We extend the second part of \cite{Bre20} on the uniqueness of ancient $κ$-solutions to higher dimensions. In dimensions $n \geq 4$, an ancient $κ$-solution is a nonflat, complete, ancient solution of the Ricci flow that is uniformly PIC and weakly PIC2; has bounded curvature; and is $κ$-noncollapsed. We show that the only noncompact ancient $κ$-solutions up to isometry are a family of shrinking cylinders, a quotient thereof, or the Bryant soliton.
The aim of this article is to provide a Liouville theorem for heat equation along ancient super Ricci flow. We formulate such a Liouville theorem under a growth condition concerning Perelman's reduced distance.
In this paper we prove classification results for gradient shrinking Ricci solitons under two invariant conditions, namely nonnegative orthogonal bisectional curvature and weakly PIC1, without any curvature bound. New results on ancient solutions for the Ricci and Kähler-Ricci flow are also obtained. The main new feature is that no curvature upper bound is assumed.
In this article, we study complete Type I ancient Ricci flows with positive sectional curvature. Our main results are as follows: in the complete and noncompact case, all such ancient solutions must be noncollapsed on all scales; in the closed case, if the dimension is even, then all such ancient solutions must be noncollapsed on all scales. This furthermore gives a complete classification for three-dimensional noncompact Type I ancient solutions without assuming the noncollapsing condition.
It is known from work of Perelman that any finite-time singularity of the Ricci flow on a compact three-manifold is modeled on an ancient $κ$-solution. We prove that the every noncompact ancient $κ$-solution in dimension $3$ is isometric to either the shrinking cylinders (or a quotient thereof), or the Bryant soliton.
Type II (ancient) solutions to the Ricci flow on surfaces are not yet classified. It is conjectured that the Rosenau solution and the cigar are the only solutions, modulo scaling. In this paper, we mainly study the backward limit and the circumference at spatial infinity of Type II ancient solutions on noncompact surfaces.
In [4], we proved that every noncompact ancient $κ$-solution to the Ricci flow in dimension $3$ is either locally isometric to a family of shrinking cylinders, or isometric to the Bryant soliton. In the same paper, we announced that the same method implies that compact ancient $κ$-solutions are rotationally symmetric. In this note we provide the details of this argument.
We show that any locally conformally flat ancient solution to the Ricci flow must be rotationally symmetric. As a by-product, we prove that any locally conformally flat Ricci soliton is a gradient soliton in the shrinking and steady cases as well as in the expanding case, provided the soliton has nonnegative curvature.
In this paper, we study the classification of $κ$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to n-dimensional Ricci flow on $S^n$, extending the result in [13] to higher dimensions. We prove that such a solution is either isometric to a family of shrinking round spheres, or the Type II ancient solution constructed by Perelman.
In [ZY2], the second author proved Perelman's assertion, namely, for an ancient Ricci flow with bounded and nonnegative curvature operator, bounded entropy is equivalent to noncollapsing on all scales. In this paper, we continue this discussion. It turns out that the curvature operator nonnegativity is not a necessary condition, and we need only to assume a consequence of Hamilton's trace Harnack. Furthermore, we show that this condition holds for steady Ricci solitons with nonnegative Ricci curvature.
We show that every $n$-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, noncompact, complete ancient solution to the Ricci flow with uniformly PIC for $n=4$ or $n\ge 12$ has weakly PIC$_2$ and bounded curvature. Combining this with earlier results, we prove that any such solution is isometric to either a family of shrinking cylinders (or a quotient thereof) or the Bryant soliton. Also, we classify all complex 2-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, complete ancient solutions to the Kähler Ricci flow with weakly PIC.
In this paper we discuss the asymptotic entropy for ancient solutions to the Ricci flow. We prove a gap theorem for ancient solutions, which could be regarded as an entropy counterpart of Yokota's work. In addition, we prove that under some assumptions on one time slice of a complete ancient solution with nonnegative curvature operator, finite asymptotic entropy implies kappa-noncollapsing on all scales. This provides an evidence for Perelman's more general assertion that on a complete ancient solution with nonnegative curvature operator, bounded entropy is equivalent to kappa-noncollapsing.
In this paper, we prove that any non-flat ancient solution to Kähler-Ricci flow with bounded nonnegative bisectional curvature has asymptotic volume ratio zero. We also prove that any gradient shrinking solitons with positive bisectional curvature must be compact. Both results generalize the corresponding earlier results of Perelman in \cite{P1} and \cite{P2}. The results can be applied to study the geometry and function theory of complete Kähler manifolds with nonnegative bisectional curvature via Kähler-Ricci flow. It also implies a compactness theorem on ancient solutions to Kähler-Ricci fl…
This note is a continuation of [CMZ21]. We shall show that an ancient Ricci flow with uniformly bounded Nash entropy must also have uniformly bounded $ν$-functional. Consequently, on such an ancient solution there are uniform logarithmic Sobolev and Sobolev inequalities. We emphasize that the main theorem in this paper is true so long as the theory in [Bam20c] is valid, and in particular, when the underlying manifold is closed.
We consider compact noncollapsed ancient solutions to the 3-dimensional Ricci flow that are rotationally and reflection symmetric. We prove that these solutions are either the spheres or they all have unique asymptotic behavior as $t\to-\infty$ and we give their precise asymptotic description. This description applies in particular to the solution constructed by G.Perelman
Ancient solutions of the Ricci flow arise naturally as models for singularity formation. There has been significant progress towards the classification of such solutions under natural geometric assumptions. Nonnegatively curved solutions in dimensions 2 and 3, and uniformly PIC solutions in higher dimensions are now well understood. We consider ancient solutions of arbitrary dimension which are complete and have Type~I curvature growth. We show that a $κ$-noncollapsed Type~I ancient solution which is noncompact and has nonnegative sectional curvature necessarily splits at least one Euclidean f…
We study ancient Ricci flows which admit asymptotic solitons in the sense of Perelman. We prove that the asymptotic solitons must coincide with Bamler's tangent flows at infinity. Furthermore, we show that Perelman's $ν$-functional is uniformly bounded on such ancient solutions; this fact leads to logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and Sobolev inequalities. Lastly, as an important tool for the proofs of the above results, we also show that, for a complete Ricci flow with bounded curvature, the bound of the Nash entropy depends only on the local geometry around an $H_n$-center of its base point.
We prove a general existence theorem for collapsed ancient solutions to the Ricci flow on compact homogeneous spaces and we show that they converge in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology, under a suitable rescaling, to an Einstein metric on the base of a torus fibration. This construction generalizes all previous known examples in the literature.
We generalize the circle bundle examples of ancient solutions of the Ricci flow discovered by Bakas, Kong, and Ni to a class of principal torus bundles over an arbitrary finite product of Fano Kähler-Einstein manifolds studied by Wang and Ziller in the context of Einstein geometry. As a result, continuous families of $κ$-collapsed and $κ$-noncollapsed ancient solutions of type I are obtained on circle bundles for all odd dimensions $\geq 7$. In dimension $7$ such examples moreover exist on pairs of homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic manifolds. Continuous families of $κ$-collapsed ancient solut…
In this short paper, we show there do not exist three-dimensional noncompact $κ$-solutions of Ricci flow that have positive curvature and satisfy a Type-I bound. This represents progress towards the proof of Perelman's conjecture that the only complete noncompact three-dimensional $κ$-solution with positive curvature is the Bryant soliton.
Consider the standard action of $SO(2)\times SO(3)$ on $\mathbb{R}^5=\mathbb{R}^2\oplus \mathbb{R}^3$. We establish the existence of a uniform constant $\mathcal{C}>0$ so that any $SO(2)\times SO(3)$-invariant Ricci soliton on $\mathbb{S}^4\subset \mathbb{R}^5$ with Einstein constant $1$ must have Riemann curvature and volume bounded by $\mathcal{C}$, and injectivity radius bounded below by $\frac{1}{\mathcal{C}}$. This observation, coupled with basic numerics, gives strong evidence to suggest that the only $SO(2)\times SO(3)$-invariant Ricci solitons on $\mathbb{S}^4$ are round. We also encou…
The main result of this paper is: Given any constant C, there is $(ε,k,L)$ such that if a complete, orientable, noncompact odd-dimensional manifold with bounded positive sectional curvature contains a $(ε,k,L)$-neck, then the asymptotic scalar curvature ratio is bigger or equal to C. As a application we proved that the asymptotic scalar curvature ratio of a complete noncompact ancient Type I-like solution to the Ricci flow with bounded positive sectional curvature on an orientable 3-manifold, is infinity.
We study harmonic map heat flow along ancient super Ricci flow, and derive several Liouville theorems with controlled growth from Perelman's reduced geometric viewpoint. For non-positively curved target spaces, our growth condition is sharp. For positively curved target spaces, our Liouville theorem is new even in the static case (i.e., for harmonic maps); moreover, we point out that the growth condition can be improved, and almost sharp in the static case. This fills the gap between the Liouville theorem of Choi and the example constructed by Schoen-Uhlenbeck.
We prove Gaussian type bounds for the fundamental solution of the conjugate heat equation evolving under the Ricci flow. As a consequence, for dimension 4 and higher, we show that the backward limit of type I $κ$-solutions of the Ricci flow must be a non-flat gradient shrinking Ricci soliton. This extends Perelman's previous result on backward limits of $κ$-solutions in dimension 3, in which case that the curvature operator is nonnegative (follows from Hamilton-Ivey curvature pinching estimate). The Gaussian bounds that we obtain on the fundamental solution of the conjugate heat equation under…
In this note, we answer affirmatively the question if a warped product of a compact manifold with a line as an ancient solution to the Ricci flow is trivial. We also consider the global behavior of the Type III warping product Ricci flow.
In this paper we generalize the neck-stability theorem of Kleiner-Lott to a special class of four-dimensional nonnegatively curved Type I $κ$-solutions, namely, those whose asymptotic shrinkers are the standard cylinder $\mathbb{S}^3\times\mathbb{R}$. We use this stability result to prove a rigidity theorem: if a four-dimensional Type I $κ$-solution with nonnegative curvature operator has the standard cylinder $\mathbb{S}^3\times\mathbb{R}$ as its asymptotic shrinker, then it is exactly the cylinder with its standard shrinking metric.
For any complete noncompact K$\ddot{a}$hler manifold with nonnegative and bounded holomorphic bisectional curvature,we provide the necessary and sufficient condition for non-ancient solution to the Ricci flow in this paper.
We introduce a new entropy functional for nonnegative solutions of the heat equation on a manifold with time-dependent Riemannian metric. Under certain integral assumptions, we show that this entropy is non-decreasing, and moreover convex if the metric evolves under super Ricci flow (which includes Ricci flow and fixed metrics with nonnegative Ricci curvature). As applications, we classify nonnegative ancient solutions to the heat equation according to their entropies. In particular, we show that a nonnegative ancient solution whose entropy grows sublinearly on a manifold evolving under super …
We consider an ancient solution $g(\cdot,t)$ of the Ricci flow on a compact surface that exists for $t\in (-\infty,T)$ and becomes spherical at time $t=T$. We prove that the metric $g(\cdot,t)$ is either a family of contracting spheres, which is a type I ancient solution, or a Rosenau solution, which is a type II ancient solution.
We give a simple proof for the rotational symmetry of ancient solutions of Ricci flow on surfaces. As a consequence we obtain a simple proof of some results of P.Daskalopoulos, R.Hamilton and N.Sesum on the a priori estimates for the ancient solutions of Ricci flow on surfaces. We also give a simple proof for the solution to be a Rosenau solution under some mild conditions on the solutions of Ricci flow on surfaces.
We consider compact ancient solutions to the three-dimensional Ricci flow which are noncollapsed. We prove that such a solutions is either a family of shrinking round spheres, or it has a unique asymptotic behavior as $t \to -\infty$ which we describe. This analysis applies in particular to the ancient solution constructed by Perelman.
In this paper, we study $κ$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to the Ricci flow with nonnegative curvature operator in higher dimensions. We impose one further assumption: one of the asymptotic shrinking gradient Ricci solitons is the standard cylinder $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}\times\mathbb{R}$. By making use of the properties of such ancient solutions, we generalize part one of Brendle \cite{brendle2018ancient} to higher dimensions, that is, every noncompact $κ$-noncollapsed rotationally symmetric ancient solution to the Ricci flow with bounded positive curvature operator must be the Bryant soliton.
We generalize the ancient solutions of the Ricci flow on certain principal ${\rm SO}(3)$ bundles over compact quaternionic Kähler manifolds constructed by Bakas, Kong, and Ni to certain $RP^3$ fibre bundles over a product of two compact quaternionic Kähler manifolds. The ancient solutions are of Type I, $κ$-noncollapsed, and have positive Ricci curvature. Analogous solutions on even-dimensional non-Kählerian bundle spaces are also constructed.
We study the Ricci flow of the four-parameter family of Sp(n+1)-invariant metrics on spheres. We determine their forward behaviour and also classify ancient solutions. In doing so, we exhibit a new one-parameter family of ancient solutions on spheres. These (non-isometric) ancient solutions all have a larger isometry group, namely Sp(n+1)Sp(1), Sp(n+1)U(1), or U(2n+2). Two ancient solutions are non-collapsed and converge, under the backwards flow, to Jensen's second Einstein metric. One solution parametrizes the well known Berger metrics. The rest are new and collapse, under a rescaling of the…
The Ricci iteration is a discrete analogue of the Ricci flow. We give the first study of the Ricci iteration on a class of Riemannian manifolds that are not Kähler. The Ricci iteration in the non-Kähler setting exhibits new phenomena. Among them is the existence of so-called ancient Ricci iterations. As we show, these are closely related to ancient Ricci flows and provide the first nontrivial examples of Riemannian metrics to which the Ricci operator can be applied infinitely many times. In some of the cases we study, these ancient Ricci iterations emerge (in the Gromov--Hausdorff topology) fr…
We show that any manifold admitting a non-collapsed, ancient Ricci flow must have finite fundamental group. This generalizes what was known for $κ$-solutions in dimensions 2, 3. We furthermore show that this fundamental group must be a quotient of the fundamental group of the regular part of any tangent flow at infinity.
We show that a 1-parameter family Ricci flow ancient solutions arises from the natural collapsings of the twistor space of positive quaternion Kähler manifolds. We use these ancient solutions to show that a positive quaternion Kähler manifold is isometric to one of the Wolf spaces.
In this paper, we study the classification of $κ$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to three-dimensional Ricci flow on $S^3$. We prove that such a solution is either isometric to a family of shrinking round spheres, or the Type II ancient solution constructed by Perelman.
In our previous work we showed that for an ancient solution to the Ricci flow with nonnegative curvature operator, assuming bounded geometry on one time slice, bounded entropy implies noncollapsing on all scales. In this paper we prove the implication in the other direction, that for an ancient solution with bounded nonnegative curvature operator, noncollapsing implies bounded entropy. Hence we prove Perelman's assertion under the assumption of bounded geometry on one time slice. In particular, for ancient solutions of dimension three, we need only to assume bounded curvature. We also establis…
In this paper, we consider Ricci flows admitting closed and smooth tangent flows in the sense of Bamler [Bam20c]. The tangent flow in question can be either a tangent flow at infinity for an ancient Ricci flow, or a tangent flow at a singular point for a Ricci flow developing a finite-time singularity. Among other things, we prove: (1) that in these cases the tangent flow must be unique, (2) that if a Ricci flow with finite-time singularity has a closed singularity model, then the singularity is of Type I and the singularity model is the tangent flow at the singular point; this answers a quest…
We prove that Perelman's ancient ovals occur as blowup limit in 3d Ricci flow through singularities if and only if there is an accumulation of spherical singularities.
For any flag manifold $M=G/K$ of a compact simple Lie group $G$ we describe non-collapsing ancient invariant solutions of the homogeneous unnormalized Ricci flow. Such solutions emerge from an invariant Einstein metric on $M$, and by [BöLS17] they must develop a Type I singularity in their extinction finite time, and also to the past. To illustrate the situation we engage ourselves with the global study of the dynamical system induced by the unnormalized Ricci flow on any flag manifold $M=G/K$ with second Betti number $b_{2}(M)=1$, for a generic initial invariant metric. We describe the corres…
Ancient solutions arise in the study of Ricci flow singularities. Motivated by the work of Fateev on 3-dimensional ancient solutions we construct high dimensional ancient solutions to Ricci flow on spheres and complex projective spaces as well as the twistor spaces over a compact quaternion-Kahler manifold. Differing from Fateev's examples most of our examples are non-collapsed. The construction of this paper, different from the ad hoc anastz of Fateev, is systematic, generalizing (as well as unifying) the previous constructions of Einstein metrics by Bourguignon-Karcher, Jensen, and Ziller in…
In this paper, we prove Hamilton-Ivey estimates for the Ricci-Bourguignon flow on a compact manifold, with $n=3$ and $ρ<0$. As a consequence, we prove that compact ancient solutions have nonnegative sectional curvature for all negative $ρ$.
We give two new proofs of Perelman's theorem that shrinking breathers of Ricci flow on closed manifolds are gradient Ricci solitons, using the fact that the singularity models of type I solutions are shrinking gradient Ricci solitons and the fact that non-collapsed type I ancient solutions have rescaled limits being shrinking gradient Ricci solitons.
