Let $M^d$ be a simply connected spin manifold of dimension $d \geq 5$ admitting Riemannian metrics of positive scalar curvature. Denote by $\mathcal{R}^+(M^d)$ the space of such metrics on $M^d$. We show that $\mathcal{R}^+(M^d)$ is homotopy equivalent to $\mathcal{R}^+(S^d)$, where $S^d$ denotes the $d$-dimensional sphere with standard smooth structure.
We also show a similar result for simply connected non-spin manifolds $M^d$ with $d\geq 5$ and $d\neq 8$. In this case let $W^d$ be the total space of the non-trivial $S^{d-2}$-bundle with structure group $SO(d-1)$ over $S^2$. Then $\mathcal{R}^+(M^d)$ is homotopy equivalent to $\mathcal{R}^+(W^d)$.
This paper explores the relation between the structure of fibre bundles akin to those associated to a closed almost nonnegatively sectionally curved manifold and rational homotopy theory.
We show that the homotopy type of the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on a smooth manifold remains unchanged, after application of surgery in codimension at least three to the underlying manifold. This result is originally due to V. Chernysh, but remains unpublished.
In this note, we answer positively a question by Belegradek and Kapovitch about the relation between rational homotopy theory and a problem in Riemannian geometry which asks that total spaces of which vector bundles over compact nonnegative curved manifolds admit (complete) metrics with nonnegative curvature.
In this paper we study manifolds, $X_Σ$, with fibred singularities, more specifically, a relevant space ${\mathcal R}^{\rm psc}(X_Σ)$ of Riemannian metrics with positive scalar curvature. Our main goal is to prove that the space ${\mathcal R}^{\rm psc}(X_Σ)$ is homotopy invariant under certain surgeries on $X_Σ$.
We consider properties of the total absolute geodesic curvature functional on circle immersions into a Riemann surface. In particular, we study its behavior under regular homotopies, its infima in regular homotopy classes, and the homotopy types of spaces of its local minima. We consider properties of the total curvature functional on the space of 2-sphere immersions into 3-space. We show that the infimum over all sphere eversions of the maximum of the total curvature during an eversion is at most 8πand we establish a non-injectivity result for local minima.
We establish a link between rational homotopy theory and the problem which vector bundles admit complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature. As an application, we show for a large class of simply-connected nonnegatively curved manifolds that, if C lies in the class and T is a torus of positive dimension, then "most" vector bundles over the product of C and T admit no complete nonnegatively curved metric.
We prove that for many degrees in a stable range the homotopy groups of the moduli space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on S^n and on other manifolds are non-trivial. This is achieved by further developing and then applying a family version of the surgery construction of Gromov-Lawson to an exotic smooth families of spheres due to Hatcher. As described, this works for all manifolds of suitable dimension and for the quotient of the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature by the (free) action of the subgroup of diffeomorphisms which fix a point and its tangent space. We also const…
Let $f:M\to N$ be a smooth area decreasing map between two Riemannian manifolds $(M,\gm)$ and $(N,\gn)$. Under weak and natural assumptions on the curvatures of $(M,\gm)$ and $(N,\gn)$, we prove that the mean curvature flow provides a smooth homotopy of $f$ to a constant map.
We study the homotopy type of the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on high-dimensional compact spin manifolds. Hitchin used the fact that there are no harmonic spinors on a manifold with positive scalar curvature to construct a secondary index map from the space of positive scalar metrics to a suitable space from the real $K$-theory spectrum. Our main results concern the nontriviality of this map. We prove that for $2n \geq 6$, the natural $KO$-orientation from the infinite loop space of the Madsen--Tillmann--Weiss spectrum factors (up to homotopy) through the space of metrics of …
We discuss the Sasakian geometry of odd dimensional homotopy spheres. In particular, we give a completely new proof of the existence of metrics of positive Ricci curvature on exotic spheres that can be realized as the boundary of a parallelizable manifold. Furthermore, it is shown that on such homotopy spheres $\scriptstyle{Σ^{2n+1}}$ the moduli space of Sasakian structures has infinitely many positive components determined by inequivalent underlying contact structures. We also prove the existence of Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature on each of the known $\scriptstyle{2^{2m}}$ dis…
we show that the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on a manifold is, when nonempty, homotopy equivalent to a space of metrics of positive scalar curvature that restrict to a fixed metric near a given submanifold of codimension greater or equal than 3. Our main tool is a parameterized version of the Gromov-Lawson construction, which was used to show that the existence of a metric of positive scalar curvature on a manifold was invariant under surgeries in codimension greater or equal than 3.
For dimensions $n\geq 3$ and $k\in\{2, \cdots, n\}$, we show that the space of metrics of $k$-positive Ricci curvature on the sphere $S^{n}$ has the structure of an $H$-space with a homotopy commutative, homotopy associative product operation. We further show, using the theory of operads and results of Boardman, Vogt and May that the path component of this space containing the round metric is weakly homotopy equivalent to an $n$-fold loop space.
We show that the moduli space of metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on every homotopy ${\mathbb {R}} P^5$ has infinitely many path components. We also show that in each dimension $4k+1$ there are at least $2^{2k}$ homotopy ${\mathbb {R}} P^{4k+1}$s of pairwise distinct oriented diffeomorphism type for which the moduli space of metrics of positive Ricci curvature has infinitely many path components. Examples of closed manifolds with finite fundamental group with these properties were known before only in dimensions $4k+3\geq 7$.
For dimensions n greater than or equal to 3, we show that the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on the n-sphere is homotopy equivalent to a subspace which takes the form of a H-space with a homotopy commutative, homotopy associative product operation. This product operation is based on the connected sum construction. We then exhibit an action of the little n-disks operad on this subspace which, using results of Boardman, Vogt and May implies that when n=3 or n is at least 5, the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on the n-sphere is weakly homotopy equivalent to an n-fold…
Let $X_0, \widetilde{X}$ be two smooth, closed and locally convex curves in the plane with same winding number. A curvature flow with a nonlocal term is constructed to evolve $X_0$ into $\widetilde{X}$. It is proved that this flow exits globally, preserves both the local convexity and the elastic energy of the evolving curve. If the two curves have same elastic energy then the curvature flow deforms the evolving curve into the target curve $\widetilde{X}$ as time tends to infinity.
Let $M$ be an $n$-dimensional compact connected manifold with boundary, $κ>0$ a constant and $1\leq q\leq n-1$ an integer. We prove that $M$ supports a Riemannian metric with the interior $q$-curvature $K_q\geq -qκ^2$ and the boundary $q$-curvature $Λ_q\geq qκ$, if and only if $M$ has the homotopy type of a CW complex with a finite number of cells with dimension $\leq (q-1)$. Moreover, any Riemannian manifold $M$ with sectional curvature $K\geq -κ^2$ and boundary principal curvature $Λ\geq κ$ is diffeomorphic to the standard closed $n$-ball.
Under mild assumptions on a group G, we prove that the class of complete Riemannian n-manifolds of uniformly bounded negative sectional curvatures and with the fundamental groups isomorphic to G breaks into finitely many tangential homotopy types. It follows that many aspherical manifolds do not admit complete negatively curved metrics with prescribed curvature bounds.
We study the space of Riemannian metrics with positive scalar curvature on a compact manifold with boundary. These metrics extend a fixed boundary metric and take a product structure on a collar neighbourhood of the boundary. We show that the weak homotopy type of this space is preserved by certain surgeries on the boundary in co-dimension at least three. Thus, there is a weak homotopy equivalence between the space of such metrics on a simply connected spin manifold $W$, of dimension $n\geq 6$ and with simply connected boundary, and the corresponding space of metrics of positive scalar curvatu…
In this paper we study spaces of Riemannian metrics with lower bounds on intermediate curvatures. We show that the spaces of metrics of positive p-curvature and k-positive Ricci curvature on a given high-dimensional Spin-manifold have many non-trivial homotopy groups provided that the manifold admits such a metric.
For each odd integer r greater than one and not divisible by three we give explicit examples of infinite families of simply and tangentially homotopy equivalent but pairwise non-homeomorphic closed homogeneous spaces with fundamental group isomorphic to Z/r. As an application we construct the first examples of manifolds which possess infinitely many metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature with pairwise non-homeomorphic homogeneous souls of codimension three with trivial normal bundle, such that their curvatures and the diameters of the souls are uniformly bounded. These manifolds are the fi…
We use the cobordism category constructed in arXiv:1703.01047 to the study the homotopy type of the space of positive scalar curvature metrics on a spin manifold of dimension > 4. Our methods give an alternative proof and extension of a recent theorem of Botvinnik, Ebert, and Randal-Williams from arXiv:1411.7408.
We construct smooth bundles with base and fiber products of two spheres whose total spaces have non-vanishing $\hat{A}$-genus. We then use these bundles to locate non-trivial rational homotopy groups of spaces of Riemannian metrics with lower curvature bounds for all Spin-manifolds of dimension six or at least ten which admit such a metric and are a connected sum of some manifold and $S^n \times S^n$ or $S^n \times S^{n+1}$, respectively. We also construct manifolds $M$ whose spaces of Riemannian metrics of positive scalar curvature have homotopy groups that contain elements of infinite order …
We construct non-trivial elements of order 2 in the homotopy groups $π_{8j+1+*} Diff(D^6,\partial)$, for * congruent 1 or 2 modulo 8, which are detected by the "assembling homomorphism" (giving rise to the Gromoll filtration), followed by the alpha-invariant in $KO_*=Z/2$. These elements are constructed by means of Morlet's homotopy equivalence between $Diff(D^6,\partial)$ and $Ω^7(PL_6/O_6)$, and Toda brackets in $PL_6/O_6$. We also construct non-trivial elements of order 2 in $π_* PL_m$ for every m greater or equal to 6 and * congruent to 1 or 2 modulo 8, which are detected by the alpha-inva…
We prove the existence of elements of infinite order in the homotopy groups of the spaces $\mathcal{R}_{Ric>0}(M)$ and $\mathcal{R}_{sec>0}(M)$ of positive Ricci and positive sectional curvature, provided that $M$ is high-dimensional and Spin, admits such a metric and has a non-vanishing rational Pontryagin class.
We prove that for cobordant closed spin manifolds of dimension $n\geq 3$ the associated spaces of metrics with invertible Dirac operator are homotopy equivalent. This is the spinorial counterpart of a similar result on positive scalar curvature of Chernysh/Walsh and generalizes the surgery result of Ammann-Dahl-Humbert on the existence of metrics with invertible Dirac operator under surgery. We also give a relative statement of this homotopy equivalence.
In this paper we show that for Riemannian manifolds with boundary the natural restriction map is a quasifibration between spaces of metrics of positive scalar curvature. We apply this result to study homotopy properties of spaces of such metrics on manifolds with boundary.
We show that the higher homotopy groups of the moduli space of torus-invariant positive scalar curvature metrics on certain quasitoric manifolds are non-trivial.
We study the question of existence of a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature metric on manifolds with the Sullivan-Baas singularities. The manifolds we consider are Spin and simply connected. We prove an analogue of the Gromov-Lawson Conjecture for such manifolds in the case of particular type of singularities. We give an affirmative answer when such manifolds with singularities accept a metric of positive scalar curvature in terms of the index of the Dirac operator valued in the corresponding "K-theories with singularities". The key ideas are based on the construction due to Stolz, …
Motivated by prominent problems like the Hilali conjecture Yamaguchi--Yokura recently proposed certain estimates on the relations of the dimensions of rational homotopy and rational cohomology groups of fibre, base and total spaces in a fibration of rationally elliptic spaces. In this article we prove these estimates in the category of formal elliptic spaces and, in general, whenever the total space in addition has positive Euler characteristic or has the rational homotopy type of a homogeneous manifold (respectively of a known example) of positive sectional curvature. Additionally, we provide…
Our main result asserts that for any given numbers C and D the class of simply connected closed smooth manifolds of dimension m<7 which admit a Riemannian metric with sectional curvature bounded in absolute value by C and diameter uniformly bounded from above by D contains only finitely many diffeomorphism types. Thus in these dimensions the lower positive bound on volume in Cheeger's Finiteness Theorem can be replaced by a purely topological condition, simply-connectedness. In dimension 4 instead of simply-connectedness here only non-vanishing of the Euler characteristic has to be required. A…
We study algebraic conditions on a group G under which every properly discontinuous, isometric G-action on a Hadamard manifold has a G-invariant Busemann function. For such G we prove the following structure theorem: every open complete nonpositively curved Riemannian K(G,1) manifold that is homotopy equivalent to a finite complex of codimension >2 is an open regular neighborhood of a subcomplex of the same codimension. In this setting we show that each tangential homotopy type contains infinitely many open K(G,1) manifolds that admit no complete nonpositively curved metric even though their u…
Following ideas of Gromov we prove scalar and mean curvature comparison results for Riemannian bands with lower scalar curvature bounds in dimension $n\leq7$. The model spaces we use are warped products over scalar-flat manifolds with $\log$-concave warping functions.
In this paper we consider on a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ an immersed totally geodesic hypersurface $\Si$ existing together with an immersed submanifold $N$ without focal points. No curvature condition is needed. We obtained several connectedness results relating the topologies of $M$ and $\Si$ which depend on the codimension of $N$.
An $e^ε$-Lipschitz and co-Lipschitz map, as a metric analogue of an $ε$-Riemannian submersion, naturally arises from a sequence of Alexandrov spaces with curvature uniformly bounded below that converges to a space of only weak singularities. In this paper we prove its homotopy lifting property and its homotopy stability in Gromov-Hausdorff topology. Due to an overlook in the previous version, the part for bounding intrinsic distance of fibers will be talked about in the coming papers.
We construct metrics of positive Ricci curvature on some vector bundles over tori (or more generally, over nilmanifolds). This gives rise to the first examples of manifolds with positive Ricci curvature which are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic to manifolds of nonnegative sectional curvature.
We show $ 10/8$-type inequalities for some end-periodic $4$-manifolds which have positive scalar curvature metrics on the ends. As an application, we construct a new family of closed $4$-manifolds which do not admit positive scalar curvature metrics.
We utilize a condition for algebraic curvature operators called surgery stability as suggested by the work of S. Hoelzel to investigate the space of riemannian metrics over closed manifolds satisfying these conditions. Our main result is a parametrized Gromov-Lawson construction with not necessarily trivial normal bundles and shows that the homotopy type of this space of metrics is invariant under surgeries of a suitable codimension. This is a generalization of a well-known theorem by V. Chernysh and M. Walsh for metrics of positive scalar curvature. As an application of our method, we show th…
We relate the (non)existence of lower scalar curvature bounds to the existence of certain distance-decreasing maps. We also give a sufficient condition for the existence of a limiting scalar curvature measure in the backward limit of a Ricci flow solution.
In my talk I will discuss the following results which were obtained in joint work with Wilderich Tuschmann. 1. For any given numbers $m$, $C$ and $D$, the class of $m$-dimensional simply connected closed smooth manifolds with finite second homotopy groups which admit a Riemannian metric with sectional curvature $\vert K \vert\le C$ and diameter $\le D$ contains only finitely many diffeomorphism types. 2. Given any $m$ and any $δ>0$, there exists a positive constant $i_0=i_0(m,δ)>0$ such that the injectivity radius of any simply connected compact $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with finite …
In this paper, we study the topological rigidity and its relationship with the positivity of scalar curvature. Precisely, we show that any complete contractible $3$-manifold with non-negative scalar curvature is homeomorphic to $\mathbf{R}^3$.
We show any Riemannian curvature model can be geometrically realized by a manifold with constant scalar curvature. We also show that any pseudo-Hermitian curvature model, para-Hermitian curvature model, hyper-pseudo-Hermitian curvature model, or hyper-para-Hermitian curvature model can be realized by a manifold with constant scalar and *-scalar curvature.
We prove that a locally compact space with an upper curvature bound is a topological manifold if and only if all of its spaces of directions are homotopy equivalent and not contractible. We discuss applications to homology manifolds, limits of Riemannian manifolds and deduce a sphere theorem.
In this paper, we show that steady or shrinking complete gradient Yamabe solitons with finite total scalar curvature and non-positive Ricci curvature are Ricci flat. Moreover, under certain pinching condition for Ricci curvature, we show that steady or shrinking complete gradient Yamabe solitons with finite total scalar curvature and non-positive scalar curvature have zero scalar curvature.
In this short paper, we establish a closer relation between the Berwald scalar curvature and the $S$-curvature. In fact, we prove that a Finsler metric has isotropic Berwald scalar curvature if and only if it has weakly isotropic $S$-curvature. For Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature and of weakly isotropic $S$-curvature, they have almost isotropic $S$-curvature if and only if the flag curvature is weakly isotropic.
We study the properties of the $n$-volumic scalar curvature in this note. Lott-Sturm-Villani's curvature-dimension condition ${\rm CD}(κ,n)$ was showed to imply Gromov's $n$-volumic scalar curvature $\geq nκ$ under an additional $n$-dimensional condition and we show the stability of $n$-volumic scalar curvature $\geq κ$ with respect to smGH-convergence. Then we propose a new weighted scalar curvature on the weighted Riemannian manifold and show its properties.
