We consider ancient noncollapsed mean curvature flows in $\mathbb{R}^4$ whose tangent flow at $-\infty$ is a bubble-sheet. We carry out a fine spectral analysis for the bubble-sheet function $u$ that measures the deviation of the renormalized flow from the round cylinder $\mathbb{R}^2 \times S^1(\sqrt{2})$ and prove that for $τ\to -\infty$ we have the fine asymptotics $u(y,θ,τ)= (y^\top Qy -2\textrm{tr}(Q))/|τ| + o(|τ|^{-1})$, where $Q=Q(τ)$ is a symmetric $2\times 2$-matrix whose eigenvalues are quantized to be either 0 or $-1/\sqrt{8}$. This naturally breaks up the classification problem for general ancient noncollapsed flows in $\mathbb{R}^4$ into three cases depending on the rank of $Q$. In the case $\mathrm{rk}(Q)=0$, generalizing a prior result of Choi, Hershkovits and the second author, we prove that the flow is either a round shrinking cylinder or $\mathbb{R}\times$2d-bowl. In the case $\mathrm{rk}(Q)=1$, under the additional assumption that the flow either splits off a line or is selfsimilarly translating, as a consequence of recent work by Angenent, Brendle, Choi, Daskalopoulos, Hershkovits, Sesum and the second author we show that the flow must be $\mathbb{R}\times$2d-oval or belongs to the one-parameter family of 3d oval-bowls constructed by Hoffman-Ilmanen-Martin-White, respectively. Finally, in the case $\mathrm{rk}(Q)=2$ we show that the flow is compact and $\mathrm{SO}(2)$-symmetric and for $τ\to-\infty$ has the same sharp asymptotics as the $\mathrm{O}(2)\times\mathrm{O}(2)$-symmetric ancient ovals constructed by Hershkovits and the second author. The full classification problem will be addressed in subsequent papers based on the results of the present paper.
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 consider ancient noncollapsed mean curvature flows $M_t=\partial K_t\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ that do not split off a line. It follows from general theory that the blowdown of any time-slice, $\lim_{λ\to 0} λK_{t_0}$, is at most $n-1$ dimensional. Here, we show that the blowdown is in fact at most $n-2$ dimensional. Our proof is based on fine cylindrical analysis, which generalizes the fine neck analysis that played a key role in many recent papers. Moreover, we show that in the uniformly $k$-convex case, the blowdown is at most $k-2$ dimensional. This generalizes recent resu…
A well-known question of Perelman concerns the classification of noncompact ancient solutions to the Ricci flow in dimension $3$ which have positive sectional curvature and are $κ$-noncollapsed. In this paper, we solve the analogous problem for mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and prove that the rotationally symmetric bowl soliton is the only noncompact ancient solution of mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which is strictly convex and noncollapsed.
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 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.
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.
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…
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.
We study ancient mean curvature flows in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ whose tangent flow at $-\infty$ is a shrinking cylinder $\mathbb{R}^{k}\times S^{n-k}(\sqrt{2(n-k)|t|})$, where $1\leq k\leq n-1$. We prove that the cylindrical profile function $u$ of these flows have the asymptotics $u(y,ω,τ)= (y^\top Qy -2\textrm{tr}(Q))/|τ| + o(|τ|^{-1})$ as $τ\to -\infty$, where the cylindrical matrix $Q$ is a constant symmetric $k\times k$ matrix whose eigenvalues are quantized to be either 0 or $-\frac{\sqrt{2(n-k)}}{4}$. Compared with the bubble-sheet quantization theorem in $\mathbb{R}^{4}$ obtained by Haslho…
In this paper, we prove that any nontrivial $\mathrm{SO}(k )\times \mathrm{SO}(n+1-k)$-symmetric ancient compact noncollapsed solution of the mean curvature flow agrees up to scaling and rigid motion with the $\mathrm{O}(k)\times \mathrm{O}(n+1-k)$-symmetric ancient ovals constructed by Hershkovits and the second author. This confirms a conjecture by Angenent-Daskalopoulos-Sesum. On the other hand, for every $k\geq 2$ we also construct a $(k-1)$-parameter family of uniformly $(k+1)$-convex ancient ovals that are only $\mathbb{Z}^{k}_{2}\times \mathrm{O}(n+1-k)$-symmetric. This gives counterexa…
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.
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
We study the compact noncollapsed ancient convex solutions to Mean Curvature Flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with $O(1)\times O(n)$ symmetry. We show they all have unique asymptotics as $t\to -\infty$ and we give precise asymptotic description of these solutions. In particular, solutions constructed by White, and Haslhofer and Hershkovits have those asymptotics (in the case of those particular solutions the asymptotics was predicted and formally computed by Angenent).
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…
The Ricci flow is a natural evolution equation for Riemannian metrics on a given manifold. The main goal is to understand singularity formation. In his spectacular 2002 breakthrough, Perelman achieved a qualitative understanding of singularity formation in dimension $3$. More precisely, Perelman showed that every finite-time singularity to the Ricci flow in dimension $3$ is modeled on an ancient $κ$-solution. Moreover, Perelman proved a structure theorem for ancient $κ$-solutions in dimension $3$. In this survey, we discuss recent developments which have led to a complete classification of all…
We prove that smooth convex $α$-noncollapsed ancient mean curvature flow satisfies a quantitative curvature estimate $H(y,t)\leq CH(x,t)(H(x,t)|x-y|+1)^2$ for any pair of $x,y$. In other words, the rescaled curvature grows at most quadratically in terms of the rescaled extrinsic distance.
We consider ancient solutions to the mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ ($n \geq 3$) that are weakly convex, uniformly two-convex, and satisfy derivative estimates $|\nabla A| \leq γ_1 |H|^2, |\nabla^2 A| \leq γ_2 |H|^3$. We show that such solutions are noncollapsed. As an application, in arbitrary codimension, we consider compact $n$-dimensional ($n \geq 5$) solutions to the mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^N$ that satisfy the pinching condition $|H| > 0$ and $|A|^2 < c(n) |H|^2$, $c(n) = \min\{\frac{1}{n-2}, \frac{3(n+1)}{2n(n+2)}\}$. We conclude that any blow-up model at the first …
