}$. Our main focus is on the case of high codimension, $m\geq 2$. We establish a codimension estimate that shows in regions of high curvature, the submanifold becomes approximately codimension one in a quantifiable way. This estimate enables us to prove at a singular time of the flow, there exists a rescaling that converges to a smooth codimension-one limiting flow in Euclidean space. Under a cylindrical type pinching, this limiting flow is weakly co…
In this paper we consider the uniqueness problem of the constant mean curvature spheres in asymptotically flat 3-manifolds. We require the metric have the form g_{ij}=δ_{ij}+h_{ij} with h_{ij}=O_{4}(r^{-1}) and R=O(r^{-3-τ}),τ>0. We do not require the metric to be close to Schwarzschild metric in any sense or to satisfy RT conditions. We prove that, when the mass is not 0, stable CMC spheres that separate a certain compact part from infinity satisfy the radius pinching estimate r_{1}\leq Cr_{0} , which in many cases is critical to prove the uniqueness of the CMC spheres. As applications of thi…
We show that in each dimension $n\ge 10$ there exist infinite sequences of homotopy equivalent but mutually non-homeomorphic closed simply connected Riemannian $n$-manifolds with $0\le \sec\le 1$, positive Ricci curvature and uniformly bounded diameter. We also construct open manifolds of fixed diffeomorphism type which admit infinitely many complete nonnegatively pinched metrics with souls of bounded diameter such that the souls are mutually non-homeomorphic. Finally, we construct examples of noncompact manifolds whose moduli spaces of complete metrics with $\sec\ge 0$ have infinitely many co…
The goal of this article is to study the pinching problem proposed by S.-T. Yau in 1990 replacing sectional curvature by one weaker condition on biorthogonal curvature. Moreover, we classify 4-dimensional compact oriented Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative biorthogonal curvature. In particular, we obtain a partial answer to Yau Conjecture on pinching theorem for 4-dimensional compact manifolds.
We prove several finiteness results for the class $M_{a,b,G,n}$ of $n$-manifolds that have fundamental groups isomorphic to $G$ and that can be given complete Riemannian metrics of sectional curvatures within $[a,b]$ where $a\le b<0$. In particular, if $M$ is a closed negatively curved manifold of dimension at least three, then only finitely many manifolds in the class $M_{a,b,π_1(M), n}$ are total spaces of vector bundles over $M$. Furthermore, given a word-hyperbolic group $G$ and an integer $n$ there exists a positive $ε=ε(n,G)$ such that the tangent bundle of any manifold in the class $M_{…
We derive some elliptic differential inequalities from the Weitzenböck formulas for the traceless Ricci tensor of a Kähler manifold with constant scalar curvature and the Bochner tensor of a Kähler-Einstein manifold respectively. Using elliptic estimates and maximum principle, some $L^p$ and $L^\infty $ pinching results are established to characterize Kähler-Einstein manifolds among Kähler manifolds with constant scalar curvature, and others are given to characterize complex space forms among Kähler-Einstein manifolds. Finally, these pinching results may be combined to characterize complex spa…
We study the Ricci flow for initial metrics with positive isotropic curvature (strictly PIC for short). In the first part of this paper, we prove new curvature pinching estimates which ensure that blow-up limits are uniformly PIC in all dimensions. Moreover, in dimension $n \geq 12$, we show that blow-up limits are weakly PIC2. This can be viewed as a higher-dimensional version of the fundamental Hamilton-Ivey pinching estimate in dimension $3$. In the second part, we develop a theory of ancient solutions which have bounded curvature; are $κ$-noncollapsed; are weakly PIC2; and are uniformly PI…
Some new differentiable sphere theorems are obtained via the Ricci flow and stable currents. We prove that if $M^n$ is a compact manifold whose normalized scalar curvature and sectional curvature satisfy the pointwise pinching condition $R_0>σ_{n}K_{\max}$, where $σ_n\in (\frac{1}{4},1)$ is an explicit positive constant, then $M$ is diffeomorphic to a spherical space form. This gives a partial answer to Yau's conjecture on pinching theorem. Moreover, we prove that if $M^n(n\geq3)$ is a compact manifold whose $(n-2)$-th Ricci curvature and normalized scalar curvature satisfy the pointwise condi…
In this paper we prove that, under an explicit integral pinching assumption between the $L^2$-norm of the Ricci curvature and the $L^2$-norm of the scalar curvature, a closed 3-manifold with positive scalar curvature admits an Einstein metric with positive curvature. In particular this implies that the manifold is diffeomorphic to a quotient of ${\Bbb S}^3$.
In this paper, we give the full proof of a conjecture of R.Hamilton that for $(M^3, g)$ being a complete Riemannian 3-manifold with bounded curvature and with the Ricci pinching condition $Rc\geq \ep R g$, where $R>0$ is the positive scalar curvature and $\ep>0$ is a uniform constant, $M^3$ is compact. One of the key ingredients to exclude the local collapse in singularities of the Ricci flow is the use of pinching-decaying estimate. The other important part of our argument is to role out the Type III singularity complete noncompact Ricci flow with positive Ricci pinching condition. We get thi…
Let $C$ be a strictly convex domain in a $3$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded above by a constant and let $Σ$ be a constant mean curvature surface with free boundary in $C$. We provide a pinching condition on the length of the traceless second fundamental form on $Σ$ which guarantees that the surface is homeomorphic to either a disk or an annulus. Furthermore, under the same pinching condition, we prove that if $C$ is a geodesic ball of $3$-dimensional space forms, then $Σ$ is either a spherical cap or a Delaunay surface.
The goal of this paper is to investigate the rigidity of 4-dimensional manifolds involving some pinching curvature conditions. To this end, we make use of the approach of biorthogonal curvature which is weaker than the sectional curvature. Here, we prove a rigidity result for 4-dimensional compact manifolds under a suitable lower bound condition on the minimum of the biorthogonal curvature. From this, we improve the pinching constants considered by some preceding works on a rigidity result for 4-dimensional manifolds.
We study the asymptotic Dirichlet problem for the minimal graph equation on a Cartan-Hadamard manifold $M$ whose radial sectional curvatures outside a compact set satisfy an upper bound $$K(P)\le - \frac{ϕ(ϕ-1)}{r(x)^2}$$ and a pointwise pinching condition $$|K(P)|\le C_K|K(P')|$$ for some constants $ϕ>1$ and $C_K\ge 1$, where $P$ and $P'$ are any 2-dimensional subspaces of $T_xM$ containing the (radial) vector $\nabla r(x)$ and $r(x)=d(o,x)$ is the distance to a fixed point $o\in M$. We solve the asymptotic Dirichlet problem with any continuous boundary data for dimensions $n>4/ϕ+1$.
Suppose that $S^n$ is given a generic Riemannian metric with sectional curvatures which satisfy a suitable pinching condition formulated in terms of complex sectional curvatures. This pinching condition is satisfied by manifolds whose real sectional curvatures $K_r(σ)$ satisfy $$1/2 < K_r(σ) \leq 1.$$ Then the number of minimal two spheres of Morse index $λ$, for $n-2 \leq λ\leq 2n-5$, is at least $p_{3}(λ-n+2)$, where $p_{3}(k)$ is the number of $k$-cells in the Schubert cell decomposition for $G_3({\mathbb R}^{n+1})$.
In this note we characterize compact hypersurfaces of dimension $n\geq 2$ with constant mean curvature $H$ immersed in space forms of constant curvature and satisfying an optimal integral pinching condition: they are either totally umbilical or, when $n\geq 3$ and $H\neq 0$, they are locally contained in a rotational hypersurface. In dimension two, the integral pinching condition reduces to a topological assumption and we recover the classical Hopf-Chern result.
The main result of this note is that, for each $n\in \{1,2,3,\ldots\}$, there exists a Hodge metric on the $n$-th Hirzebruch surface whose positive holomorphic sectional curvature is $\frac{1}{(1+2n)^2}$-pinched. The type of metric under consideration was first studied by Hitchin in this context. In order to address the case $n=0$, we prove a general result on the pinching of the holomorphic sectional curvature of the product metric on the product of two Hermitian manifolds $M$ and $N$ of positive holomorphic sectional curvature.
In this paper we investigate the rigidity of ancient solutions of the mean curvature flow with arbitrary codimension in space forms. We first prove that under certain sharp asymptotic pointwise curvature pinching condition the ancient solution in a sphere is either a shrinking spherical cap or a totally geodesic sphere. Then we show that under certain pointwise curvature pinching condition the ancient solution in a hyperbolic space is a family of shrinking spheres. We also obtain a rigidity result for ancient solutions in a nonnegatively curved space form under an asymptotic integral curvature…
Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Pisa, Italy（比萨大学数学系）；Dipartimento di Matematica e Applicazioni ”Renato Caccioppoli”, Università di Napoli Federico II & Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Napoli, Italy（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学应用数学系与南方高等学院）；Institutionen för Matematik, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm, Sweden（皇家理工学院数学系）
The goal of this article is to study compact quasi-Einstein manifolds with boundary. We provide boundary estimates for compact quasi-Einstein manifolds simi\-lar to previous results obtained for static and $V$-static spaces. In addition, we show that compact quasi-Einstein manifolds with connected boundary and satisfying a suitable pinching condition must be isometric, up to scaling, to the standard hemisphere $\mathbb{S}_{+}^{n}.$
We investigate the convergence of the mean curvature flow of arbitrary codimension in Riemannian manifolds with bounded geometry. We prove that if the initial submanifold satisfies a pinching condition, then along the mean curvature flow the submanifold contracts smoothly to a round point in finite time. As a consequence we obtain a differentiable sphere theorem for submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold.
In this paper, we study the evolution of L2 p-forms under Ricci flow with bounded curvature on a complete non-compact or a compact Riemannian manifold. We show that under curvature pinching conditions on such a manifold, the L2 norm of a smooth p-form is non-increasing along the Ricci flow. The L^{\infty} norm is showed to have monotonicity property too.
Inspired by the study of $V$-static manifold about classification, in this article, we apply the recent results obtained by Freitas and Gomes (Compact gradient Einstein-type manifolds with boundary, 2022) to prove the rigidity results for compact gradient Einstein-type manifolds with nonempty boundary and constant scalar curvature under some suitable pinching conditions. As a special case of gradient Einstein-type manifold, we also give a rigidity result of $(m,ρ)$-quasi-Einstein manifold with boundary.
We classify compact conformally flat $n$-dimensional manifolds with constant positive scalar curvature and satisfying an optimal integral pinching condition: they are covered isometrically by either $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with the round metric, $\mathbb{S}^{1}\times \mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ with the product metric or $\mathbb{S}^{1}\times \mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ with a rotationally symmetric Derdziński metric.
In a previous paper, we proved a number of optimal rigidity results for Riemannian manifolds of dimension greater than four whose curvature satisfy an integral pinching. In this article, we use the same integral Bochner technique to extend the results in dimension three. Then, by using the classification of closed three-manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature and a few topological considerations, we deduce optimal sphere theorems for three-dimensional manifolds with integral pinched curvature.
We consider the evolution by mean curvature flow of Lagrangian submanifolds of the complex projective space CP^n. We prove that, if the initial value satisfies a suitable pinching condition, then the flow exists for all times and the manifold converges to a totally geodesic submanifold. As a corollary, we obtain that a Lagrangian submanifold satisfying our pinching condition is diffeomorphic to a real projective space.
Local Convexity and Planarity Estimates for Mean Curvature Flow
School of Mathematics；Statistics \& Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Analysis；Applications (Ministry of Education), Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, P.R.China
The gradient shrinking $ρ$-Einstein soliton is a triple $(M^n,g,f)$ such that $$R_{ij}+f_{ij}=(ρR+λ) g_{ij},$$ where $(M^n,g)$ is a Riemannian manifold, $λ>0, ρ\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\{0\}$ and $f$ is the potential function on $M^n$. In this paper, using algebraic curvature estimates and the Yamabe-Sobolev inequality, we prove some integral pinching rigidity results for compact gradient shrinking $ρ$-Einstein solitons.
In this short note, as a simple application of the strong result proved recently by Böhm and Wilking, we give a classification on closed manifolds with 2-nonnegative curvature operator. Moreover, by the new invariant cone constructions of Böhm and Wilking, we show that any complete Riemannian manifold (with dimension $\ge 3$) whose curvature operator is bounded and satisfies the pinching condition $R\ge δR_{I}>0$, for some $δ>0$, must be compact. This provides an intrinsic analogue of a result of Hamilton on convex hypersurfaces.
In this note we prove that a four-dimensional compact oriented half-confor\-mally flat Riemannian manifold $M^4$ is topologically $\mathbb{S}^{4}$ or $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{2},$ provided that the sectional curvatures all lie in the interval $[\frac{3\sqrt{3}-5}{4},\,1].$ In addition, we use the notion of biorthogonal (sectional) curvature to obtain a pinching condition which guarantees that a four-dimensional compact manifold is homeomorphic to a connected sum of copies of the complex projective plane or the $4$-sphere.
We consider the problem of deforming a one-parameter family of hypersurfaces immersed into closed Riemannian manifolds with positive curvature operator. The hypersurface in this family satisfies mean curvature flow while the ambient metric satisfying the normalized Ricci flow. We prove that if the initial metric of the background manifold is sufficiently pinched and the initial hypersurface also satisfies a suitable pinching condition, then either the hypersurfaces shrink to a round point in finite time or converge to a totally geodesic sphere as the time tends to infinity.
