In this paper, we prove two rigidity results for non-positively curved homogeneous Finsler metrics. Our first main result yields an extension of Hu-Deng's well-known result proven for the Randers metrics. Indeed, we prove that every connected homogeneous Finsler space with non-positive flag curvature and isotropic S-curvature is Riemannian or locally Minkowskian. We extend the Szabó's rigidity theorem for Berwald surfaces and show that homogeneous isotropic Berwald metrics with non-positive flag curvature are Riemannian or locally Minkowskian. We prove that a homogeneous $(α, β)$-metrics has isotropic mean Berwald curvature if and only if it has vanishing mean Berwald curvature generalizing result previously only known in the case of Randers metrics. Our second main result is to show that every homogeneous $(α,β)$-metric with non-positive flag curvature and almost isotropic S-curvature is Riemannian or locally Minkowskian.
For non-reversible Finsler metrics of positive flag curvature on spheres and projective spaces we present results about the number and the length of closed geodesics and about their stability properties.
In this paper, we study normal homogeneous Finsler spaces. We first define the notion of a normal homogeneous Finsler space, using the method of isometric submersion of Finsler metrics. Then we study the geometric properties. In particular, we establish a technique to reduce the classification of normal homogeneous Finsler spaces of positive flag curvature to an algebraic problem. The main result of this paper is a classification of positively curved normal homogeneous Finsler spaces. It turns out that a coset space $G/H$ admits a positively curved normal homogeneous Finsler metric if and only…
In this paper, we introduce the flag-wise positively curved condition for Finsler spaces (the (FP) Condition), which means that in each tangent plane, we can find a flag pole in this plane such that the corresponding flag has positive flag curvature. Applying the Killing navigation technique, we find a list of compact coset spaces admitting non-negatively curved homogeneous Finsler metrics satisfying the (FP) Condition. Using a crucial technique we developed previously, we prove that most of these coset spaces cannot be endowed with positively curved homogeneous Finsler metrics. We also prove …
In this paper, we prove that on every Finsler $n$-sphere $(S^n, F)$ for $n\ge 6$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $(\fracλ{λ+1})^2<K\le 1$, either there exist infinitely many prime closed geodesics or there exist $[\frac{n}{2}]-2$ closed geodesics possessing irrational average indices. If in addition the metric is bumpy, then there exist $n-3$ closed geodesics possessing irrational average indices provided the number of closed geodesics is finite.
In this paper, we prove that for every Finsler $n$-dimensional sphere $(S^{n},F)$ with reversibility $\lm$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $\left(\frac{\lm}{1+\lm}\right)^2<K\le 1$, either there exist infinitely many closed geodesics, or there exist at least two elliptic closed geodesics and each linearized Poincaré map has at least one eigenvalue of the form $e^{\sqrt{-1}þ}$ with $þ$ being an irrational multiple of $π$.
We prove some rigidity results on geodesic orbit Finsler spaces with non-positive curvature. In particular, we show that a geodesic Finsler space with strictly negative flag curvature must be a non-compact Riemannian symmetric space of rank one.
In this paper, we prove that for every Finsler $n$-sphere $(S^n, F)$ for $n\ge 3$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $(\fracλ{λ+1})^2<K\le 1$, either there exist infinitely many prime closed geodesics or there exists one elliptic closed geodesic whose linearized Poincaré map has at least one eigenvalue which is of the form $\exp(πi μ)$ with an irrational $μ$. Furthermore, there always exist three prime closed geodesics on any $(S^3, F)$ satisfying the above pinching condition.
In this paper, we prove that on every Finsler manifold $(M,\,F)$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $\left(\fracλ{λ+1}\right)^2<K\le 1$, there exist $[\frac{\dim M+1}{2}]$ closed geodesics. If the number of closed geodesics is finite, then there exist $[\frac{\dim M}{2}]$ non-hyperbolic closed geodesics. Moreover, there are 3 closed geodesics on $(M,\,F)$ satisfying the above pinching condition when $\dim M=3$.
A Finsler space $(M,F)$ is called flag-wise positively curved, if for any $x\in M$ and any tangent plane $\mathbf{P}\subset T_xM$, we can find a nonzero vector $y\in \mathbf{P}$, such that the flag curvature $K^F(x,y, \mathbf{P})>0$. Though compact positively curved spaces are very rare in both Riemannian and Finsler geometry, flag-wise positively curved metrics should be easy to be found. A generic Finslerian perturbation for a non-negatively curved homogeneous metric may have a big chance to produce flag-wise positively curved metrics. This observation leads our discovery of these metrics on…
In this paper, we use the flag curvature formula for homogeneous Finsler spaces in our previous work to classify odd dimensional smooth coset spaces admitting positively curved reversible homogeneous Finsler metrics. We will show that the most features of L. Bérard-Bergery's classification results for odd dimensional positively curved Riemannian homogeneous spaces can be generalized to reversible Finsler spaces.
We prove that a reversible Berwaldian Finsler structure $\left(M,F\right)$ with base-independent non-negative radial flag curvature and large volume growth does not have any closed geodesics.
In this paper, we explore the similarity between normal homogeneity and $δ$-homogeneity in Finsler geometry. They are both non-negatively curved Finsler spaces. We show that any connected $δ$-homogeneous Finsler space is $G$-$δ$-homo-geneous, for some suitably chosen connected quasi-compact $G$. So $δ$-homogeneous Finsler metrics can be defined by a bi-invariant singular metric on $G$ and submersion, just as normal homogeneous metrics, using a bi-invariant Finsler metric on $G$ instead. More careful analysis shows, in the space of all Finsler metrics on $G/H$, the subset of all $G$-$δ$-homogen…
We construct a convex and strongly pseudoconvex Kobayashi positive Finsler metric on a vector bundle $E$ under the assumption that the symmetric power of the dual $S^kE^*$ has a Griffiths negative $L^2$-metric for some $k$. The proof relies on the negativity of direct image bundles and the Minkowski inequality for norms. As a corollary, we show that given a strongly pseudoconvex Kobayashi positive Finsler metric, one can upgrade to a \textit{convex} Finsler metric with the same property. We also give an extremal characterization of Kobayashi curvature for Finsler metrics.
In this paper, we prove a global rigidity theorem for negatively curved Finsler metrics on a compact manifold of dimension n>2. We show that for such a Finsler manifold, if the flag curvature is a scalar function on the tangent bundle, then the Finsler metric is of Randers type. We also study the case when the Finsler metric is locally projectively flat.
This is a survey paper on our recent works concerning the classification of positively curved homogeneous Finsler spaces, and some related topics. At the final part, we present some open problems in this field.
We obtain a partial parallelism of the complex structure on Kähler Finsler manifolds. As applications, we prove Synge-Tsukamoto theorem and Bonnet-Myers theorem for positively curved Kähler Finsler manifolds. Moreover, we generalize a comparison theorem due to Ni-Zheng by introducing the notion of orthogonal Ricci curvature to Kähler Finsler geometry.
A Riemannian manifold is called almost positively curved if the set of points for which all $2$-planes have positive sectional curvature is open and dense. We find three new examples of almost positively curved manifolds: $Sp(3)/Sp(1)^2$, and two circle quotients of $Sp(3)/Sp(1)^2$. We also show the quasi-positively curved metric of Tapp [26]} on $Sp(n+1)/Sp(n-1) Sp(1)$ is not almost positively curved if $n\geq 3$.
In this paper, we prove that for every Finsler $n$-dimensional sphere $(S^n,F), n\ge 3$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $\left(\fracλ{1+λ}\right)^2<K\le 1$, there exist at least three distinct closed geodesics and at least two of them are elliptic if the number of prime closed geodesics is finite. When $n\ge 6$, these three distinct closed geodesics are non-hyperbolic.
It's well known that the n-sphere $S^n$ is the universal double covering of the $n$-dimensional real projective space $\mathbb{R}P^n$ and then any Finsler metric on $\mathbb{R}P^n$ induces a Finsler metric of $S^n$. In this paper, we prove that for every Finsler $(S^n, F)$ for $n\geq3$ whose metric is induced by irreversible Finsler $(\mathbb{R}P^n,F)$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $(\fracλ{λ+1})^2<K\leq 1$, there exist at least $n-1$ prime closed geodesics on $(S^n, F)$. Furthermore, if there exist finitely many distinct closed geodesics on $(S^n, F)$, then there ex…
We investigate the possibility of desingularizing a positively curved metric cone by an expanding gradient Ricci soliton with positive curvature operator. This amounts to study the deformation of such geometric structures. As a consequence, we prove that the moduli space of conical positively curved gradient Ricci expanders is connected.
We bound the dimension of the fiber of a Riemannian submersion from a positively curved manifold in terms of the dimension of the base of the submersion and either its conjugate radius or the length of its shortest closed geodesic.
The symmetry-rank of a riemannian manifold is by definition the rank of its isometry group. We determine precisely which smooth closed manifolds admit a positively curved metric with maximal symmetry-rank.
In this paper, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of $κ$-noncollapsed and positively curved steady Ricci solitons and prove that any $n$-dimensional $κ$-noncollapsed steady Kähler-Ricci soliton with non-negative sectional curvature must be flat.
In this paper, we prove that for every Finsler $4$-dimensional sphere $(S^4,F)$ with reversibility $λ$ and flag curvature $K$ satisfying $\frac{25}{9}\left(\fracλ{1+λ}\right)^2<K\le 1$ with $λ<\frac{3}{2}$, either there exist at least four prime closed geodesics, or there exist exactly three prime non-hyperbolic closed geodesics and at least two of them are irrationally elliptic.
We give a metric characterization of the Euclidean sphere in terms of the lower bound of the sectional curvature and the length of the shortest closed geodesics.
We give a metric characterization of the Euclidean sphere in terms of the lower bound of the sectional curvature and the length of the shortest closed geodesics.
In this note, we show that any $n$-dimensional $κ$-noncollapsed steady Kähler-Ricci soliton with nonnegative bisectional curvature must be flat. The result is an improvement to our former work in \cite{DZ2}.
Using the Perron method, we prove the existence of hypersurfaces of prescribed special Lagrangian curvature with prescribed boundary inside complete Riemannian manifolds of non-positive curvature.
We classify positively curved Alexandrov spaces of dimension 4 with an isometric circle action up to equivariant homeomorphism, subject to a certain additional condition on the infinitesimal geometry near fixed points which we conjecture is always satisfied. As a corollary, we also classify positively curved Riemannian orbifolds of dimension 4 with an isometric circle action.
A classical result of Milman roughly states that every Lipschitz function on $\mathbb{S}^n$ is almost constant on a sufficiently high-dimensional sphere $\mathbb{S}^m\subset \mathbb{S}^n$. In this paper we extend the result by proving that any Lipschitz function on a positively curved homogeneous space is almost constant on a high dimensional submanifold.
We prove an obstruction at the level of rational cohomology in small degrees to the existence of positively curved metrics with large symmetry rank. The symmetry rank bound is logarithmic in the dimension of the manifold. As an application, we provide evidence for a generalized conjecture of Hopf that says that no symmetric space of rank at least two admits a metric with positive curvature.
In this paper, we study the geometry of the manifolds of geodesics of a Zoll surface of positive Gauss curvature, show how these metrics induce Finsler metrics of constant flag curvature and give some explicit constructions.
We construct a new 7-dimensional manifold with positive sectional curvature which is 2-connected with π_3=\Z_2 and admits an isometric group action with one dimensional quotient.
We prove that any metric of non-positive curvature in the sense of Alexandrov on a compact surface can be isometrically embedded as a convex spacelike Cauchy surface in a flat spacetime of dimension (2+1). The proof follows from polyhedral approximation.
In this paper we give a partial affirmative answer to a conjecture of Greene-Wu and Yau. We prove that a complete noncompact Kähler surface with positive and bounded sectional curvature and with finite analytic Chern number $c_{1}(M)^{2}$ is biholomorphic to ${\C}^2$.
Inspired by a recent work of Grove-Petersen in [GP18], where the authors studied Alexandrov spaces with largest possible boundary. We study Alexandrov spaces with lower curvature bound 1 and with small boundary. When the radius of X is π/2, and the boundary has diameter π/2, we classify the total space X.
The $c$-curvature of a complete surface with Gauss curvature close to 1 in $C^2$ norm is almost-positive (in the sense of Kim--McCann). Our proof goes by a careful case by case analysis combined with perturbation arguments from the constant curvature case, keeping track of an estimate on the closeness curvature condition.
We extend two known existence results to simply connected manifolds with positive sectional curvature: we show that there exist pairs of simply connected positively-curved manifolds that are tangentially homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic, and we deduce that an open manifold may admit a pair of non-homeomorphic simply connected and positively-curved souls. Examples of such pairs are given by explicit pairs of Eschenburg spaces. To deduce the second statement from the first, we extend our earlier work on the stable converse soul question and show that it has a positive answer for a class …
We classify four-dimensional shrinking Ricci solitons satisfying $Sec \geq \frac{1}{24} R$, where $Sec$ and $R$ denote the sectional and the scalar curvature, respectively. They are isometric to either $\mathbb{R}^{4}$ (and quotients), $\mathbb{S}^{4}$, $\mathbb{RP}^{4}$ or $\mathbb{CP}^{2}$ with their standard metrics.
We establish lower bounds for the first non-zero eigenvalue for the natural geometric sub-elliptic Laplacian operator defined on sub-Riemannian manifolds of step 2 that satisfy a positive curvature condition. The methods are very general and can be applied even when the sub-Riemannian geometry has considerable torsion.
We examine homogeneous metrics on spheres and determine which ones have positive sectional curvature. The answer is subtle and surprisingly difficult to prove. In some cases we also determine their pinching constants. This completes the classification of all homogeneous metrics with positive curvature (apart from one special Aloff Wallach space where the set of homogeneous metrics is too large).
We show that the shortest closed geodesic on a 2-sphere with non-negative curvature has length bounded above by three times the diameter. We prove a new isoperimetric inequality for 2-spheres with pinched curvature; this allows us to improve our bound on the length of the shortest closed geodesic in the pinched curvature setting.
Rigidity results are obtained for Riemannian $d$-manifolds with $\sec \geqslant 1$ and spherical rank at least $d-2>0$. Conjecturally, all such manifolds are locally isometric to a round sphere or complex projective space with the (symmetric) Fubini--Study metric. This conjecture is verified in all odd dimensions, for metrics on $d$-spheres when $d \neq 6$, for Riemannian manifolds satisfying the Rakić duality principle, and for Kählerian manifolds.
It is well-known by the work of Hsiang and Kleiner that every closed oriented positively curved 4-dimensional manifold with an effective isometric S^1-action is homeomorphic to S^4 or CP^2. As stated, it is a topological classification. The primary goal of this paper is to show that it is indeed a diffeomorphism classification for such 4-dimensional manifolds. The proof of this diffeomorphism classification also shows an even stronger statement that every positively curved simply connected 4-manifold with an isometric circle action admits another smooth circle action which extends to a 2-dimen…
In this paper, we study the interaction between the geodesic orbit (g.o.~in short) property and certain flag curvature conditions. A Finsler manifold is called g.o.~if each constant speed geodesic is the orbit of a one-parameter subgroup. Besides the non-negatively curved condition, we also concern the (FP) condition for the flag curvature, i.e., in any flag we can find a flag pole, such that the flag curvature is positive. The main theorem we will prove is the following. If a g.o.~Finsler space $(M,F)$ has non-negative flag curvature and satisfies the (FP) condition, then $M$ must be compact.…
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.
In this paper we obtain three results concerning the geometry of complete noncompact positively curved Kähler manifolds at infinity. The first one states that the order of volume growth of a complete noncompact Kähler manifold with positive bisectional curvature is at least half of the real dimension (i.e., the complex dimension). The second one states that the curvature of a complete noncompact Kähler manifold with positive bisectional curvature decays at least linearly in the average sense. The third result is concerned with the relation between the volume growth and the curvature decay. We …
