In a recent article, the authors constructed a six-parameter family of highly connected 7-manifolds which admit an SO(3)-invariant metric of non-negative sectional curvature. Each member of this family is the total space of a Seifert fibration with generic fibre $S^3$ and, in particular, has the cohomology ring of an $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$. In the present article, the linking form of these manifolds is computed and used to demonstrate that the family contains infinitely many manifolds which are not even homotopy equivalent to an $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$, the first time that any such spaces have been shown to admit non-negative sectional curvature.
In this paper we prove the path connectedness of the moduli spaces of metrics with positive isotropic curvature on certain compact four-dimensional manifolds.
In this article, a six-parameter family of highly connected 7-manifolds which admit an SO(3)-invariant metric of non-negative sectional curvature is constructed and the Eells-Kuiper invariant of each is computed. In particular, it follows that all exotic spheres in dimension 7 admit an SO(3)-invariant metric of non-negative curvature.
For a compact Riemannian manifold $(M, g_2)$ with constant $Q$-curvature of dimension $n\geq 6$ satisfying nondegeneracy condition, we show that one can construct many examples of constant $Q$-curvature manifolds by gluing construction. We provide a general procedure of gluing together $(M,g_2)$ with any compact manifold $(N, g_1)$ satisfying a geometric assumption. In particular, we can prove that there exists a metric with constant $Q$-curvature on the connected sum $N #M$.
We show that after forming a connected sum with a homotopy sphere, all (2j-1)-connected 2j-parallelisable manifolds in dimension 4j+1, j > 0, can be equipped with Riemannian metrics of 2-positive Ricci curvature. The condition of 2-positive Ricci curvature is defined to mean that the sum of the two smallest eigenvalues of the Ricci tensor is positive at every point. This result is a counterpart to a previous result of the authors concerning the existence of positive Ricci curvature on highly connected manifolds in dimensions 4j-1 for j > 1, and in dimensions 4j+1 for j > 0 with torsion-free co…
The goal of this paper is to investigate the topological structure of open simply-connected 3-manifolds whose scalar curvature has a slow decay at infinity. In particular, we show that the Whitehead manifold does not admit a complete metric, whose scalar curvature decays slowly, and in fact that any contractible complete 3-manifolds with such a metric is homeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Furthermore, using this result, we prove that any open simply-connected 3-manifold $M$ with $π_{2}(M)=\mathbb{Z}$ and a complete metric as above, is homeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}$.
For a complete connected Riemannian manifold $M$ let $V\in C^2(M)$ be such that $μ(d x)={\rm e}^{-V(x)} \mbox{vol}(d x)$ is a probability measure on $M$. Taking $μ$ as reference measure, we derive inequalities for probability measures on $M$ linking relative entropy, Fisher information, Stein discrepancy and Wasserstein distance. These inequalities strengthen in particular the famous log-Sobolev and transportation-cost inequality and extend the so-called Entropy/Stein-discrepancy/Information (HSI) inequality established by Ledoux, Nourdin and Peccati (2015) for the standard Gaussian measure on…
Laurent Hauswirth and Harold Rosenberg developed the theory of minimal surfaces with finite total curvature in $\H^2\times\R$. They showed that the total curvature of one such a surface must be a non-negative integer multiple of $-2π$. The first examples appearing in this context are vertical geodesic planes and Scherk minimal graphs over ideal polygonal domains. Other non simply-connected examples have been constructed recently. In the present paper, we show that the only complete minimal surfaces in $\H^2\times\R$ of total curvature $-2π$ are Scherk minimal graphs over ideal quadrilaterals. …
Using recent work of Bettiol, we show that a first-order conformal deformation of Wilking's metric of almost-positive sectional curvature on $S^2\times S^3$ yields a family of metrics with strictly positive average of sectional curvatures of any pair of 2-planes that are separated by a minimal distance in the 2-Grassmanian. A result of Smale's allows us to conclude that every closed simply connected 5-manifold with torsion-free homology and trivial second Stiefel-Whitney class admits a Riemannian metric with a strictly positive average of sectional curvatures of any pair of orthogonal 2-planes…
We point out that a 4-dimensional topological manifold with an Alexandrov metric (of curvature bounded below) and with an effective, isometric action of the circle or the 2-torus is locally smooth. This observation implies that the topological and equivariant classifications of compact, simply connected Riemannian 4-manifolds with positive or nonnegative sectional curvature and an effective isometric action of a circle or a 2-torus also hold if we consider Alexandrov manifolds instead of Riemannian manifolds.
Whyte used the index theory of Dirac operators and Block-Weiberger uniformly finite homology to show that certain infinite connected sums do not carry a metric with nonnegative scalar curvature in their bounded geometry class. His proof uses a coarse version of the $\hat{A}$-class to obstruct such metrics. In this note we prove a version of Whyte's result where a variant of the notion of infinite $K$-area, originally due to Gromov, is used to obstruct metrics with positive scalar curvature.
Let $N$ be a closed enlargeable manifold in the sense of Gromov-Lawson and $M$ a closed spin manifold of equal dimension, a famous theorem of Gromov-Lawson states that the connected sum $M\# N$ admits no metric of positive scalar curvature. We present a potential generalization of this result to the case where $M$ is nonspin. We use index theory for Dirac operators to prove our result.
We show that in each dimension $4n+3$, $n\ge 1$, there exist infinite sequences of closed smooth simply connected manifolds $M$ of pairwise distinct homotopy type for which the moduli space of Riemannian metrics with nonnegative sectional curvature has infinitely many path components. Closed manifolds with these properties were known before only in dimension seven, and our result does also hold for moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with positive Ricci curvature. Moreover, in conjunction with work of Belegradek, Kwasik and Schultz, we obtain that for each such $M$ the moduli space of complete…
In his recent work \cite{Y1}, X. Yang proved a conjecture raised by Yau in 1982 (\cite{Yau82}), which states that any compact Kähler manifold with positive holomorphic sectional curvature must be projective. In this note, we prove that any compact Hermitian manifold $X$ with positive real bisectional curvature, its hodge number $h^{1,0}=h^{2,0}=h^{n-1,0}=h^{n,0}=0$. In particular, if in addition $X$ is Kähler, then $X$ is projective. Also, it is rationally connected manifold when $n=3$. This partially confirms the conjecture 1.11 \cite{Y1} which is proposed by X. Yang.
Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold with dimension n > 2. The Yamabe problem is to find a metric with constant scalar curvature in the conformal class of g, by minimizing the total scalar curvature. The proof was completed in 1984. Suppose (M',g') and (M'',g'') are compact Riemannian n-manifolds with constant scalar curvature. We form the connected sum M' # M'' of M' and M'' by removing small balls from M' and M'' and joining the S^{n-1} boundaries together. In this paper we use analysis to construct metrics with constant scalar curvature on M' # M''. Our description is quite explicit, …
We show that the indices of certain twisted Dirac operators vanish on a $Spin$-manifold $M$ of positive sectional curvature if the symmetry rank of $M$ is $\geq 2$ or if the symmetry rank is one and $M$ is two connected. We also give examples of simply connected manifolds of positive Ricci curvature which do not admit a metric of positive sectional curvature and positive symmetry rank.
We prove that the moduli space of complete Riemannian metrics of bounded geometry and uniformly positive scalar curvature on an orientable 3-manifold is path-connected. This generalizes the main result of the fourth author [Mar12] in the compact case. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery as well as arguments involving performing infinite connected sums with control on the geometry.
Under a vanishing hypothesis, Donaldson and Friedman proved that the connected sum of two self-dual Riemannian 4-Manifolds is again self-dual. Here we prove that the same result can be extended over to the positive scalar curvature case.
This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to a crucial sign error in equation 1. An isometry $ρ$ of a connected Finsler space $(M, F)$ is called bounded if the function $d(x, ρ(x))$ is bounded on $M$. It is called a Clifford-Wolf translation if the function $d(x, ρ(x))$ is constant on $M$. In this paper, we prove that on a complete connected simply connected Finsler space of non-positive flag curvature, an isometry is bounded if and only if it is a Clifford-Wolf translation. As an application, we prove that a homogeneous Finsler space of negative flag curvature admits a transitive solvab…
Let $(X_1, \bar g_1)$ and $(X_2, \bar g_2)$ be two compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary $(M_1,g_1)$ and $(M_2,g_2)$ respectively. The Escobar problem consists in prescribing a conformal metric on a compact manifold with boundary with zero scalar curvature in the interior and constant mean curvature of the boundary. The present work is the construction of a connected sum $X=X_1 \sharp X_2$ by excising half ball near points on the boundary. The resulting metric on $X$ has zero scalar curvature and a CMC boundary. We fully exploit the nonlocal aspect of the problem and use new tools develop…
We prove the existence of Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature on certain highly connected odd dimensional manifolds. In particular, we show that manifolds homeomorphic to the 2k-fold connected sum of S^{2n-1} x S^{2n} admit Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature for all k. Furthermore, a formula for computing the diffeomorphism types is given and tables are presented for dimensions 7 and 11.
We consider the problem of constructing solutions to the Yamabe equation (i.e. conformal constant scalar curvature metrics) on the generalized connected sum M = (M_1) #_K (M_2) of two compact Riemannian manifolds (M_1,g_1) and (M_2,g_2) along a common (isometrically embedded) submanifold (K,g_K) of codimension greater or equal than 3.
We give a short proof of the following fact. Let $Σ$ be a connected, finitely connected, noncompact manifold without boundary. If $g$ is a complete Riemannian metric on $Σ$ whose Gaussian curvature $K$ is nonnegative at infinity, then $K$ must be integrable. In particular, we obtain a new short proof of the fact that if $Σ$ admits a complete metric whose Gaussian curvature is nonnegative and positive at one point, then $Σ$ is diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^2$.
We analyze the obstruction to metrics of positive scalar curvature within a given bounded distortion class of metrics. This obstruction lives in a non-Hausdorff cohomology group Poincare dual to the uniformly finite homology studied by Block and Weinberger. One of the applications is a converse to their theorem on infinite connected sums, giving a complete picture of when such manifolds have metrics of positive scalar curvature.
We give a simple criterion for a pointwise curvature condition to be stable under surgery. Namely, a curvature condition $C$, which is understood to be an open, convex, O(n)-invariant cone in the space of algebraic curvature operators, is stable under surgeries of codimension at least $c$ provided it contains the curvature operator corresponding to $S^{c-1} \times \reals^{n-c+1}$, $c \geq 3$. This is used to generalize the well-known classification result of positive scalar curvature in the simply-connected case in the following way: Any simply-connected manifold $M^n$, $n \geq 5$, which is ei…
We show that no exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ admits a complete Riemannian metric with uniformly positive isotropic curvature and with bounded geometry. This is essentially a corollary of the main result in [Hu1], and was stated in [Hu2] without proof. In the process of the proof we also show that the diffeomorphism type of an infinite connected sum of some connected smooth $n$-manifolds ($n\geq 2$) according to a locally finite graph does not depend on the gluing maps used.
We show that the existence of an embedded compact, boundaryless hypersurface S of strictly positive mean curvature in a noncompact, connected, complete Riemannian n-manifold N of nonnegative Ricci curvature implies that the homomorphism between the fundamental groups of S and N induced by the inclusion is surjective, provided only that N - S has two connected components, one of which has noncompact closure and trivial homotopy relative to S. The idea of the proof is to view N as a spacelike hypersurface in a suitable Lorentz manifold and then apply a recent version of certain classic results b…
First we confirm a conjecture asserting that any compact Kähler manifold $N$ with $\Ric^\perp>0$ must be simply-connected by applying a new viscosity consideration to Whitney's comass of $(p, 0)$-forms. Secondly we prove the projectivity and the rational connectedness of a Kähler manifold of complex dimension $n$ under the condition $\Ric_k>0$ (for some $k\in \{1, \cdots, n\}$, with $\Ric_n$ being the Ricci curvature), generalizing a well-known result of Campana, and independently of Kollár-Miyaoka-Mori, for the Fano manifolds. The proof utilizes both the above comass consideration and a secon…
For each connected and simply connected three-dimensional non-unimodular Lie group, we classify the left invariant Lorentzian metrics up to automorphism, and study the extent to which curvature can be altered by a change of metric. Thereby we obtain the Ricci operator, the scalar curvature, and the sectional curvatures as functions of left invariant Lorentzian metrics on the three-dimensional non-unimodular Lie groups. Our study is a continuation and extension of the previous studies done in \cite{HL2009_MN} for Riemannian metrics on three-dimensional Lie groups and in \cite{BC} for Lorentzian…
In this paper we will show the following result: Let $\mathcal{N} $ be a complete (noncompact) connected orientable Riemannian three-manifold with nonnegative scalar curvature $S \geq 0$ and bounded sectional curvature $ K_{s} \leq K $. Suposse that $Σ\subset \mathcal{N} $ is a complete orientable connected area-minimizing cylinder so that $π_1 (Σ) \in π_1 (\mathcal{N})$. Then $\mathcal{N}$ is locally isometric either to $\mathbb{S} ^1 \times \mathbb{R} ^2 $ or $\mathbb{S}^1 \times \mathbb{S}^1 \times \mathbb{R}$ (with the standard product metric). As a corollary, we will obtain: Let $\mathcal…
We classify simply-connected, complete Willmore surfaces with vanishing Gaussian curvature. We also study the Willmore cones and give a classification. As an application, we give a Bernstein-type theorem.
Let $\mathfrak{M}(Σ)$ be an open and connected subset of the space of hyperbolic metrics on a closed orientable surface, and $\mathfrak{M}(M)$ an open and connected subset of the space of metrics on an orientable manifold of dimension at least $3$. We impose conditions on $M$ and $\mathfrak{M}(M)$, which are often satisfied when the metrics in $\mathfrak{M}(M)$ have non-positive curvature. Under these conditions, the data of a homotopy class of maps from $Σ$ to $M$ gives $\mathfrak{M}(Σ)\times \mathfrak{M}(M)$ the structure of a space of harmonic maps. Using transversality theory for Banach ma…
We study a class of simply connected manifolds in all odd dimensions greater than 3 that exhibit an infinite number of toric contact structures of Reeb type that are inequivalent as contact structures. We compute the cohomology ring of our manifolds by using the join construction for Sasaki manifolds and show that all such contact structures admit a ray of compatible Sasaki metrics of constant scalar curvature (CSC). Furthermore, infinitely many such structures admit at least 3 rays of constant scalar curvature Sasaki metrics.
Let $M$ be a simply connected spin manifold of dimension at least six which admits a metric of positive scalar curvature. We show that the observer moduli space of positive scalar curvature metrics on $M$ has non-trivial higher homotopy groups. Moreover, denote by $\mathcal{M}_0^+(M)$ the moduli space of positive scalar cuvature metrics on $M$ associated to the group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of $M$. We show that if $M$ belongs to a certain class of manifolds which includes $(2n-2)$-connected $(4n-2)$-dimensional manifolds, then the fundamental group of $\mathcal{M}_0^+(M)$ is …
We study manifolds with almost nonnegative curvature operator (ANCO) and provide first examples of closed simply connected ANCO mannifolds that do not admit nonnegative curvature operator.
We determine the structure of the fundamental group of the regular leaves of a closed singular Riemannian foliation on a compact, simply connected Riemannian manifold. We also study closed singular Riemannian foliations whose leaves are homeomorphic to aspherical or to Bieberbach manifolds. These foliations, which we call A-foliations and B-foliations, respectively, generalize isometric torus actions on Riemannian manifolds. We apply our results to the classification problem of compact, simply connected Riemannian 4- and 5-manifolds with positive or nonnegative sectional curvature.
Given a closed manifold M, we prove the upper bound of (n+d)/2 for the length of a product of systoles that can form a curvature-free lower bound for the total volume of M, in the spirit of M. Gromov's systolic inequalities. Here n is the dimension of M, while d is the is the cohomological dimension of its fundamental group. We apply this upper bound to show that, in the case of a 4-manifold, the Lusternik--Schnirelmann category is an upper bound for such length. Furthermore we prove a systolic inequality on a manifold M with b_1(M)=2 in the presence of a nontrivial self-linking class of the t…
In this article, we give the integrability conditions for the existence of an isometric immersion from an orientable simply connected surface having prescribed Gauss map and positive extrinsic curvature into some unimodular Lie groups. In particular, we discuss the case when the Lie group is the euclidean unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$ and establish a correspondence between simply connected surfaces having extrinsic curvature $K$, $K$ different from 0 and -1, immersed in $\mathbb{S}^3$ with simply connected surfaces having non-vanishing extrinsic curvature immersed in the euclidean space $\mathbb{…
The holonomy group $G$ of a pseudo-quaternionic-Kählerian manifold of signature $(4r,4s)$ with non-zero scalar curvature is contained in $\Sp(1)\cdot\Sp(r,s)$ and it contains $\Sp(1)$. It is proved that either $G$ is irreducible, or $s=r$ and $G$ preserves an isotropic subspace of dimension $4r$, in the last case, there are only two possibilities for the connected component of the identity of such $G$. This gives the classification of possible connected holonomy groups of pseudo-quaternionic-Kählerian manifolds of non-zero scalar curvature.
We prove the following result: Let $(\mathcal{O},g_0)$ be a complete, connected 3-orbifold with uniformly positive scalar curvature, with bounded geometry, and containing no bad 2-suborbifolds. Then there is a finite collection $\mathcal{F}$ of spherical 3-orbifolds, such that $\mathcal{O}$ is diffeomorphic to a (possibly infinite) orbifold connected sum of copies of members in $\mathcal{F}$. This extends work of Perelman and Bessi$\grave{e}$res-Besson-Maillot. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery on complete 3-orbifolds, and are along the lines of the author's previous work on 4-orbifolds w…
We prove that simply connected Einstein four-manifolds of positive scalar curvature are conformally Kähler if and only if the determinant of the self-dual Weyl curvature is positive.
We establish a general `gluing theorem', which states roughly that if two nondegenerate constant mean curvature surfaces are juxtaposed, so that their tangent planes are parallel and very close to one another, but oppositely oriented, then there is a new constant mean curvature surface quite near to this configuration (in the Hausdorff topology), but which is a topological connected sum of the two surfaces. Here nondegeneracy refers to the invertibility of the linearized mean curvature operator. This paper treats the simplest context for our result namely when the surfaces are compact with non…
In this note we prove the following result: Let $X$ be a complete, connected 4-manifold with uniformly positive isotropic curvature, with bounded geometry and with no essential incompressible space form. Then $X$ is diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^4$, or $\mathbb{RP}^4$, or $\mathbb{S}^3\times \mathbb{S}^1$, or $\mathbb{S}^3\widetilde{\times} \mathbb{S}^1$, or a possibly infinite connected sum of them. This extends work of Hamilton and Chen-Zhu to the noncompact case. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery on complete 4-manifolds, and is inspired by recent work of Bessi$\grave{e}$res, Besson and …
We consider several differential-topological invariants of compact 4-manifolds which directly arise from Riemannian variational problems. Using recent results of Bauer and Furuta, we compute these invariants in many cases that were previously intractable. In particular, we are now able to calculate the Yamabe invariant for certain connected sums of complex surfaces.
A central theme in Riemannian geometry is understanding the relationships between the curvature and the topology of a Riemannian manifold. Positive isotropic curvature (PIC) is a natural and much studied curvature condition which includes manifolds with pointwisequarter-pinched sectional curvatures and manifolds with positive curvature operator. By results of Micallef and Moore there is only one topological type of compact simply connected manifold with PIC; namely any such manifold must be homeomorphic to the sphere. On the other hand, there is a large class of nonsimply connected manifolds w…
We classify $n$-dimensional geometric graph manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature, and first show that if $n>3$, the universal cover splits off a codimension 3 Euclidean factor. We then proceed with the classification of the 3-dimensional case by showing that such a manifold is either a lens space or a prism manifold with a very rigid metric. This allows us to also classify the moduli space of such metrics: it has infinitely many connected components for lens spaces, while it is connected for prism manifolds.
An $n$-dimensional ($n\geq 2$) simply connected, compact without boundary Finsler space of positive constant sectional curvature is conformally homeomorphic to an n-sphere in the Euclidean space $\R^{n+1}$.
In this paper, we study polar foliations on simply connected symmetric spaces with non-negative curvature. We will prove that all such foliations are isoparametric as defined by Heintze, Liu and Olmos. We will also prove a splitting theorem which reduces the study of such foliations to polar foliations in compact simply connected symmetric spaces. Moreover, we will show that solutions to mean curvature flow of regular leaves in such foliations are always ancient solutions. This generalizes part of the results of Liu and Terng for the mean curvature flow of isoparametric submanifolds in spheres…
