We obtain a characterization of the proximal normal cone to a prox-regular subset of a Riemannian manifold. Moreover, some properties of Bouligand tangent cones to prox-regular sets are described. We prove that for a prox-regular subset S of a Riemannian manifold, the metric projection P_S to S is locally Lipschitz on an open neighborhood of S and it is directionally differentiable at boundary points of S. Finally, a necessary condition for a curve to be a minimizing curve in a prox-regular set is derived.
We give a definition of weak geodesics on prox-regular subsets of Riemannian manifolds as continuous curves with some weak regularities. Then obtaining a suitable Lipschitz constant of the projection map, we characterize weak geodesics on a prox-regular set with assigned end points as viscosity critical points of the energy functional.
In this paper we generalize the main result of [4] for manifolds that are not necessarily Einstein. In fact, we obtain an upper bound for the volume of a locally volume-minimizing closed hypersurface $Σ$ of a Riemannian 5-manifold $M$ with scalar curvature bounded from below by a positive constant in terms of the total traceless Ricci curvature of $Σ$. Furthermore, if $Σ$ saturates the respective upper bound and $M$ has nonnegative Ricci curvature, then $Σ$ is isometric to $\mathbb{S}^4$ up to scaling and $M$ splits in a neighborhood of $Σ$. Also, we obtain a rigidity result for the Riemannian…
We prove existence and partial regularity of integral rectifiable $m$-dimensional varifolds minimizing functionals of the type $\int |H|^p$ and $\int |A|^p$ in a given Riemannian $n$-dimensional manifold $(N,g)$, $2\leq m<n$ and $p>m$, under suitable assumptions on $N$ (in the end of the paper we give many examples of such ambient manifolds). To this aim we introduce the following new tools: some monotonicity formulas for varifolds in $\mathbb{R}^S$ involving $\int |H|^p$, to avoid degeneracy of the minimizer, and a sort of isoperimetric inequality to bound the mass in terms of the mentioned f…
We use techniques from nonsmooth analysis and geometric measure theory to provide new examples of complete sub-Riemannian structures satisfying the Minimizing Sard conjecture. In particular, we show that complete sub-Riemannian structures associated with distributions of co-rank 2 or generic distributions of rank $\ge$ 2 satisfy the Minimizing Sard conjecture.
We consider the sub-Riemannian $3$-sphere $(\mathbb{S}^3,g_h)$ obtained by restriction of the Riemannian metric of constant curvature $1$ to the planar distribution orthogonal to the vertical Hopf vector field. It is known that $(\mathbb{S}^3,g_h)$ contains a family of spherical surfaces $\{\mathcal{S}_λ\}_{λ\geq 0}$ with constant mean curvature $λ$. In this work we first prove that the two closed half-spheres of $\mathcal{S}_0$ with boundary $C_0=\{0\}\times\mathbb{S}^1$ minimize the sub-Riemannian area among compact $C^1$ surfaces with the same boundary. We also see that the only $C^2$ solut…
In this paper we prove the strong Sard conjecture for sub-Riemannian structures on 3-dimensional analytic manifolds. More precisely, given a totally nonholonomic analytic distribution of rank 2 on a 3-dimensional analytic manifold, we investigate the size of the set of points that can be reached by singular horizontal paths starting from a given point and prove that it has Hausdorff dimension at most 1. In fact, provided that the lengths of the singular curves under consideration are bounded with respect to a given complete Riemannian metric, we demonstrate that such a set is a semianalytic cu…
This note proves that any locally extremal non-self-conjugate geodesic loop in a Riemannian manifold is a closed geodesic. As a consequence, any complete and non-contractible Riemannian manifold with diverging injectivity radii along diverging sequences and without points conjugate to themselves, possesses a minimizing closed geodesic.
It is well-known that normal extremals in sub-Riemannian geometry are curves which locally minimize the energy functional. Most proofs of this fact do not make, however, an explicit use of relations between local optimality and the geometry of the problem. In this paper, we provide a new proof of that classical result, which gives insight into direct geometric reasons of local optimality. Also the relation of the regularity of normal extremals with their optimality becomes apparent in our approach.
We show that an asymptotically flat Riemannian three-manifold with non-negative scalar curvature is isometric to flat $\mathbb{R}^3$ if it admits an unbounded area-minimizing surface. This answers a question of R. Schoen.
Given an affine transformation $T$, we define its Fisher distortion $Dist_F(T)$. We show that the Fisher distortion has Riemannian metric structure and provide an algorithm for finding mean distorting transformation -- namely -- for a given set $\{T_{i}\}_{i=1}^N$ of affine transformations, find an affine transformation $T$ that minimize the overall distortion $\sum_{i=1}^NDist_F^{2}(T^{-1}T_{i}).$ The mean distorting transformation can be useful in some fields -- in particular, we apply it for rendering affine panoramas.
We introduce a proximal subdifferential and develop a calculus for nonsmooth functions defined on any Riemannian manifold $M$. We give several applications of this theory, concerning: 1) differentiability and geometrical properties of the distance function to a closed subset $C$ of $M$; 2) solvability and implicit function theorems for nonsmooth functions on $M$; 3) conditions on the existence of a circumcenter for three different points of $M$; and especially 4) fixed point theorems for expansive and nonexpansive mappings and certain perturbations of such mappings defined on $M$.
We prove the validity of an inequality involving a mean of the area and the length of the boundary of immersed disks whose boundaries are homotopically non-trivial curves in an oriented compact manifold which possesses convex mean curvature boundary, positive escalar curvature and admits a map to $\mathbb{D}^2\times T^{n}$ with nonzero degree, where $\mathbb{D}^2$ is a disk and $T^n$ is an $n$-dimensional torus. We also prove a rigidity result for the equality case when the boundary is totally geodesic. This can be viewed as a partial generalization of a result due to Lucas Ambrózio in \cite{A…
In this letter we exhibit the relation between the isometries of a Riemannian contraction of a sub-Riemannian manifold and those of the sub-Riemannian metric, for to use this relation with two goals: establishing a result about the existence of fixed points of isometries groups; and the other, defining a Multiresolution Analysis (MRA) on sub-Riemannian manifolds that it will permit to obtain Haar's bases on the manifolds before mentioned. Keywords: Sub-Riemannian geometry, minimizing geodesic, Haar functions, self-similarity.
We prove that in a class of non-equiregular sub-Riemannian manifolds corners are not length minimizing. This extends the results [4]. As an application of our main result we complete and simplify the analysis in [6], showing that in a 4-dimensional sub-Riemannian structure suggested by Agrachev and Gauthier all length-minimizing curves are smooth.
In this paper we study 1/k-geodesics, those closed geodesics that minimize on any subinterval of length $l(γ)/k$. We employ energy methods to provide a relationship between the 1/k-geodesics and what we define as the balanced points of the uniform energy. We show that classes of balanced points of the uniform energy persist under the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of Riemannian manifolds. Additionally, we relate half-geodesics (1/2-geodesics) to the Grove-Shiohama critical points of the distance function. This relationship affords us the ability to study the behavior of half-geodesics via the we…
The following version of a conjecture of Fischer-Colbrie and Schoen is proved: If M is a complete Riemannian 3-manifold with nonnegative scalar curvature which contains a two-sided torus S which is of least area in its isotopy class then M is flat. This follows from a local version derived in the paper.
Metrics on Lie groupoids and differentiable stacks have been introduced recently, extending the Riemannian geometry of manifolds and orbifolds to more general singular spaces. Here we continue that theory, studying stacky curves on Riemannian stacks, measuring their length using stacky metrics, and introducing stacky geodesics. Our main results show that the length of stacky curves measure distances on the orbit space, characterize stacky geodesics as locally minimizing curves, and establish a stacky version of Hopf-Rinow Theorem. We include a concise overview that bypasses nonessential techni…
We show that in analytic sub-Riemannian manifolds of rank 2 satisfying a commutativity condition spiral-like curves are not length minimizing near the center of the spiral. The proof relies upon the delicate construction of a competing curve.
We prove existence of regions minimizing perimeter under a volume constraint in contact sub-Riemannian manifolds such that their quotient by the group of contact transformations preserving the sub-Riemannian metric is compact.
We show that if an asymptotically flat manifold with horizon boundary admits a global static potential, then the static potential must be zero on the boundary. We also show that if an asymptotically flat manifold with horizon boundary admits an unbounded static potential in the exterior region, then the manifold must contain a complete non-compact area minimizing hypersurface. Some results related to the Riemannian positive mass theorem and Bartnik's quasi-local mass are obtained.
We show $C^{1,α}$-regularity for energy minimizing maps from a 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold into a Finsler space $(\R^n, F)$ with a Finsler structure $F(u,X)$.
A characterization of the proximal normal cone is obtained and a separation theorem for convex subsets of Riemannian manifolds is established. Moreover, the convexity of the distance function $d_S$ for a convex subset $S$ in the cases where the boundary of $S$ contains a geodesic segment, the boundary of $S$ is $C^2$ or the boundary of $S$ is not regular is discussed. Furthermore, a nonsmooth version of positive semi-definiteness of Hessian of convex functions on Riemannian manifolds is established.
In this article we study point configurations minimizing the discrete energy on a compact Riemannian manifold, where the energy kernel is taken to be the Green's function for the Laplacian. We show that every point in a minimizing configuration lies inside an open set called harmonic ball where no other point can enter, and that the minimum distance between any two distinct points has the optimal asymptotic order. We compute explicit bounds for the minimum distance in the case of Compact Rank One Symmetric Spaces.
Let B be a fiber bundle with compact fiber F over a compact Riemannian n-manifold M. There is a natural Riemannian metric on the total space B consistent with the metric on M. With respect to that metric, the volume of a rectifiable section s:M--> B is the mass of the image s(M) as a rectifiable n-current in B. Theorem: For any homology class of sections of B, there is a mass-minimizing Cartesian current T representing that homology class which is the graph of a C^1 section on an open dense subset of M.
We construct a Riemannian metric $g$ on $\mathbb{R}^4$ (arbitrarily close to the euclidean one) and a smooth simple closed curve $Γ\subset \mathbb R^4$ such that the unique area minimizing surface spanned by $Γ$ has infinite topology. Furthermore the metric is almost Kähler and the area minimizing surface is calibrated.
We investigate stability and local minimizing properties of the Riemannian functional defined by the L^p norm of the curvature tensor on the space of Riemannian metrics on a closed manifold. Riemannian metrics with constant curvature and products of such metrics are critical points of this functional. We prove that these points are strictly stable for this functional and if (M; g) is a manifold of this type, g has a neighborhood U such that g is the strict minima on it.
We analyze the disordered Riemannian geometry resulting from random perturbations of the Euclidean metric. We focus on geodesics, the paths traced out by a particle traveling in this quenched random environment. By taking the point of the view of the particle, we show that the law of its observed environment is absolutely continuous with respect to the law of the random metric, and we provide an explicit form for its Radon-Nikodym derivative. We use this result to prove a "local Markov property" along an unbounded geodesic, demonstrating that it eventually encounters any type of geometric phen…
In this paper we provide the small-time heat kernel asymptotics at the cut locus in three relevant cases: generic low-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, generic 3D contact sub-Riemannian manifolds (close to the starting point) and generic 4D quasi-contact sub-Riemannian manifolds (close to a generic starting point). As a byproduct, we show that, for generic low-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, the only singularities of the exponential map, as a Lagragian map, that can arise along a minimizing geodesic are $A_3$ and $A_5$ (in the classification of Arnol'd's school). We show that in the non-gene…
In general relativity, spatial light rays of static spherically symmetric spacetimes are geodesics of surfaces in Riemannian optical geometry. In this paper, we apply results on the isoperimetric problem to show that length-minimizing curves subject to an area constraint are circles, and discuss implications for the photon spheres of Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, as well as continuous mass models solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation. Moreover, we derive an isoperimetric inequality for gravitational lensing in Riemannian optical geometry, using curve shortening flow and the Gaus…
On any closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\geq 3$, we prove that if a function nearly minimizes the Yamabe energy, then the corresponding conformal metric is close, in a quantitative sense, to a minimizing Yamabe metric in the conformal class. Generically, this distance is controlled quadratically by the Yamabe energy deficit. Finally, we produce an example for which this quadratic estimate is false.
Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；IMJ-PRG（让·勒朗德达朗贝尔数学与研究所）；University of Kiel（基尔大学）；Case Western Reserve University（凯斯西储大学）
We show the existence of a smooth spherical surface minimizing the Willmore functional subject to an area constraint in a compact Riemannian three-manifold, provided the area is small enough. Moreover, we classify complete surfaces of Willmore type with positive mean curvature in Riemannian three-manifolds.
We study curvature functionals for immersed 2-spheres in a compact, three-dimensional Riemannian manifold M. Under the assumption that the sectional curvature of M is strictly positive, we prove the existence of a smoothly immersed sphere minimizing the L^{2} integral of the second fundamental form. Assuming instead that the sectional curvature is less than or equal to 2, and that there exists a point in M with scalar curvature bigger than 6, we obtain a smooth 2-sphere minimizing the integral of 1/4|H|^{2} +1, where H is the mean curvature vector.
We study in this work the existence of minimizing solutions to the critical-power type equation $\triangle_{\textbf{g}}u+h.u=f .u^{\frac{n+2}{n-2}} $ on a compact riemannian manifold in the limit case normally not solved by variational methods. For this purpose, we use a concept of "critical function" that was originally introduced by E. Hebey and M. Vaugon for the study of second best constant in the Sobolev embeddings. Along the way, we prove an important estimate concerning concentration phenomena's when $f$ is a non-constant function. We give here intuitive details.
We construct a branched center manifold in a neighborhood of a singular point of a $2$-dimensional integral current which is almost minimizing in a suitable sense. Our construction is the first half of an argument which shows the discreteness of the singular set for the following three classes of $2$-dimensional currents: area minimizing in Riemannian manifolds, semicalibrated and spherical cross sections of $3$-dimensional area minimizing cones.
We show that for an area minimizing $m$-dimensional integral current $T$ of codimension at least 2 inside a sufficiently regular Riemannian manifold, the upper Minkowski dimension of the interior singular set is at most $m-2$. This provides a strengthening of the existing $(m-2)$-dimensional Hausdorff dimension bound due to Almgren and De Lellis & Spadaro. As a by-product of the proof, we establish an improvement on the persistence of singularities along the sequence of center manifolds taken to approximate $T$ along blow-up scales.
We prove that if $M$ is a three-manifold with scalar curvature greater than or equal to -2 and $Σ\subset M$ is a two-sided compact embedded Riemann surface of genus greater than 1 which is locally area-minimizing, then the area of $Σ$ is greater than or equal to $4π(g(Σ)-1)$, where $g(Σ)$ denotes the genus of $Σ$. In the equality case, we prove that the induced metric on $Σ$ has constant Gauss curvature equal to -1 and locally $M$ splits along $Σ$. As a corollary, we obtain a rigidity result for cylinders $(I\timesΣ,dt^2+g_Σ)$, where $I=[a,b]\subset\mathbb{R}$ and $g_Σ$ is a Riemannian metric …
The Plateau-Douglas problem asks to find an area minimizing surface of fixed or bounded genus spanning a given finite collection of Jordan curves in Euclidean space. In the present paper we solve this problem in the setting of proper metric spaces admitting a local quadratic isoperimetric inequality for curves. We moreover obtain continuity up to the boundary and interior Hölder regularity of solutions. Our results generalize corresponding results of Jost and Tomi-Tromba from the setting of Riemannian manifolds to that of proper metric spaces with a local quadratic isoperimetric inequality. Th…
