In the article we consider Bach-flat metrics on four-manifolds with boundary, with conformally invariant boundary conditions. We show that such metrics arise naturally as critical points of the Weyl energy under a constraint. We then prove a rigidity result: if a Yamabe metric associated to a critical metric when restricted to the boundary is isometric to the round three-sphere, then the critical metric must be isometric to the standard upper hemisphere.
For complete Riemannian manifolds with vanishing Bach tensor and positive constant scalar curvature, we provide a rigidity theorem characterized by some pointwise inequalities. Furthermore, we prove some rigidity results under an inequality involving $L^{\frac{n}{2}}$-norm of the Weyl curvature, the traceless Ricci curvature and the Sobolev constant.
In this paper we show that a complete Schouten soliton whose Ricci tensor has at most two eigenvalues at each point is rigid. This allows the classification of both shrinking and expanding Bach-flat Schouten solitons for $n\geq$ 4. When $n=3$ we are able to conclude rigidity under a more general condition, namely when the Bach tensor is divergence free. These results imply rigidity of locally conformally flat Schouten solitons for $n\geq3$.
We prove that an n($\geq$ 4)-dimensional compact Bach-flat manifold with positive constant $σ_2$ is an Einstein manifold, provided that its Weyl curvature satisfies a suitable pinching condition.
In this paper, we prove some rigidity theorems for compact Bach-flat $n$-manifold with the positive constant scalar curvature. In particular, our conditions in Theorem 1.4 have the additional properties of being sharp.
On a compact $n$-dimensional manifold $M$, it is well known that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with unit volume, is Einstein. It has been conjectured that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unit volume, will also be Einstein. It was shown that this conjecture is true when $M$ together with a critical metric has harmonic curvature or the metric is Bach flat. In this paper, we tried to prove this conjecture with a divergence-free Bach tensor.
We prove a removal of singularities result for Bach-flat metrics in dimension 4 under the assumption of bounded L^2 norm of curvature, bounded Sobolev constant and a volume growth bound. This result extends the removal of singularities result for special classes of Bach-flat metrics obtained in \cite{TVMOD}. For the proof we analyze the decay rates of solutions to the Bach-flat equation linearized around a flat metric. This classification is used to prove that Bach-flat cones are in fact ALE of order $τ$ for any $τ< 2$. This result is then used to prove the removal of singularities theorem.
Around 2007, A. Chang, J. Qing, and P. Yang proved a conformal gap theorem for Bach-flat metrics with round sphere as the model case. In this article, we extend this result to prove conformally invariant gap theorems for Bach-flat $4$-manifolds with $(\mathbb{CP}^2, g_{FS})$ and $(\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2,g_{prod})$ as model cases. An iteration argument plays an important role in the case of $(\mathbb{CP}^2, g_{FS})$ and the convergence theory of Bach-flat metrics is of particular importance in the case of $(\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2,g_{prod})$.
Let $(M,g)$ be a noncompact complete Bach-flat manifold with positive Yamabe constant. We prove that $(M,g)$ is flat if $(M, g)$ has zero scalar curvature and sufficiently small $L_{2}$ bound of curvature tensor. When $(M, g)$ has nonconstant scalar curvature, we prove that $(M, g)$ is conformal to the flat space if $(M, g)$ has sufficiently small $L_2$ bound of curvature tensor and $L_{4/3}$ bound of scalar curvature.
We obtain a volume growth and curvature decay result for various classes of complete, noncompact Riemannian metrics in dimension 4; in particular our method applies to anti-self-dual or Kahler metrics with zero scalar curvature, and metrics with harmonic curvature. Similar results are known for Einstein metrics, but our analysis differs from the Einstein case in that (1) we consider more generally a fourth order system in the metric, and (2) we do not assume any pointwise Ricci curvature bound.
We establish the existence of solvable Lie groups of dimension 4 and left-invariant Riemannian metrics with zero Bach tensor which are neither conformally Einstein nor half conformally flat.
The goal of this article is to study the geometry of Bach-flat noncompact steady quasi-Einstein manifolds. We show that a Bach-flat noncompact steady quasi-Einstein manifold $(M^{n},\,g)$ with positive Ricci curvature such that its potential function has at least one critical point must be a warped product with Einstein fiber. In addition, the fiber has constant curvature if $n = 4.$
The purpose of this article is to investigate Bach-flat critical metrics of the volume functional on a compact manifold $M$ with boundary $\partial M.$ Here, we prove that a Bach-flat critical metric of the volume functional on a simply connected 4-dimensional manifold with boundary isometric to a standard sphere must be isometric to a geodesic ball in a simply connected space form $\Bbb{R}^{4},$ $\Bbb{H}^{4}$ or $\Bbb{S}^{4}$. Moreover, we show that in dimension three the result even is true replacing the Bach-flat condition by the weaker assumption that $M$ has divergence-free Bach tensor.
In this paper we show that a compact warped product Einstein manifold with vanishing Bach tensor of dimension $n \geq 4$ is a finite quotient of a warped product with $(n-1)$-dimensional Einstein fiber. The fiber has constant curvature if $n=4$.
We use the modified Riemannian extension of an affine surface to construct Bach flat manifolds. As all these examples are VSI (vanishing scalar invariants), we shall construct scalar invariants which are not of Weyl type to distinguish them. We illustrate this phenomena in the context of homogeneous affine surfaces.
On an $n$-dimensional complete manifold $M$, consider an $h$-almost gradient Ricci soliton, which is a generalization of a gradient Ricci soliton. We prove that if the manifold is Bach-flat and $dh/du>0$, then the manifold $M$ is either Einstein or rigid. In particular, such a manifold has harmonic Weyl curvature. Moreover, if the dimension of $M$ is four, the metric $g$ is conformally flat.
A Riemannian metric on a compact 4-manifold is said to be Bach-flat if it is a critical point for the L2-norm of the Weyl curvature. When the Riemannian 4-manifold in question is a Kaehler surface, we provide a rough classification of solutions, followed by detailed results regarding each case in the classification. The most mysterious case prominently involves 3-dimensional CR manifolds.
We show a closed Bach-flat Riemannian manifold with a fixed positive constant scalar curvature has to be locally spherical if its Weyl and traceless Ricci tensors are small in the sense of either $L^\infty$ or $L^{\frac{n}{2}}$-norm. Compared with the complete non-compact case done by Kim, we apply a different method to achieve these results. These results generalize a rigidity theorem of positive Einstein manifolds due to M.-A.Singer. As an application, we can partially recover the well-known Chang-Gursky-Yang's $4$-dimensional conformal sphere theorem.
For the Bach-flat closed manifold with positive scalar curvature, we prove a rigidity result under a given inequality involving the Weyl curvature and the traceless Ricci curvature. Moveover, under an inequality involving $L^{\frac{n}{2}}$-norm of the Weyl curvature, the traceless Ricci curvature and the Yamabe invariant, we also provide a similar rigidity result. As an application, we obtain some rigidity results on 4-dimensional manifolds.
We examine homogeneous solitons of the ambient obstruction flow and, in particular, prove that any compact ambient obstruction soliton with constant scalar curvature is trivial. Focusing on dimension 4, we show that any homogeneous gradient Bach soliton that is steady must be Bach flat, and that the only non-Bach-flat shrinking gradient solitons are product metrics on $\mathbb{R}^2\times S^2$ and $\mathbb{R}^2 \times H^2$. We also construct a non-Bach-flat expanding homogeneous gradient Bach soliton. We also establish a number of results for solitons to the geometric flow by a general tensor $…
It has been observed by Maldacena that one can extract asymptotically anti-de Sitter Einstein $4$-metrics from Bach-flat spacetimes by imposing simple principles and data choices. We cast this problem in a conformally compact Riemannian setting. Following an approach pioneered by Fefferman and Graham for the Einstein equation, we find formal power series for conformally compactifiable, asymptotically hyperbolic Bach-flat 4-metrics expanded about conformal infinity. We also consider Bach-flat metrics in the special case of constant scalar curvature and in the special case of constant $Q$-curvat…
It is shown that any smooth strictly convex global solution of $$\det(\frac{\partial^{2}u}{\partial ξ_{i}\partial ξ_{j}}) = \exp \left\{-\sum_{i=1}^n d_i \frac{\partial u}{\partial ξ_{i}} - d_0\right\},$$ where $d_0$, $d_1$,...,$d_n$ are constants, must be a quadratic polynomial. This extends a well-known theorem of Jörgens-Calabi-Pogorelov.
We solve the classifying problem raised by Fischer and Marsden for Bach flat static spaces. We also prove the conjecture about critical point equations proposed by Besse for Bach flat manifolds. Particularly in dimension 3, we derive an integral identity that allows us to obtain conformal flatness from the vanish of the full divergence of the Cotton tensor for static metrics and metrics satisfying the critical point equation.
On a compact $n$-dimensional manifold, it is well known that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with unit volume is Einstein. It has been conjectured that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unit volume, will be Einstein. This conjecture, proposed in 1987 by Besse, has not been resolved except when $M$ has harmonic curvature or the metric is Bach flat. In this paper, we prove some gap properties under divergence-free Bach tensor condition for $n\geq 5$, and a simil…
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…
The aim of this paper is to introduce and justify a possible generalization of the classic Bach field equations on a four dimensional smooth manifold $M$ in presence of field $φ$, that in this context is given by a smooth map with source $M$ and target another Riemannian manifold. Those equations are characterized by the vanishing of a two times covariant, symmetric, traceless and conformally invariant tensor field, called $φ$-Bach tensor, that in absence of the field $φ$ reduces to the classic Bach tensor. We provide a variational characterization for $φ$-Bach flat manifolds and we do the sam…
In this paper we prove a rigidity result for the equality case of the Penrose inequality on $3$-dimensional asymptotically flat manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature and corners. Our result also has deep connections with the equality cases of Theorem 1 in \cite{Miao2} and Theorem 1.1 in \cite{LM}.
Inspired by the work of F. Hang and X. Wang and partial results by S. Raulot, we prove a scalar curvature rigitidy result for locally conformally flat manifolds with boundary in the spirit of the well-known Min-Oo conjecture.
We consider surfaces with boundary satisfying a sixth order nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation corresponding to extremising the $L^2$-norm of the gradient of the mean curvature. We show that such surfaces with small $L^2$-norm of the second fundamental form and satisfying so-called `flat boundary conditions' are necessarily planar.
Gradient steady Ricci solitons are natural generalizations of Ricci-flat manifolds. In this article, we prove a curvature gap theorem for gradient steady Ricci solitons with nonconstant potential functions; and a curvature gap theorem for Ricci-flat manifolds, removing the volume growth assumptions in known results.
Consider a closed marked flat surface $S$ of genus $g\geq 2$ and area 1 and its universal covering $\tilde{S}$. We show that the measure class of the Hausdorff measure of the Gromov boundary of $\tilde{S}$ uniquely determines $S$.
We provide an explicit formula for the Fefferman-Graham-ambient metric of an $n$-dimensional conformal $pp$-wave in those cases where it exists. In even dimensions we calculate the obstruction explicitly. Furthermore, we describe all 4-dimensional $pp$-waves that are Bach-flat, and give a large class of Bach-flat examples which are conformally Cotton-flat, but not conformally Einstein. Finally, as an application, we use the obtained ambient metric to show that even-dimensional $pp$-waves have vanishing critical $Q$-curvature.
In this paper we prove that the space of flat metrics (nonpositively curved Euclidean cone metrics) on a closed, oriented surface is marked length spectrally rigid. In other words, two flat metrics assigning the same lengths to all closed curves differ by an isometry isotopic to the identity. The novel proof suggests a stronger rigidity result for flat metrics.
We consider the scattering and lens rigidity of compact surfaces with boundary that have a trapped geodesic. In particular we show that the flat cylinder and the flat Möbius strip are determined by their lens data. We also see by example that the flat Möbius strip is not determined by it's scattering data. We then consider the case of negatively curved cylinders with convex boundary and show that they are lens rigid.
We prove capacity inequalities involving the total mean curvature of hypersurfaces with boundary in convex cones and the mass of asymptotically flat manifolds with non-compact boundary. We then give the analogous of Pölia-Szegö, Alexandrov-Fenchel and Penrose type inequalities in this setting. Among the techniques used in this paper are the inverse mean curvature flow for hypersurfaces with boundary.
In this paper, we study conformally flat hypersurfaces of dimension $n(\geq 4)$ in $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ using the framework of Möbius geometry. First, we classify and explicitly express the conformally flat hypersurfaces of dimension $n(\geq 4)$ with constant Möbius scalar curvature under the Möbius transformation group of $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$. Second, we prove that if the conformally flat hypersurface with constant Möbius scalar curvature $R$ is compact, then $$R=(n-1)(n-2)r^2, ~~0<r<1,$$ and the compact conformally flat hypersurface is Möbius equivalent to the torus $$\mathbb{ S}^1(\sqrt{1-r^2})…
On a closed connected oriented manifold $M$ we study the space $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$ of all Riemannian metrics which admit a non-zero parallel spinor on the universal covering. Such metrics are Ricci-flat, and all known Ricci-flat metrics are of this form. We show the following: The space $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$ is a smooth submanifold of the space of all metrics, and its premoduli space is a smooth finite-dimensional manifold. The holonomy group is locally constant on $\mathcal{M}_\|(M)$. If $M$ is spin, then the dimension of the space of parallel spinors is a locally constant function on $\mathcal…
A time-flat condition on spacelike 2-surfaces in spacetime is considered here. This condition is analogous to constant torsion condition for curves in three dimensional space and has been studied in [2, 4, 5, 12, 13]. In particular, any 2-surface in a static slice of a static spacetime is time-flat. In this article, we address the question in the title and prove several local and global rigidity theorems for such surfaces in the Minkowski spacetime.
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.
Given a closed Riemannian manifold (M, g), there is a partition Σ_i of its tangent bundle TM called the focal decomposition. The sets Σ_i are closely associated to focusing of geodesics of (M, g), i.e. to the situation where there are exactly i geodesic arcs of the same length joining points p and q in M. In this note, we study the topological structure of the focal decomposition of a closed Riemannian manifold and its relation with the metric structure of the manifold. Our main result is that the flat n-tori are focally rigid, in the sense that if two flat tori are focally equivalent, then th…
First, we show that a warped product of a line and a fiber manifold is weakly conformally flat and quasi Einstein if and only if the fiber is Einstein. Next, we characterize and classify contact (in particular, $K$-contact) Riemannian manifold satisfying weakly (and doubly weakly) conformally flat and quasi-Einstein ($η$-Einstein) conditions. Finally, we provide local classification and characterization of a semi-Riemannian (including the 4-dimensional spacetime) with harmonic Weyl tensor and a non-homothetic conformal (including closed) vector field, in terms of Petrov types and Bach tensor.
In this paper we prove new rigidity results for complete, possibly non-compact, critical metrics of the quadratic curvature functionals $\mathfrak{F}^{2}_t = \int |\operatorname{Ric}_g|^{2} dV_g + t \int R^{2}_g dV_g$, $t\in\mathbb{R}$, and $\mathfrak{S}^2 = \int R_g^{2} dV_g$. We show that (i) flat surfaces are the only critical points of $\mathfrak{S}^2$, (ii) flat three-dimensional manifolds are the only critical points of $\mathfrak{F}^{2}_t$ for every $t>-\frac{1}{3}$, (iii) three-dimensional scalar flat manifolds are the only critical points of $\mathfrak{S}^2$ with finite energy and (iv…
We give an alternative proof of a result of Cantat and Dupont, showing that any automorphism of a K3 surface with measure of maximal entropy in the Lebesgue class must be a Kummer example. Our method exploits the existence of Ricci-flat metrics on K3s and also covers the non-projective case.
If a group $Γ$ acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space $X$ without 3-flats, then either $X$ contains a $Γ$-periodic geodesic which does not bound a flat half-plane, or else $X$ is a rank 2 Riemannian symmetric space, a 2-dimensional Euclidean building or non-trivially splits as a metric product. Consequently all such groups satisfy a strong form of the Tits Alternative.
