Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold with sectional curvatures between $0$ and $1$. A minimal $2$-sphere immersed in $M$ has area at least $4π$. If an embedded minimal sphere has area $4π$, then $M$ is isometric to the unit $3$-sphere or to a quotient of the product of the unit $2$-sphere with $\mathbb{R}$, with the product metric. We also obtain a rigidity theorem for the existence of hyperbolic cusps. Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold with sectional curvatures bounded above by $-1$. Suppose there is a $2$-torus $T$ embedded in $M$ with mean curvature one. Then the mean convex component of $M$ bounded by $T$ is a hyperbolic cusp;,i.e., it is isometric to $T \times \mathbb{R}$ with the constant curvature $-1$ metric: $e^{-2t}dσ_0^2+dt^2$ with $dσ_0^2$ a flat metric on $T$.
There are several well-known characterizations of the sphere as a regular surface in the Euclidean space. By means of a purely synthetic technique, we get a rigidity result for the sphere without any curvature conditions, nor completeness or compactness. As well as a dual result for the hyperbolic plane, the spacelike sphere in the Minkowski space.
In this note, we investigate the well-known Yau rigidity theorem for minimal submanifolds in spheres. Using the parameter method of Yau and the DDVV inequality verified by Lu, Ge and Tang, we prove that if $M$ is an $n$-dimensional oriented compact minimal submanifold in the unit sphere $S^{n+p}(1)$, and if $K_{M}\geq\frac{sgn(p-1)p}{2(p+1)},$ then $M$ is either a totally geodesic sphere, the standard immersion of the product of two spheres, or the Veronese surface in $S^4(1)$. Here $sgn(\cdot)$ is the standard sign function. We also extend the rigidity theorem above to the case where $M$ is a…
We prove a topological rigidity theorem for closed hypersurfaces of the Euclidean sphere and of an elliptic space form. It asserts that, under a lower bound hypothesis on the absolute value of the principal curvatures, the hypersurface is diffeomorphic to a sphere or to a quotient of a sphere by a group action. We also prove another topological rigidity result for hypersurfaces of the sphere that involves the spherical image of its usual Gauss map.
We consider the mean curvature rigidity problem of an equatorial zone on a sphere which is symmetric about the equator with width $2w$. There are two different notions on rigidity, i.e. strong rigidity and local rigidity. We prove that for each kind of these rigidity problems, there exists a critical value such that the rigidity holds true if, and only if, the zone width is smaller than that value. For the rigidity part, we used the tangency principle and a specific lemma (the trap-slice lemma we established before). For the non-rigidity part, we construct the nontrivial perturbations by a glu…
We prove that the least area of the non-contractible immersed spheres is no more than $4π$ in any oriented compact manifold with dimension $n+2\leq 7$ which satisfies $R\geq 2$ and admits a map to $\mathbf S^2\times T^n$ with nonzero degree. We also prove a rigidity result for the equality case. This can be viewed as a generalization of the result in [2] to higher dimensions.
We study existence and non-existence of constant scalar curvature metrics conformal and arbitrarily close to homogeneous metrics on spheres, using variational techniques. This describes all critical points of the Hilbert-Einstein functional on such conformal classes, near homogeneous metrics. Both bifurcation and local rigidity type phenomena are obtained for 1-parameter families of U(n+1), Sp(n+1) and Spin(9)-homogeneous metrics.
Let M be a closed minimal hypersurface in 5-dimensional Euclidean sphere with constant nonnegative scalar curvature. We prove that, if the sum of the cubes of all principal curvatures and the number of distinct principal curvatures are constant, then M is isoparametric. Moreover, We give all possible values for squared length of the second fundamental form of M. This result provides another piece of supporting evidence to the Chern conjecture.
The purpose of this article is to prove that, under suitable constrains on the electrovacuum spacetime $M$, if $Σ\subset M$ is an embedded strictly stable minimal two-sphere which locally maximizes the charged Hawking mass, then there exist a neighborhood of it in $M$ isometric to the Reissner-Nordström-de Sitter space. At the same time, motived by \cite{Brendle}, we will deduce an estimate for area of a two-sphere which is locally area minimizing in an electrovacuum spacetime. Moreover, if the equality holds, then there exist a neighborhood of it in $M$ isometric to the charged Nariai space.
In this paper, we prove the global rigidity of sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds. This is a 3-dimensional analogue of the rigidity theorem of Andreev-Thurston and was conjectured by Cooper and Rivin. We also prove a global rigidity result using a combinatorial scalar curvature introduced by Ge and the author.
We consider a class of overdetermined problems in rotationally symmetric spaces, which reduce to the classical Serrin's overdetermined problem in the case of the Euclidean space. We prove some general integral identities for rotationally symmetric spaces which imply a rigidity result in the case of the round sphere.
Geometry of conformal minimal two-spheres immersed in $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$ is studied in this paper by harmonic maps. We construct a non-homogeneous constant curved minimal two-sphere in $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$, and give a classification theorem of linearly full conformal minimal immersions of constant curvature from $S^2$ to $G(2,6;\mathbb{R})$, or equivalently, a complex hyperquadric $Q_{4}$, which illustrates minimal two-spheres of constant curvature in $Q_{4}$ are in general not congruent.
This paper generalizes D. Burago and S. Ivanov's work on filling volume minimality and boundary rigidity of almost real hyperbolic metrics. We show that regions with metrics close to a negatively curved symmetric metric are strict minimal fillings and hence boundary rigid. This includes perturbations of complex, quaternionic and Cayley hyperbolic metrics.
We give a sharp upper bound for the area of a minimal two-sphere in a three-manifold (M,g) with positive scalar curvature. If equality holds, we show that the universal cover of (M,g) is isometric to a cylinder.
In this paper we consider min-max minimal surfaces in three-manifolds and prove some rigidity results. For instance, we prove that any metric on a 3-sphere which has scalar curvature greater than or equal to 6 and is not round must have an embedded minimal sphere of area strictly smaller than $4π$ and index at most one. If the Ricci curvature is positive we also prove sharp estimates for the width.
We show that the product of two round shrinking spheres is an isolated self-shrinker in any codimension, modulo rotations. Moreover we prove explicit Łojasiewicz inequalities near such products. Łojasiewicz inequalities were previously used by Schulze to prove uniqueness of tangent mean curvature flows at compact shrinkers; our results provide an explicit rate of convergence to products of two spheres.
A differential operator introduced by A. Gray on the unit sphere bundle of a Kähler-Einstein manifold is studied. A lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian for the Sasaki metric on the unit sphere bundle of a Kähler-Einstein manifold is derived. Some rigidity theorems classifying complex space forms amongst compact Hermitian surfaces and the product of two projective lines amongst all Kähler-Einstein surfaces are then derived.
A contact stationary Legendrian submanifold (briefly, CSL submanifold) is a stationary point of the volume functional of Legendrian submanifolds in a Sasakian manifold. Much effort has been paid in the last two decades to construct examples of such manifolds, mainly by geometers using various geometric methods. But we have rare knowledge about their geometric properties till now. Recently, Y. Luo (\cite{ Luo2, Luo1}) proved that a closed CSL surface in $\mathbb{S}^5$ with the square length of its second fundamental form belonging to $[0,2]$ must be totally geodesic or be a flat minimal Legendr…
We prove that if an $n$-dimensional complete minimal submanifold $M$ in hyperbolic space has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then $M$ has only one end. We also prove that for such $M$ there exist no nontrivial $L^2$ harmonic 1-forms on $M$.
We prove rigidity for hypersurfaces with boundary in the unit $(n+1)$-sphere with scalar curvature bounded below by $n(n-1)$. Under appropriate boundary conditions, the hypersurfaces are shown to be part of the equatorial spheres. The lower bound $n(n-1)$ is critical in the sense that the hypersurface may contain geodesic points and some natural differential operators are fully degenerate at geodesic points. We overcome the difficulty by studying the geometry of level sets of a height function, via new geometric inequalities. Some rigidity results of hyperplanes and generalized cylinders are a…
We prove a rigidity result in the sphere which allows us to generalize a result about smooth convex hypersurfaces in the sphere by Do Carmo-Warner to convex $C^2$-hypersurfaces. We apply these results to prove $C^{1,β}$-convergence of inverse F-curvature flows in the sphere to an equator in \mathbb{S}^{n+1} for embedded, closed, strictly convex initial hypersurfaces. The result holds for large classes of curvature functions including the mean curvature and arbitrary powers of the Gauss curvature. We use this result to prove Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities in the sphere.
We prove a suite of asymptotically sharp quadratic curvature pinching estimates for mean curvature flow in the sphere which generalize Simons' rigidity theorem for minimal hypersurfaces. We then obtain derivative estimates for the second fundamental form which we utilize, via a compactness argument, to obtain a convexity estimate. Together, the convexity and cylindrical estimates yield a partial classification of singularity models. We also obtain new rigidity results for ancient solutions.
We provide an extension of Obata's theorem to Finsler geometry and establish some rigidity results based on a second order differential equation. Mainly, we prove that every complete connected Finsler manifold of positive constant flag curvature is isometrically homeomorphic to an Euclidean sphere endowed with a certain Finsler metric and vice versa. Based on these results, we present a classification of Finsler manifolds which admit a transnormal function. Specifically, we show that if a complete Finsler manifold admits a transnormal function with exactly two critical points, then it is homeo…
Let $F^{n+p}(c)$ be an $(n+p)$-dimensional simply connected space form with nonnegative constant curvature $c$. We prove that if $M^n(n\geq4)$ is a compact submanifold in $F^{n+p}(c)$, and if $Ric_M>(n-2)(c+H^2),$ where $H$ is the mean curvature of $M$, then $M$ is homeomorphic to a sphere. We also show that the pinching condition above is sharp. Moreover, we obtain a new differentiable sphere theorem for submanifolds with positive Ricci curvature.
We use bifurcation theory to determine the existence of infinitely many new examples of triply periodic minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$. These new examples form branches issuing from the H-family, the rPD-family, the tP-family, and the tD-family, that converge to some degenerate embedding of the families. As to nondegenerate triply periodic minimal surfaces, we prove a perturbation result using an equivariant implicit function theorem.
As discussed in the paper, in a matter-filled spacetime, perhaps with positive cosmological constant, a stable marginally outer trapped 2-sphere must satisfy a certain area inquality. Namely, its area must be bounded above by $4π/c$, where $c > 0$ is a lower bound on a natural energy momentum term. In this note we consider the rigidity that results for stable, or weakly outermost, marginally outer trapped 2-spheres that achieve this upper bound on the area. The "canonical" dynamical horizon in Vaidya spacetime and certain spacelike hypersurfaces in Nariai spacetime provide illustrations of the…
Let $M$ be an $n(\geq 4)$-dimensional compact submanifold in the simply connected space form $F^{n+p}(c)$ with constant curvature $c\geq 0$, where $H$ is the mean curvature of $M$. We verify that if the scalar curvature of $M$ satisfies $R>n(n-2)(c+H^2)$, and if $Ric_M\geq (n-2-\frac{2σ_n}{2n-σ_n})(c+H^2)$, then $M$ is homeomorphic to a sphere. Here $σ_n=sgn(n-4)((-1)^n+3)$, and $sgn(\cdot)$ is the standard sign function. This improves our previous sphere theorem \cite{XG2}. It should be emphasized that our pinching conditions above are optimal. We also obtain some new topological sphere theor…
In this paper we establish conditions on the length of the second fundamental form of a complete minimal submanifold $M^n$ in the hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^{n+m}$ in order to show that $M^n$ is totally geodesic. We also obtain sharp upper bounds estimates for the first eigenvalue of the super stability operator in the case of $M$ is a surface in $\mathbb{H}^{4}$.
In this survey, we will focus on the mean curvature flow theory with sphere theorems, and discuss the recent developments on the convergence theorems for the mean curvature flow of arbitrary codimension inspired by the Yau rigidity theory of submanifolds. Several new differentiable sphere theorems for submanifolds are obtained as consequences of the convergence theorems for the mean curvature flow. It should be emphasized that Theorem 4.1 is an optimal convergence theorem for the mean curvature flow of arbitrary codimension, which implies the first optimal differentiable sphere theorem for sub…
In this note, we study minimal Lagrangian surfaces in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian capillary boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$. On the one hand, we prove that any minimal Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian free boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$ must be an equatorial plane disk. One the other hand, we show that any annulus type minimal Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{B}^4$ with Legendrian capillary boundary on $\mathbb{S}^3$ must be congruent to one of the Lagrangian catenoids. These results confirm the conjecture proposed by Li, Wang and Weng (Sci. China Math., 2020).
In a recent work, Galloway [9] proved a local foliation theorem by MOTSs for a 3-dimensional initial data set $(M,g,K)$ with mean curvature $τ\le0$ in a 4-dimensional spacetime $(\overline M,\overline g)$ when (under suitable assumptions) $M$ has a stable spherical MOTS $Σ$ which achieves an upper bound for the area. He proved that each leaf is a round 2-sphere with the same constant Gaussian curvature. Here, we improve his result by dropping the hypothesis on the mean curvature of $M$ and showing that each leaf is a minimal surface. We show that in an outer neighborhood $U$ of $Σ$, the metric…
We prove that if an asymptotically Schwarzschildean 3-manifold (M,g) contains a properly embedded stable minimal surface, then it is isometric to the Euclidean space. This implies, for instance, that in presence of a positive ADM mass any sequence of solutions to the Plateau problem with diverging boundaries can never have uniform height bounds, even at a single point. An analogous result holds true up to ambient dimension seven provided polynomial volume growth on the hypersurface is assumed.
It is well-know that Hawking mass is nonnegative for a stable constant mean curvature ($CMC$) sphere in three manifold of nonnegative scalar curvature. R. Bartnik proposed the rigidity problem of Hawking mass of stable $CMC$ spheres. In this paper, we show partial rigidity results of Hawking mass for stable $CMC$ spheres in asymptotic flat ($AF$) manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature. If the Hawking mass of a nearly round stable $CMC$ surface vanishes, then the surface must be standard sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3 $ and the interior of the surface is flat. The similar results also hold for as…
