We study foliations of space forms by complete hypersurfaces, under some mild conditions on its higher order mean curvatures. In particular, in Euclidean space we obtain a Bernstein-type theorem for graphs whose mean and scalar curvature do not change sign but may otherwise be nonconstant. We also establish the nonexistence of foliations of the standard sphere whose leaves are complete and have constant scalar curvature, thus extending a theorem of Barbosa, Kenmotsu and Oshikiri. For the more general case of {\em r-}minimal foliations of the Euclidean space, possibly with a singular set, we are able to invoke a theorem of Ferus to give conditions under which the nonsigular leaves are foliated by hyperplanes.
We classify hypersurfaces of the Minkowski space $Ł^{n+1}$ that carry a totally geodesic foliation with complete leaves of codimension one. We prove that such a hypersurface is ruled, or a partial tube over a curve or contains a two or three dimensional strip. Moreover, if the hypersurface is embedded then it is a partial tube over a curve.
In this paper we give a complete local parametric classification of the hypersurfaces with dimension at least three of a space form that carry a totally geodesic foliation of codimension one. A classification under the assumption that the leaves of the foliation are complete was given in \cite{drt} for Euclidean hypersurfaces. We prove that there exists exactly one further class of local examples in Euclidean space, all of which have rank two. We also extend the classification under the global assumption of completeness of the leaves for hypersurfaces of the sphere and show that there exist pl…
We classify the hypersurfaces of Euclidean space that carry a totally geodesic foliation with complete leaves of codimension one. In particular, we show that rotation hypersurfaces with complete profiles of codimension one are characterized by their warped product structure. The local version of the problem is also considered.
In this work, we study the geometric properties of spacelike foliations by hypersurfaces on a Lorentz manifold. We investigate conditions for the leaves being stable, totally geodesic or totally umbilical. We consider that $\overline{M}^{n+1}$ is equipped with a timelike closed conformal vector field $ξ$. If the foliation has constant mean curvature, we show that the leaves are stable. When the leaves are compact spacelike hypersurfaces we show that, under certain conditions, its are totally umbilic hypersurfaces. In the case of foliations by complete noncompact hypersurfaces, we using a Maxim…
Let Y be a hypersurface in a 2n-dimensional holomorphic symplectic manifold X. The restriction $σ|_Y$ of the holomorphic symplectic form induces a rank one foliation on Y. We investigate situations where this foliation has compact leaves; in such cases we obtain a space of leaves Y/F which has dimension 2n-2 and admits a holomorphic symplectic form.
In this article we consider solvable hypersurfaces of the form $N \exp(\R H)$ with induced metrics in the symmetric space $M = SL(3,\C)/SU(3)$, where $H$ a suitable unit length vector in the subgroup $A$ of the Iwasawa decomposition $SL(3,\C) = NAK$. Since $M$ is rank $2$, $A$ is $2$-dimensional and we can parametrize these hypersurfaces via an angle $α\in [0,π/2]$ determining the direction of $H$. We show that one of the hypersurfaces (corresponding to $α= 0$) is minimally embedded and isometric to the non-symmetric $7$-dimensional Damek-Ricci space. We also provide an explicit formula for th…
We show that the constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in the hyperbolic n-space spanning the boundary of a star shaped C^{1,1} domain in the asymptotic sphere give a foliation of the hyperbolic n-space. We also show that if C is a closed codimension-1 C^{2,a} submanifold in the asymptotic sphere bounding a unique constant mean curvature hypersurface S_H in the hyperbolic n-space with asymptotic boundary C for any -1<H<1, then the constant mean curvature hypersurfaces {S_H} foliates the hyperbolic n-space.
In this paper we prove that every smooth complete closed complex hypersurface in the open unit ball $\mathbb{B}_n$ of $\mathbb{C}^n$ $(n\ge 2)$ is a level set of a noncritical holomorphic function on $\mathbb{B}_n$ all of whose level sets are complete. This shows that $\mathbb{B}_n$ admits a nonsingular holomorphic foliation by smooth complete closed complex hypersurfaces and, what is the main point, that every hypersurface in $\mathbb{B}_n$ of this type can be embedded into such a foliation. We establish a more general result in which neither completeness nor smoothness of the given hypersurf…
The main objective of this paper is to control the geometry of null cones with time foliation in Einstein vacuum spacetime under the assumptions of small curvature flux and a weaker condition on the deformation tensor for $\bT$. We establish a series of estimates on Ricci coefficients, which plays a crucial role to prove the improved breakdown criterion in [12].
We prove that the mean curvature $τ$ of the slices given by a constant mean curvature foliation can be used as a time function, i.e. $τ$ is smooth with non-vanishing gradient.
A well known conjecture of Yau states that the first eigenvalue of every closed minimal hypersurface $M^n$ in the unit sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$ is just its dimension $n$. The present paper shows that Yau conjecture is true for minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces. Moreover, the more fascinating result of this paper is that the first eigenvalues of the focal submanifolds are equal to their dimensions in the non-stable range.
We introduce a new elliptic operator on null hypersurfaces of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds. This operator depends on the first and second fundamental forms of the sections of a foliation of the null hypersurface and its novelty originates from its covariant transformation under change of foliation. It thus provides at any point an elliptic structure intimately connected with the geometry of the null hypersurface, independent of the choice of a specific section through that point. No analytic or algebraic symmetries or other conditions are imposed on the metric. The spectral properties…
We show that every regular domain $\mathcal D$ in Minkowski space $\mathbb R^{n,1}$ which is not a wedge admits an entire hypersurface whose domain of dependence is $\mathcal D$ and whose scalar curvature is a prescribed constant (or function, under suitable hypotheses) in $(-\infty,0)$. Under rather general assumptions, these hypersurfaces are unique and provide foliations of $\mathcal D$. As an application, we show that every maximal globally hyperbolic Cauchy compact flat spacetime admits a foliation by hypersurfaces of constant scalar curvature, generalizing to any dimension previous resul…
In this paper, two sequences of minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces are constructed via representations of Clifford algebras. Based on these, we give estimates on eigenvalues of the Laplacian of the focal submanifolds of isoparametric hypersurfaces in unit spheres. This improves results of [TY13] and [TXY14]. Eells and Lemaire [EL83] posed a problem to characterize the compact Riemannian manifold M for which there is an eigenmap from M to S^n. As another application of our constructions, the focal maps give rise to many examples of eigenmaps from minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces to unit sph…
In this work we obtain the limit of the Hawking energy of a large class of foliations along general null hypersurfaces $Ω$ satisfying a weak notion of asymptotic flatness. The foliations are not required to be either geodesic or approaching large spheres at infinity. The limit is obtained in terms of a reference background geodesic foliation approaching large spheres and a positive function, constant along the null generators on $Ω$, which describes the relation between the two foliations at infinity. The integrand in the limit expression has interesting covariance and invariance properties wi…
This note provides an alternative proof of a result of Labourie. We show that the two complements of the convex core of a three dimensional quasi-fuchsian hyperbolic manifold may be foliated by embedded hypersurfaces of constant Gaussian curvature.
We construct new examples of embedded, complete minimal hypersurfaces in quaternionc hyperbolic space and also some minimal foliations. We introduce fans an construct analytic deformations of bisectors.
In this note we construct an explicit example of a (compact) conformally flat Riemannian manifold which admits a totally geodesic foliation of codimension one with no isoparametric leaves. This answers negatively the question: is every hypersurface with constant principal curvatures isoparametric?
We propose a method to extend submanifolds, singular Riemannian foliations and isometric actions from a boundary component of a noncompact symmetric space to the whole space. This extension method preserves minimal submanifolds, isoparametric foliations and polar actions, among other properties. One of the several applications yields the first examples of inhomogeneous isoparametric hypersurfaces in noncompact symmetric spaces of rank at least two.
Let $\mathcal{H}$ denote the future outgoing null hypersurface emanating from a spacelike 2-sphere $S$ in a vacuum spacetime $(\mathcal{M},\mathbf{g})$. In this paper we study the so-called canonical foliation on $\mathcal{H}$ introduced by Klainerman and Nicolò and show that the corresponding geometry is controlled locally only in terms of the initial geometry on $S$ and the $L^2$ curvature flux through $\mathcal{H}$. In particular, we show that the ingoing and outgoing null expansions $\mathrm{tr} χ$ and $\mathrm{tr} \underlineχ$ are both locally uniformly bounded. The proof of our estimates…
We introduce curvature-adapted foliations of complex hyperbolic space and study some of their properties. Generalized pseudo-Einstein hypersurfaces of complex hyperbolic space are classified. Analogous results for curvature-adapted hypersurfaces of quaternionic hyperbolic space are also obtained.
We generalize a result of Giroux which says that a closed surface in a contact $3$-manifold with Morse-Smale characteristic foliation is convex. Specifically, we show that the result holds in contact manifolds of arbitrary dimension. As an application, we show that a particular closed hypersurface introduced by A. Mori is $C^{\infty}$-close to a convex hypersurface.
Given a unit vector field on a closed Euclidean hypersurface, we define a map from the hypersurface to a sphere in the Euclidean space. This application allows us to exhibit a list of topological invariants which combines the second fundamental form of the hypersurface and the vector field itself. We show how these invariants can be used as obstructions to certain codimension one foliations.
We construct a $T$-axisymmetric, spacelike, spherically symmetric, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces foliation in the Kruskal extension with properties that the mean curvature varies in each slice and ranges from minus infinity to plus infinity. This family of hypersurfaces extends the CMC foliation discussions posted by Malec and Ó Murchadha in 2009.
Given a closed manifold $M$ and a vector bundle $ξ$ of rank $n$ over $M$, by gluing two copies of the disc bundle of $ξ$, we can obtain a closed manifold $D(ξ, M)$, the so-called double manifold. In this paper, we firstly prove that each sphere bundle $S_r(ξ)$ of radius $r>0$ is an isoparametric hypersurface in the total space of $ξ$ equipped with a connection metric, and for $r>0$ small enough, the induced metric of $S_r(ξ)$ has positive Ricci curvature under the additional assumptions that $M$ has a metric with positive Ricci curvature and $n\geq3$. As an application, if $M$ admits a metric …
Generalizing results of Chou and Wang \cite{1} we study the flows of the leaves $(M_Θ)_{Θ>0}$ of a foliation of $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus \{0\}$ consisting of uniformly convex hypersurfaces in the direction of their outer normals with speeds $-\log(F/f)$. For quite general functions $F$ of the principal curvatures of the flow hypersurfaces and $f$ a smooth and positive function on $S^n$ (considered as a function of the normal) we show that there is a distinct leaf $M_{Θ_{*}}$ in this foliation with the property that the flow starting from $M_{Θ_{*}}$ converges to a translating solution of the…
Motivated by the celebrated Schoen-Yau-Gromov-Lawson surgery theory on metrics of positive scalar curvature, we construct a double manifold associated with a minimal isoparametric hypersurface in the unit sphere. The resulting double manifold carries a metric of positive scalar curvature and an isoparametric foliation as well. To investigate the topology of the double manifolds, we use K-theory and the representation of the Clifford algebra for the FKM-type, and determine completely the isotropy subgroups of singular orbits for homogeneous case.
Rugang Ye proved the existence of a family of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in an $m+1$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $(M^{m+1},g)$, which concentrate at a point $p_0$ (which is required to be a nondegenerate critical point of the scalar curvature), moreover he proved that this family constitute a foliation of a neighborhood of $p_0$. In this paper we extend this result to the other curvatures (the $r$-th mean curvature for $1\le r\le m$).
We consider spacetimes with compact Cauchy hypersurfaces and with Ricci tensor bounded from below on the set of timelike unit vectors, and prove that the results known for spacetimes satisfying the timelike convergence condition, namely, foliation by CMC hypersurfaces, are also valid in the present situation, if corresponding further assumptions are satisfied. In addition we show that the volume of any sequence of spacelike hypersurfaces, which run into the future singularity, decays to zero provided there exists a time function covering a future end, such that the level hypersurfaces have non…
We investigate minimal helix submanifolds of any dimension and codimension immersed in Euclidean space. Our main result proves that a ruled minimal helix submanifold is a cylinder. As an application we classify complex helix submanifolds of $\mathbb{C}^n$: They are extrinsic products with a complex line as a factor. The key tool is Corollary 1.3 which allows us to classify Riemannian foliations of open subsets of the Euclidean space with minimal leaves. Finally, we consider the case of a helix hypersurface with constant mean curvature and prove that it is either a cylinder or an open part of a…
We study biharmonic hypersurfaces in a generic Riemannian manifold. We first derive an invariant equation for such hypersurfaces generalizing the biharmonic hypersurface equation in space forms studied in \cite{Ji2}, \cite{CH}, \cite{CMO1}, \cite{CMO2}. We then apply the equation to show that the generalized Chen's conjecture is true for totally umbilical biharmonic hypersurfaces in an Einstein space, and construct a (2-parameter) family of conformally flat metrics and a (4-parameter) family of multiply warped product metrics each of which turns the foliation of an upper-half space of $\mathhb…
We prove Wilking's Conjecture about the completeness of dual leaves for the case of Riemannian foliations on nonnegatively curved symmetric spaces. Moreover, we conclude that such foliations split as a product of trivial foliations and a foliation with a single dual leaf.
The spherically symmetric null hypersurfaces in a Schwarzschild spacetime are smooth away from the singularities and foliate the spacetime. We prove the existence of more general foliations by null hypersurfaces without the spherical symmetry condition. In fact we also relax the spherical symmetry of the ambient spacetime and prove a more general result: in a perturbed Schwarzschild spacetime (not necessary being vacuum), nearly round null hypersurfaces can be extended regularly to the past null infinity, thus there exist many foliations by regular null hypersurfaces in the exterior region of …
We study global aspects of the mean curvature flow of non-separating hypersurfaces $S$ in closed manifolds. For instance, if $S$ has non-vanishing mean curvature, we show its level set flow converges smoothly towards an embedded minimal hypersurface $Γ$. We prove a similar result for the flow with surgery in dimension 2. As an application we show the existence of monotone incompressible isotopies in manifolds with negative curvature. Combining this result with min-max theory, we show that quasi-Fuchsian and hyperbolic $3$-manifolds fibered over $\mathrm{S}^1$ admit smooth entire foliations who…
We study the mean curvature flow in 3-dimensional null hypersurfaces. In a spacetime a hypersurface is called null, if its induced metric is degenerate. The speed of the mean curvature flow of spacelike surfaces in a null hypersurface is the projection of the codimension-two mean curvature vector onto the null hypersurface. We impose fairly mild conditions on the null hypersurface. Then for an outer un-trapped initial surface, a condition which resembles the mean-convexity of a surface in Euclidean space, we prove that the mean curvature flow exists for all times and converges smoothly to a ma…
We construct canonical absolute parallelisms over real-analytic manifolds equipped with $2$-nondegenerate, hypersurface-type CR structures of arbitrary odd dimension not less than $7$ whose Levi kernel has constant rank belonging to a broad subclass of CR structures that we label as recoverable. For this we develop a new approach based on a reduction to a special flag structure, called the dynamical Legendrian contact structure, on the leaf space of the CR structure's associated Levi foliation. This extends the results of Porter-Zelenko [20] from the case of regular CR symbols constituting a d…
We prove that every $(3+1)$-dimensional flat GHMC Minkowski spacetime which is not a translation spacetime or a Misner spacetime carries a unique foliation by spacelike hypersurfaces of constant scalar curvature. In otherwords, we prove that every such spacetime carries a unique time function with isochrones of constant scalar curvature. Furthermore, this time function is a smooth submersion.
Let N be a (n+1)-dimensional globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold with a compact Cauchy hypersurface. We consider curvature flows in N with different curvature functions F (including the mean curvature, the gauss curvature and the second elementary symmetric polynomial) and a volume preserving term. Under suitable assumptions we prove the long time existence of the flow and the exponential convergence of the corresponding graphs in the $C^\infty$-topology to a hypersurface of constant F-curvature. Furthermore we examine stability properties and foliations of constant F-curvature hypersurfac…
We solve the spacelike, spherically symmetric, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in the maximally extended Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime with the charge smaller than the mass. Based on these results, we construct constant mean curvature foliations with fixed or varied mean curvature in each slice in this spacetime.
A parametric manifold can be viewed as the manifold of orbits of a (regular) foliation of a manifold by means of a family of curves. If the foliation is hypersurface orthogonal, the parametric manifold is equivalent to the 1-parameter family of hypersurfaces orthogonal to the curves, each of which inherits a metric and connection from the original manifold via orthogonal projections; this is the well-known Gauss-Codazzi formalism. We generalize this formalism to the case where the foliation is not hypersurface orthogonal. Crucial to this generalization is the notion of deficiency, which measur…
The null Penrose inequality, i.e. the Penrose inequality in terms of the Bondi energy, is studied by introducing a funtional on surfaces and studying its properties along a null hypersurface $Ω$ extending to past null infinity. We prove a general Penrose-type inequality which involves the limit at infinity of the Hawking energy along a specific class of geodesic foliations called Geodesic Asymptotic Bondi (GAB), which are shown to always exist. Whenever, this foliation approaches large spheres, this inequality becomes the null Penrose inequality and we recover the results of Ludvigsen-Vickers …
It is shown that in a class of maximal globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting two local Killing vectors, the past (defined with respect to an appropriate time orientation) of any compact constant mean curvature hypersurface can be covered by a foliation of compact constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. Moreover, the mean curvature of the leaves of this foliation takes on arbitrarily negative values and so the initial singularity in these spacetimes is a crushing singularity. The simplest examples occur when the spatial topology is that of a torus, with the standard global Killing vectors, bu…
