We study the higher order Jacobi operator in pseudo-Riemannian geometry. We exhibit a family of manifolds so that this operator has constant Jordan normal form on the Grassmannian of subspaces of signature (r,s) for certain values of (r,s). These pseudo-Riemannian manifolds are new and non-trivial examples of higher order Osserman manifolds.
Let s be at least 2. We construct Ricci flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2s,s) which are not locally homogeneous but whose curvature tensors never the less exhibit a number of important symmetry properties. They are curvature homogeneous; their curvature tensor is modeled on that of a local symmetric space. They are spacelike Jordan Osserman with a Jacobi operator which is nilpotent of order 3; they are not timelike Jordan Osserman. They are k-spacelike higher order Jordan Osserman for $2\le k\le s$; they are k-timelike higher order Jordan Osserman for $s+2\le k\le 2s$, and they …
We study the spectral geometry of the conformal Jacobi operator on a 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold (M,g). We show that (M,g) is conformally Osserman if and only if (M,g) is self-dual or anti self-dual. Equivalently, this means that the curvature tensor of (M,g) is given by a quaternionic structure, at least pointwise.
We construct new examples of algebraic curvature tensors so that the Jordan normal form of the higher order Jacobi operator is constant on the Grassmannian of subspaces of type $(r,s)$ in a vector space of signature $(p,q)$. We then use these examples to establish some results concerning higher order Osserman and higher order Jordan Osserman algebraic curvature tensors.
Let $R$ be an algebraic curvature tensor on a vector space of signature $(p,q)$ defining a spacelike Jordan Osserman Jacobi operator $\JJ_R$. We show that the eigenvalues of $\JJ_R$ are real and that $\JJ_R$ is diagonalizable if $p<q$.
Pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of balanced signature which are both spacelike and timelike Jordan Osserman nilpotent of order 2 and of order 3 have been constructed previously. In this short note, we shall construct pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2s,s) for any s (which is at least 2) which are spacelike Jordan Osserman nilpotent of order 3 but which are not timelike Jordan Osserman. Our example and techniques are quite different from known previously both in that they are not in neutral signature and that the manifolds constructed will be spacelike but not timelike Jordan Osserman.
In the algebraic context, we show that null Osserman, spacelike Osserman, and timelike Osserman are equivalent conditions for a model of signature (2,2). We also classify the null Jordan Osserman models of signature (2,2). In the geometric context, we show that a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of signature (2,2) is null Jordan Osserman if and only if either it has constant sectional curvature or it is locally a complex space form.
We exhibit Osserman metrics with non-nilpotent Jacobi operators and with non-trivial Jordan normal form in neutral signature (n,n) for any n which is at least 3. These examples admit a natural almost para-Hermitian structure and are semi para-complex Osserman with non-trivial Jordan normal form as well; they neither satisfy the third Gray identity nor are they integrable.
We exhibit pseudo Riemannian manifolds which are Szabó nilpotent of arbitrary order, or which are Osserman nilpotent of arbitrary order, or which are Ivanov-Petrova nilpotent of order 3.
In this paper, we study Jacobi operators associated to algebraic curvature maps (tensors) on lightlike submanifolds M. We investigate conditions for an induced Rie- mann curvature tensor to be an algebraic curvature tensor on M. We introduce the notion of lightlike Osserman submanifolds and an example of 2-degenerate Osserman metric is given. Finally we give some results of symmetry properties on lightlike hy- persurfaces from Osserman condition.
We construct a family of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds so that the skew-symmetric curvature operator, the Jacobi operator, and the Szabo operator have constant eigenvalues on their domains of definition. This provides new and non-trivial examples of Osserman, Szabo, and IP manifolds. We also study when the associated Jordan normal form of these operators is constant.
To study the Lawson-Osserman's counterexample to the Bernstein problem for minimal submanifolds of higher codimension, a new geometric concept, submanifolds in Euclidean space with constant Jordan angles(CJA), is introduced. By exploring the second fundamental form of submanifolds with CJA, we can characterize the Lawson-Osserman's cone from the viewpoint of Jordan angles.
It is shown that if a compact four-dimensional manifold with metric of neutral signature is Jordan-Osserman, then it is either of constant sectional curvature or Ricci flat.
By considering the projectivized spectrum of the Jacobi operator, we introduce the concept of projective Osserman manifold in both the affine and in the pseudo-Riemannian settings. If M is an affine projective Osserman manifold, then the modified Riemannian extension metric on the cotangent bundle is both spacelike and timelike projective Osserman. Since any rank 1 symmetric space is affine projective Osserman, this provides additional information concerning the cotangent bundle of a rank 1 Riemannian symmetric space with the modified Riemannian extension metric. We construct other examples of…
A Riemannian manifold is called Osserman (conformally Osserman, respectively), if the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator of its curvature tensor (Weyl tensor, respectively) are constant on the unit tangent sphere at every point. Osserman Conjecture asserts that every Osserman manifold is either flat or rank-one symmetric. We prove that both the Osserman Conjecture and its conformal version, the Conformal Osserman Conjecture, are true, modulo a certain assumption on algebraic curvature tensors in $\mathbb{R}^16$. As a consequence, we show that a Riemannian manifold having the same Weyl tensor a…
We exhibit 3 families of complete curvature homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are modeled on irreducible symmetric spaces and which are not locally homogeneous. All of the manifolds have nilpotent Jacobi operators; some of the manifolds are, in addition, Jordan Osserman and Jordan Ivanov-Petrova.
We characterize Osserman and conformally Osserman Riemannian manifolds with the local structure of a warped product. By means of this approach we analyze the twisted product structure and obtain, as a consequence, that the only Osserman manifolds which can be written as a twisted product are those of constant curvature.
In this paper we obtain generalized Keller-Osserman conditions for wide classes of differential inequalities on weighted Riemannian manifolds of the form $L u\geq b(x) f(u) \ell(|\nabla u|)$ and $L u\geq b(x) f(u) \ell(|\nabla u|) - g(u) h(|\nabla u|)$, where $L$ is a non-linear diffusion-type operator. Prototypical examples of these operators are the $p$-Laplacian and the mean curvature operator. While we concentrate on non-existence results, in many instances the conditions we describe are in fact necessary for non-existence. The geometry of the underlying manifold does not affect the form o…
We show that 4-dimensional Riemannian manifolds which satisfy the Rakić duality principle are Osserman (i.e. the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator are constant), thus both conditions are equivalent.
An algebraic curvature tensor is called Osserman if the eigenvalues of the associated Jacobi operator are constant on the unit sphere. A Riemannian manifold is called conformally Osserman if its Weyl conformal curvature tensor at every point is Osserman. We prove that a conformally Osserman manifold of dimension $n \ne 3, 4, 16$ is locally conformally equivalent either to a Euclidean space or to a rank-one symmetric space.
One says that a smooth manifold M is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of signature (p,q) if the tangent bundle TM is equipped with a smooth non-degenerate symmetric inner product g of signature (p,q). Similarly one says that M is an affine manifold if TM is equipped with a torsion free connection. One says g is Osserman if the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator are constant on the pseudo-sphere bundles of unit timelike and spacelike vectors. We extend this concept from the pseudo-Riemannian to the affine setting to define the notion of a projectively Osserman manifold. This notion is the focus of …
The main result we give in this brief note relates, under suitable hypotheses, the ϕ-null Osserman, the null Osserman and the classical Osserman conditions to each other, via semi-Riemannian submersions as projection maps of principal torus bundles arising from a Lorentzian S-manifold.
We show that every paracomplex space form is locally isometric to a modified Riemannian extension and give necessary and sufficient conditions so that a modified Riemannian extension is Einstein. We exhibit Riemannian extension Osserman manifolds of signature (3,3) whose Jacobi operators have non-trivial Jordan normal form and which are not nilpotent. We present new four dimensional results in Osserman geometry.
For a Riemannian manifold $M^n$ with the curvature tensor $R$, the Jacobi operator $R_X$ is defined by $R_XY = R(X,Y)X$. The manifold $M^n$ is called {\it pointwise Osserman} if, for every $p \in M^n$, the eigenvalues of the Jacobi operator $R_X$ do not depend of a unit vector $X \in T_pM^n$, and is called {\it globally Osserman} if they do not depend of the point $p$ either. R. Osserman conjectured that globally Osserman manifolds are flat or rank-one symmetric. This Conjecture is true for manifolds of dimension $n \ne 8, 16$. Here we prove the Osserman Conjecture and its pointwise version fo…
Let M be a Riemannian manifold and R its curvature tensor. For a unit vector X tangent to M at a point p, the Jacobi operator is defined by R_X = R(X, .) X$. The manifold M is called pointwise Osserman if, for every point p, the spectrum of the Jacobi operator does not depend of the choice of X, and is called globally Osserman if it depends neither of X, nor of p. R.Osserman conjectured that globally Osserman manifolds are two-point homogeneous. We prove the Osserman Conjecture for dimension n \ne 8, 16, and its pointwise version for n \ne 2,4,8,16. Partial results in the cases n = 8, 16 are a…
We show the existence of a modified Cliff(1,1) structure compatible with an Osserman 0-model of signature (2,2). We then apply this algebraic result to certain classes of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature (2,2). We obtain a new characterization of the Weyl curvature tensor of an (anti-)self-dual manifold and we prove some new results regarding (Jordan) Osserman manifolds.
We characterize manifolds which are locally conformally equivalent to either complex projective space or to its negative curvature dual in terms of their Weyl curvature tensor. As a byproduct of this investigation, we classify the conformally complex space forms if the dimension is at least 8. We also study when the Jacobi operator associated to the Weyl conformal curvature tensor of a Riemannian manifold has constant eigenvalues on the bundle of unit tangent vectors and classify such manifolds which are not conformally flat in dimensions congruent to 2 mod 4.
For any k which is at least 2, we exhibit complete k-curvature homogeneous neutral signature pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are not k+1-affine curvature homogeneous, and hence not locally homogeneous. All the local scalar Weyl invariants of these manifolds vanish. These manifolds are Ricci flat, Osserman, and Ivanov-Petrova.
Osserman manifolds are a generalization of locally two-point homogeneous spaces. We introduce $k$-root manifolds in which the reduced Jacobi operator has exactly $k$ eigenvalues. We investigate one-root and two-root manifolds as another generalization of locally two-point homogeneous spaces. We prove that there is no two-root Riemannian manifold of odd dimension. In twice an odd dimension, we describe all two-root Riemannian algebraic curvature tensors and give additional conditions for two-root Riemannian manifolds.
We study when the Jacobi operator associated to the Weyl conformal curvature tensor has constant eigenvalues on the bundle of unit spacelike or timelike tangent vectors. This leads to questions in the conformal geometry of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which generalize the Osserman conjecture to this setting. We also study similar questions related to the skew-symmetric curvature operator defined by the Weyl conformal curvature tensor.
Let (M,g) be a Riemannian manifold and G a nondegenerate g-natural metric on its tangent bundle T M . In this paper we establish a relation between the Jacobi operators of (M,g) and that of (T M,G). In the case of a Riemannian surface (M,g), we compute explicitly the spectrum of some Jacobi operators of (TM,G) and give necessary and sufficient conditions for (T M,G) to be an Osserman manifold.
This paper is about the influence of Geometry on the qualitative behaviour of solutions of quasilinear PDEs on Riemannian manifolds. Motivated by examples arising, among others, from the theory of submanifolds, in particular by the study of entire graphs with prescribed mean curvature, we consider classes of coercive differential inequalities of the form $$ \mathrm{div}\left( \frac{φ(|\nabla u|)}{|\nabla u|} \nabla u\right) \ge b(x)f(u) l(|\nabla u|) \qquad \text{(respectively, $\le$ or $=$)} $$ on domains of a manifold $M$, for suitable $φ,b,f,l$, with emphasis on mean curvature type operator…
We classify the connected pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature $(p,q)$ with $q\ge5$ so that at each point of $M$ the skew-symmetric curvature operator has constant rank 2 and constant Jordan normal form on the set of spacelike 2 planes and so that the skew-symmetric curvature operator is not nilpotent for at least one point of $M$.
A pseudo-Riemannian manifold is said to be spacelike Jordan IP if the Jordan normal form of the skew-symmetric curvature operator depends upon the point of the manifold, but not upon the particular spacelike 2-plane in the tangent bundle at that point. We use methods of algebraic topology to classify connected spacelike Jordan IP pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature $(p,q)$, where $q\ge 11$, $p\le \frac{q-6}{4}$ and where the set $\{q, . . ., q+p\}$ does not contain a power of 2.
We present some examples of curvature homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are k-spacelike Jordan Stanilov; their higher order curvature operator has constant Jordan normal form on the Grassmannian of unoriented k-dimensional spacelike subspaces of the tangent plane.
Let $f$ be a harmonic map from a Riemann surface to a Riemannian $n$-manifold. We prove that if there is a holomorphic diffeomorphism $h$ between open subsets of the surface such that $f\circ h = f$, then $f$ factors through a holomorphic map onto another Riemann surface. If such $h$ is anti-holomorphic, we obtain an analogous statement. For minimal maps, this result is well known and is a consequence of the theory of branched immersions of surfaces due to Gulliver-Osserman-Royden. Our proof relies on various geometric properties of the Hopf differential.
Let E be a natural operator associated to the curvature tensor of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. This survey article studies when the spectrum, or more generally the real Jordan normal form, of E is constant on the natural domain of definition. It deals with results for the Jacobi operator, the higher order Jacobi operator, the Szabo operator, and the skew-symmetric curvature operator. Some results in the complex setting are presented as well for the skew-symmetric curvature operator.
Given two Jordan curves in a Riemannian manifold, a minimal surface of annulus type bounded by these curves is described as the harmonic extension of a critical point of some functional (the Dirichlet integral) in a certain space of boundary parametrizations. The $H^{2,2}$-regularity of the minimal surface of annulus type will be proved by applying the critical points theory and Morrey's growth condition.
In the present paper we study geodesic mappings of special pseudo-Riemannian manifolds called $V_n(K)$-spaces. We prove that the set of solutions of the system of equations of geodesic mappings on $V_n(K)$-spaces $(K\neq0)$ forms a special Jordan algebra and the set of solutions generated by consircular fields is an ideal of this algebra. We show that pseudo-Riemannian manifolds admitting a concircular field of the basic type form the class of manifolds closed with respect to the geodesic mappings.
Unstable minimal surfaces are the unstable stationary points of the Dirichlet-Integral. In order to obtain unstable solutions, the method of the gradient flow together with the minimax-principle is generally used. The application of this method for minimal surfaces in the Euclidean spacce was presented in \cite{s3}. We extend this theory for obtaining unstable minimal surfaces in Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we handle minimal surfaces of annulus type, i.e. we prescribe two Jordan curves of class $C^3$ in a Riemannian manifold and prove the existence of unstable minimal surfaces of annu…
Let M be a pseudo-Riemannian manifold with a pseudo-Hermitian complex structure $J$. We give necessary and sufficient conditions that the curvature operator $R(π)$ is complex linear when $π$ is a $J$ invariant real 2 plane. Under this assumption, we study when M is complex IP - i.e. the spectrum, or more generally the Jordan normal form, of $R(π)$ is constant on the Grassmannian of complex spacelike or timelike lines. Methods from algebraic topology are used to obtain restrictions on the spectrum of a complex IP algebraic curvature tensor.
We present a uniform framework generalising and extending the classical theories of projective differential geometry, c-projective geometry, and almost quaternionic geometry. Such geometries, which we call \emph{projective parabolic geometries}, are abelian parabolic geometries whose flat model is an R-space $G\cdot\mathfrak{p}$ in the infinitesimal isotropy representation $\mathbb{W}$ of a larger self-dual symmetric R-space $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$. We also give a classification of projective parabolic geometries with $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$ irreducible which, in addition to the aforementioned class…