We determine the Riemannian manifolds for which the group of exact volume preserving diffeomorphisms is a totally geodesic subgroup of the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms, considering right invariant $L^2$-metrics. The same is done for the subgroup of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms as a subgroup of the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms in the Kähler case. These are special cases of totally geodesic subgroups of diffeomorphisms with Lie algebras big enough to detect the vanishing of a symmetric 2-tensor field.
We present classifications of totally geodesic and totally umbilical Legendrian submanifolds of $(κ,μ)$-spaces with Boeckx invariant $I \leq -1$. In particular, we prove that such submanifolds must be, up to local isometries, among the examples that we explicitly construct.
We give a full description of totally geodesic submanifolds in the tangent bundle of a Riemannian 2-manifold of constant curvature and present a new class of a cylinder-type totally geodesic submanifolds in the general case.
We classify maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in exceptional symmetric spaces up to isometry. Moreover, we introduce an invariant for certain totally geodesic embeddings of semisimple symmetric spaces, which we call the Dynkin index. We prove a result analogous to the index conjecture: for every irreducible symmetric space of non-compact type, there exists a totally geodesic submanifold which is of minimal codimension and whose non-flat irreducible factors have Dynkin index equal to one.
In this note it is shown that every 7-dimensional Eschenburg space can be totally geodesically embedded into infinitely many topologically distinct 13-dimensional Bazaikin spaces. Furthermore, examples are given which show that, under the known construction, it is not always possible to totally geodesically embed a positively curved Eschenburg space into a Bazaikin space with positive curvature.
A metric Lie algebra g is a Lie algebra equipped with an inner product. A subalgebra h of a metric Lie algebra g is said to be totally geodesic if the Lie subgroup corresponding to h is a totally geodesic submanifold relative to the left-invariant Riemannian metric defined by the inner product, on the simply connected Lie group associated to g. A nonzero element of g is called a geodesic if it spans a one-dimensional totally geodesic subalgebra. We give a new proof of Kaizer's theorem that every metric Lie algebra possesses a geodesic. For nilpotent Lie algebras, we give several results on the…
In this article, relations between the root space decomposition of a Riemannian symmetric space of compact type and the root space decompositions of its totally geodesic submanifolds (symmetric subspaces) are described. These relations provide an approach to the classification of totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces. In this way a classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the complex quadric $Q^m := \SO(m+2)/(\SO(2) \times \SO(m))$ is obtained. It turns out that the earlier classification of totally geodesic submanifolds of $Q^m$ by Chen and Nagano is incom…
We present a new equation with respect to a unit vector field on Riemannian manifold $M^n$ such that its solution defines a totally geodesic submanifold in the unit tangent bundle with Sasaki metric and apply it to some classes of unit vector fields. We introduce a class of covariantly normal unit vector fields and prove that within this class the Hopf vector field is a unique global one with totally geodesic property. For the wider class of geodesic unit vector fields on a sphere we give a new necessary and sufficient condition to generate a totally geodesic submanifold in $T_1S^n$.
In the first part of this expository article, the most important constructions and classification results concerning totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces are summarized. In the second part, I describe the results of my classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2.
We give a full geometrical description of local totally geodesic unit vector field on Riemannian 2-manifold, considering the field as a local imbedding of the manifold into its unit tangent bundle with the Sasaki metric.
We use the Cartan representations of $SO(3)$ and $SU(3)$, and an irreducible 14-dimensional representation of $Sp(3)$ to construct certain totally geodesic submanifolds in "skew" position in the complex quadrics, the complex 2-Grassmannians and the quaternionic 2-Grassmannians.
We bring together those systems of hydrodynamical type that can be written as geodesic equations on diffeomorphism groups or on extensions of diffeomorphism groups with right invariant $L^2$ or $H^1$ metrics. We present their formal derivation starting from Euler's equation, the first order equation satisfied by the right logarithmic derivative of a geodesic in Lie groups with right invariant metrics.
We classify pseudo-Riemannian submersions with connected totally geodesic fibres from a real pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. Also, we obtain the classification of the pseudo-Riemannian submersions with (para-)complex connected totally geodesic fibres from a (para-)complex pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a pseudo-Riemannian manifold.
In this article, I classify the totally geodesic submanifolds in the complex 2-Grassmannians and in the quaternionic 2-Grassmannians. It turns out that for both of these spaces, the earlier classification of maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2, published by Chen and Nagano (B.-Y. Chen, T. Nagano, "Totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces, II", Duke Math. J. 45 (1978), 405--425) is incomplete. For example, G_2(H^n) with n >= 7 contains totally geodesic submanifolds isometric to a HP^2, its metric scaled such that the minimal sectional curvatur…
In this note we prove that the Heisenberg group with a left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric admits a completely integrable totally geodesic distribution of codimension 1. This is on the contrary to the Riemannian case, as it was proved by T. Hangan.
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 $N$.
We prove transverse Weitzenböck identities for the horizontal Laplacians of a totally geodesic foliation. As a consequence, we obtain nullity theorems for the de Rham cohomology assuming only the positivity of curvature quantities transverse to the leaves. Those curvature quantities appear in the adiabatic limit of the canonical variation of the metric.
In the paper we investigate submanifolds in a tangent bundle endowed with g-natural metric G, defined by a vector field on a base manifold. We give a sufficient condition for a vector field on M to defined totally geodesic submanifold in (TM,G). The parallel vector field is discussed in more detail.
In 86, Ranjan questioned whether a submersion $π: G\to B$ from a compact simple Lie group with bi-invariant metric is a coset foliation or not, provided the submersion is Riemannian with totally geodesic fibers. Here we answer this question affirmatively, even when the submersion is defined only in an open subset of $G$ (assuming suitable hypothesis).
We show that a simply connected Riemannian homogeneous space M which admits a totally geodesic hypersurface F is isometric to either (a) the Riemannian product of a space of constant curvature and a homogeneous space, or (b) the warped product of the Euclidean space and a homogeneous space, or (c) the twisted product of the line and a homogeneous space (with the warping/twisting function given explicitly). In the first case, F is also a Riemannian product; in the last two cases, it is a leaf of a totally geodesic homogeneous fibration. Case (c) can alternatively be characterised by the fact th…
We prove that the Hopf vector field is a unique one among geodesic covariantly normal unit vector fields on spheres such that the submanifold generated by the field is totally geodesic in the unit tangent bundle with Sasaki metric. As application, we give a new proof of stability (instability) of the Hopf vector field with respect to volume variation using standard approach from the theory of submanifolds and find exact boundaries for the sectional curvature of the Hopf vector field.
We classify hypersurfaces of the Minkowski space $Ł^{n+1}$ that carry a totally geodesic foliation with complete leaves of codimension one. We prove that such a hypersurface is ruled, or a partial tube over a curve or contains a two or three dimensional strip. Moreover, if the hypersurface is embedded then it is a partial tube over a curve.
R. Zimmer proved that, on a compact manifold, a foliation with a dense leaf, a suitable leafwise Riemannian symmetric metric and a transverse Lie structure has arithmetic holonomy group. In this work we improve such result for totally geodesic foliations by showing that the manifold itself is arithmetic. This also gives a positive answer, for some special cases, to a conjecture of E. Ghys.
We construct point invariants of ordinary differential equations that generalise the Cartan invariants of equations of order two and three. The vanishing of the invariants is equivalent to the existence of a totally geodesic paraconformal structure which consist of a paraconformal structure, an adapted $GL(2,\R)$-connection and a two-parameter family of totally geodesic hypersurfaces on the solution space. The structures coincide with the projective structures in dimension 2 and with the Einstein-Weyl structures of Lorentzian signature in dimension 3. We show that the totally geodesic paraconf…
In the current paper,under the transverse Ricci flow on a totally geodesic Riemannian foliation, we prove two types of differential Harnack inequalities (Li-Yau gradient estimate) for the positive solutions of the heat equation associated with the time dependent horizontal Laplacian operators. We also get a time dependent version of the generalized curvature dimension inequality. As a consequence of aforementioned results, we also get parabolic Harnack inequalities and heat kernel upper bounds.
We classify the hypersurfaces of Euclidean space that carry a totally geodesic foliation with complete leaves of codimension one. In particular, we show that rotation hypersurfaces with complete profiles of codimension one are characterized by their warped product structure. The local version of the problem is also considered.
The consideration of the so-called rotation minimizing frames allows for a simple and elegant characterization of plane and spherical curves in Euclidean space via a linear equation relating the coefficients that dictate the frame motion. In this work, we extend these investigations to characterize curves that lie on a geodesic sphere or totally geodesic hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold of constant curvature. Using that geodesic spherical curves are normal curves, i.e., they are the image of an Euclidean spherical curve under the exponential map, we are able to characterize geodesic spher…
For $n\geq 4$ we show that generic closed Riemannian $n$-manifolds have no nontrivial totally geodesic submanifolds, answering a question of Spivak. An immediate consequence is a severe restriction on the isometry group of a generic Riemannian metric. Both results are widely believed to be true, but we are not aware of any proofs in the literature.
We classify totally geodesic submanifolds of Damek-Ricci spaces and show that they are either homogeneous (such submanifolds are known to be "smaller" Damek-Ricci spaces) or isometric to rank-one symmetric spaces of negative curvature. As a by-product, we obtain that a totally geodesic submanifold of any known harmonic manifold is by itself harmonic. We prove that the Cayley hyperbolic plane admits no Einstein hypersurfaces and that the only Einstein hypersurfaces in the Cayley projective plane are geodesic spheres of a particular radius; this completes the classification of Einstein hypersurf…
We construct a new Riemannian metric on Goldman space $\mathcal{B}(S)$, the space of the equivalence classes of convex projective structures on the surface $S$, and then prove the new metric, as well as the metric of Darvishzadeh and Goldman, restricts to be the Weil-Petersson metric on Teichm$\ddot{u}$ller space, embedded as a submanifold of Goldman space $\mathcal{B}(S)$. Moreover, Teichm$\ddot{u}$ller space endowed with the Weil-Petersson metric then is totally geodesic in the Riemannian manifold $\mathcal{B}(S)$.
We study the geodesic distance induced by right-invariant metrics on the group $\operatorname{Diff}_\text{c}(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms, for various Sobolev norms $W^{s,p}$. Our main result is that the geodesic distance vanishes identically on every connected component whenever $s<\min\{n/p,1\}$, where $n$ is the dimension of $M$. We also show that previous results imply that whenever $s > n/p$ or $s \ge 1$, the geodesic distance is always positive. In particular, when $n\ge 2$, the geodesic distance vanishes if and only if $s<1$ in the Riemannian case $p=2$, contrary to a conj…
We study the geodesic distance induced by right-invariant metrics on the group $\operatorname{Diff}_c(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$, and show that it vanishes for the critical Sobolev norms $W^{s,n/s}$, where $n$ is the dimension of $M$ and $s\in(0,1)$. This completes the proof that the geodesic distance induced by $W^{s,p}$ vanishes if $sp\le n$ and $s<1$, and is positive otherwise. The proof is achieved by combining the techniques of two recent papers --- [JM19] by the authors, which treated the sub-critical case, and [BHP18] of Bauer, Harms and Preston, which …
Let M be an irreducible Riemannian symmetric space. The index i(M) of M is the minimal codimension of a totally geodesic submanifold of M. In previous work the authors proved that i(M) is bounded from below by the rank rk(M) of M. In this paper we classify all irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces M for which the equality holds, that is, rk(M) = i(M). In this context we also obtain an explicit classification of all non-semisimple maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type and show that they are closely related to irreducible symmetric …
In this paper we give a complete local parametric classification of the hypersurfaces with dimension at least three of a space form that carry a totally geodesic foliation of codimension one. A classification under the assumption that the leaves of the foliation are complete was given in \cite{drt} for Euclidean hypersurfaces. We prove that there exists exactly one further class of local examples in Euclidean space, all of which have rank two. We also extend the classification under the global assumption of completeness of the leaves for hypersurfaces of the sphere and show that there exist pl…
We classify semi-Riemannian submersions with connected totally geodesic fibres from a real pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a semi-Riemannian manifold under the assumption that the dimension of the fibres is less than or equal to three and the metrics induced on fibres are negative definite. Also, we obtain the classification of semi-Riemannian submersions with connected complex totally geodesic fibres from a complex pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a semi-Riemannian manifold under the assumption that the dimension of the fibres is less than or equal to two and the metric induced on fibres are negativ…
In this paper I have studied about CR(Cauchy-Riemann)-submanifolds of Lorentzian Concircular Structure manifold ((LCS)n-manifold), Lorentzian Para-Sasakian(LP)-cosymplectic manifold, S-manifold and Generalized Kenmotsu (GKM) manifold. I have discussed some results regarding distribution, structure vector field, totally geodesic submanifold, leaf etc.. I have obtained results on totally umbilical contact CR-submanifold where the anti-invariant distribution has some properties. Next, I have studied some results about D-totally geodesic CR-submanifold (D is the distribution), a contact CR-submani…
The present article is the final part of a series on the classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds of the irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2. After this problem has been solved for the 2-Grassmannians in my previous papers cited in the present paper as [K1] and [K2], and for the space SU(3)/SO(3) in [K3], Section 6, we now solve the classification for the remaining irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2 and compact type: SU(6)/Sp(3), SO(10)/U(5), E6/(U(1)*Spin(10)), E6/F4, G2/SO(4), SU(3), Sp(2) and G2. Similarly as for the spaces already investigated in the…
The set of totally geodesic representatives of a homotopy class of maps from a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with nonnegative Ricci curvature into a complete Riemannian manifold $N$ with no focal points is path-connected and, when nonempty, equal to the set of energy-minimizing maps in that class. When $N$ is compact, each map from a product $W \times M$ into $N$ is homotopic to a map that's totally geodesic on each $M$-fiber. These results may be used to extend to the case of no focal points a number of splitting theorems of Cao-Cheeger-Rong about manifolds with nonpositive sectional curvat…
It is well-known that if $ξ$ is a smooth vector field on a given Riemannian manifold $M^n$ then $ξ$ naturally defines a submanifold $ξ(M^n)$ transverse to the fibers of the tangent bundle $TM^n$ with Sasaki metric. In this paper, we are interested in transverse totally geodesic submanifolds of the tangent bundle. We show that a transverse submanifold $N^l$ of $TM^n$ ($1 \leq l \leq n$) can be realized locally as the image of a submanifold $F^l$ of $M^n$ under some vector field $ξ$ defined along $F^l$. For such images $ξ(F^l)$, the conditions to be totally geodesic are presented. We show that t…
We study the family of $α$-connections of Amari-Chentsov on the homogeneous space $\mathcal{D}(M)/\mathcal{D}_μ(M)$ of diffeomorphisms modulo volume-preserving diffeomorphims of a compact manifold $M$. We show that in some cases their geodesic equations yield completely integrable Hamiltonian systems.
The $L^2$-metric or Fubini-Study metric on the non-linear Grassmannian of all submanifolds of type $M$ in a Riemannian manifold $(N,g)$ induces geodesic distance 0. We discuss another metric which involves the mean curvature and shows that its geodesic distance is a good topological metric. The vanishing phenomenon for the geodesic distance holds also for all diffeomorphism groups for the $L^2$-metric.
