The theory of complete surfaces of (nonzero) constant mean curvature in $\RR^3$ has progressed markedly in the last decade. This paper surveys a number of these developments in the setting of Alexandrov embedded surfaces; the focus is on gluing constructions and moduli space theory, and the analytic techniques on which these results depend. The last section contains some new results about smoothing the moduli space and about CMC surfaces in asymptotically Euclidean manifolds.
Ge-Jiang (Geom Funct Anal 27:1231-1256, 2017) proved global $\varepsilon$-regularity for 4-dimensional Ricci flow with bounded scalar curvature. In this note, we extend this result to 4-dimensional Ricci flow with integral bound on the scalar curvature.
In this paper, we study the fundamental group of a certain class of globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with a positive curvature tensor. We prove that the fundamental group of lightlike geodesically complete parametrized Lorentzian products is finite under the conditions of a positive curvature tensor and the fiber compact.
An Einstein manifold is called scalar curvature rigid if there are no compactly supported volume-preserving deformation of the metric which increase the scalar curvature. We give various characterizations of scalar curvature rigidity for open Einstein manifolds as well as for closed Einstein manifolds. As an application, we construct mass-decreasing perturbations of the Riemannian Schwarzschild metric and the Taub-Bolt metric.
We give manifolds in both the Riemannian and in the higher signature settings whose Riemann curvature operators commute, i.e. which satisfy R(a,b)R(c,d)=R(c,d)R(a,b) for all tangent vectors. These manifolds have global geometric phenomena which are quite different for higher signature manifolds than they are for Riemannian manifolds. Our focus is on global properties; questions of geodesic completeness and the behaviour of the exponential map are investigated.
We develop a global theory for complete hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ whose mean curvature is given as a prescribed function of its Gauss map. This theory extends the usual one of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, and also that of self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow. For the particular case $n=2$, we will obtain results regarding a priori height and curvature estimates, non-existence of complete stable surfaces, and classification of properly embedded surfaces with at most one end.
We show that the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded for the normalized Kahler-Ricci flow on a Kahler manifold with semi-ample canonical bundle. In particular, the normalized Kahler-Ricci flow has long time existence if and only if the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded, for Kahler surfaces, projective manifolds of complex dimension three, and for projective manifolds of all dimensions if assuming the abundance conjecture.
We introduce and study the conical curvature-dimension condition, $CCD(K,N)$, for graphs. We show that $CCD(K,N)$ provides necessary and sufficient conditions for the underlying graph to satisfy a sharp global Poincaré inequality which in turn translates to a sharp lower bound for the first eigenvalues of these graphs. Another application of the conical curvature-dimension analysis is finding a sharp estimate on the curvature of complete graphs.
This paper establishes the global curvature estimate for the $n-2$ curvature equation with the general right hand side which partially solves this longstanding problem.
We prove that any piece of a rotational hypersurface with prescribed mean curvature function in a Euclidean space can be uniquely extended infinitely, which generalizes the results by Euler and Delaunay for surfaces of revolution with constant mean curvautre. Next, we prove the same kind of theorem for generalized rotational hypersurfaces of O(l+1) x O(m+1)-type. The key lemmas in this paper show the existence of solutions for singular initial value problems which arise from the analysis of ordinary differential equations of generating curves of those hypersurfaces.
I show that if a geodesic space has curvature bounded below locally in the sense of Alexandrov then its completion has the same lower curvature bound globally.
This paper is devoted to the analysis of metric measure spaces satisfying locally the curvature-dimension condition CD(K,N) introduced by the second author and also studied by Lott & Villani. We prove that the local version of CD(K,N) is equivalent to a global condition CD*(K,N), slightly weaker than the (usual, global) curvature-dimension condition. This so-called reduced curvature-dimension condition CD*(K,N) has the local-to-global property. We also prove the tensorization property for CD*(K,N). As an application we conclude that the fundamental group of a metric measure space (M,d,m) is fi…
We describe local similarities and global differences between minimal surfaces in Euclidean 3-space and constant mean curvature 1 surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space. We also describe how to solve global period problems for constant mean curvature 1 surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space, and we give an overview of recent results on these surfaces. We include computer graphics of a number of examples.
We study a higher-order parabolic equation which generalizes the Ricci flow on two-dimensional surfaces. The metric is deformed conformally with a speed given by the Q-curvature of the metric. Under a condition on the Q-curvature of the initial metric we show that the soluton exists for all time and converges to a metric of prescribed Q-curvature.
We give a global version of the Bryant representation of surfaces of constant mean curvature one (cmc-1) in hyperbolic space. This allows to set the associated non-abelian period problem in the framework of flat unitary vector bundles on Riemann surfaces. We use this machinery to prove the existence of certain cmc-1 surfaces having prescribed global monodromy.
We study local and global approximations of smooth nets of curvature lines and smooth conjugate nets by respective discrete nets (circular nets and planar quadrilateral nets) with infinitesimal quads. It is shown that choosing the points of discrete nets on the smooth surface one can obtain second-order approximation globally. Also a simple geometric construction for approximate determination of principal directions of smooth surfaces is given.
Locally convex compact immersed hypersurfaces in Finsler-Hadamard manifolds with bounded T-curvature are considered. We prove that such hypersurfaces are embedded as the boundary of convex body under certain conditions on the normal curvatures
Let $M$ be a globally hyperbolic maximal compact $3$-dimensional spacetime locally modelled on Minkowski, anti-de Sitter or de Sitter space. It is well known that $M$ admits a unique foliation by constant mean curvature surfaces. In this paper we extend this result to singular spacetimes with particles (cone singularities of angles less than $π$ along time-like geodesics).
In the previous paper, it has been proved that the generalized rotational hypersurfaces of O(n-1)-type and O (l+1) x O(m+1)-type, for which the mean curvature is any prescribed continuous function. This paper is a sequel, and a similar existence result is shown for any type.
We survey recent results in hermitian integral geometry, i.e. integral geometry on complex vector spaces and complex space forms. We study valuations and curvature measures on complex space forms and describe how the global and local kinematic formulas on such spaces were recently obtained. While the local and global kinematic formulas in the Euclidean case are formally identical, the local formulas in the hermitian case contain strictly more information than the global ones. Even if one is only interested in the flat hermitian case, i.e. $\mathbb C^n$, it is necessary to study the family of a…
Recent theoretical advances in elasticity of membranes following Helfrich's famous spontaneous curvature model are summarized in this review. The governing equations describing equilibrium configurations of lipid vesicles, lipid membranes with free edges, and chiral lipid membranes are presented. Several analytic solutions to these equations and their corresponding configurations are demonstrated.
This paper gives a new proof that maximal, globally hyperbolic, flat spacetimes of dimension $n\geq 3$ with compact Cauchy hypersurfaces are globally foliated by Cauchy hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature, and that such spacetimes admit a globally defined constant mean curvature time function precisely when they are causally incomplete. The proof, which is based on using the level sets of the cosmological time function as barriers, is conceptually simple and will provide the basis for future work on constant mean curvature time functions in general constant curvature spacetimes, as well f…
We consider an evolving plane curve with two endpoints that can move freely on the $x$-axis with generating constant contact angles. We discuss the asymptotic behavior of global-in-time solutions when the evolution of this plane curve is governed by area-preserving curvature flow equation. The main result shows that any moving curve converges to a traveling wave if the moving curve starts from an embedded convex curve and remains bounded in global time.
In this paper we investigate two important properties of metric measure spaces satisfying the reduced curvature-dimension condition for negative values of the dimension parameter: the existence of a transport map between two suitable marginals and the so-called local-to-global property.
We introduce the totally absolute lightcone curvature for a spacelike submanifold with general codimension and investigate global properties of this curvature. One of the consequences is that the Chern-Lashof type inequality holds. Then the notion of lightlike tightness is naturally induced.
We prove the global existence of Dirac-wave maps with curvature term with small initial data on globally hyperbolic manifolds of arbitrary dimension which satisfy a suitable growth condition. In addition, we also prove a global existence result for wave maps under similar assumptions.
Let $M$ be a Kähler-Einstein surface with positive scalar curvature. If the initial surface is sufficiently close to a holomorphic curve, we show that the mean curvature flow has a global solution and it converges to a holomorphic curve.
In this note we study globally homogeneous Riemannian quotients $Γ\backslash (M,ds^2)$ of homogeneous Riemannian manifolds $(M,ds^2)$. The Homogeneity Conjecture is that $Γ\backslash (M,ds^2)$ is (globally) homogeneous if and only if $(M,ds^2)$ is homogeneous and every $γ\in Γ$ is of constant displacement on $(M,ds^2)$. We provide further evidence for that conjecture by (i) verifying it for normal homogeneous Riemannian manifolds that also admit an invariant Riemannian metric of strictly positive sectional curvature and (ii) showing that in most (three or less) cases the normality condition ca…
A Killing submersion is a Riemannian submersion from a 3-manifold to a surface, both connected and orientable, whose fibres are the integral curves of a Killing vector field, not necessarily unitary. The first part of this paper deals with the classification of all Killing submersions in terms of two geometric functions, namely the bundle curvature and the length of the Killing vector field, which can be prescribed arbitrarily. In a second part, we show that if the base is compact and the submersion admits a global section, then it also admits a global minimal section. These turn out to be the…
The total curvature of complex hypersurfaces in $\bC^{n+1}$ and its variation in families appear to depend not only on singularities but also on the behaviour in the neighbourhood of infinity. We find the asymptotic loss of total curvature towards infinity and we express the total curvature and the Gauss-Bonnet defect in terms of singularities and tangencies at infinity.
We prove local and global upper estimates for the infimum of the mean curvature, the scalar curvature and the norm of the shape operator of graphs in a warped product space. Using these estimates, we obtain some results on pseudo-hyperbolic spaces and space forms.
In this paper we continue our study of finding the curvature flow of complete hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space with a prescribed asymptotic boundary at infinity. Our main results are proved by deriving a priori global gradient estimates and C^2 estimates.
We give sufficient conditions for a measured length space (X,d,m) to admit local and global Poincare inequalities. We first introduce a condition DM on (X,d,m), defined in terms of transport of measures. We show that DM, along with a doubling condition on m, implies a scale-invariant local Poincare inequality. We show that if (X,d,m) has nonnegative N-Ricci curvature and has unique minimizing geodesics between almost all pairs of points then it satisfies DM, with constant 2^N. The condition DM is preserved by measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits. We then prove a Sobolev inequality for measured len…
In this paper, we derive curvature estimates for strongly stable hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature immersed in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, which show that the locally controlled volume growth yields a globally controlled volume growth if $\partial M=\emptyset$. Moreover, we deduce a Bernstein-type theorem for complete stable hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature of arbitrary dimension, given a finite $L^p$-norm curvature condition.
We prove that complete Riemannian manifolds with polynomial growth and Ricci curvature bounded from below, admit uniform Poincaré inequalities. A global, uniform Poincaré inequality for horospheres in the universal cover of a closed, $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature follows as a corollary.
We show that a complete Ricci flow of bounded curvature which begins from a manifold with a Ricci lower bound, local entropy bound, and small local scale-invariant integral curvature control will have global point-wise curvature control at positive times. As applications, we obtain under similar assumptions a compactness result and a gap theorem for complete noncompact manifolds with nonnegative Ricci Curvature.
Let N be a (n+1)-dimensional globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold with a compact Cauchy hypersurface. We consider curvature flows in N with different curvature functions F (including the mean curvature, the gauss curvature and the second elementary symmetric polynomial) and a volume preserving term. Under suitable assumptions we prove the long time existence of the flow and the exponential convergence of the corresponding graphs in the $C^\infty$-topology to a hypersurface of constant F-curvature. Furthermore we examine stability properties and foliations of constant F-curvature hypersurfac…
In this article, using the generalized Newton transformation, we define higher order mean curvatures of distributions of arbitrary codimension and we show that they agree with the ones from Brito and Naveira (Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 18, 371-383 (2000)). We also introduce higher order mean curvature vector fields and we compute their divergence for certain distributions and using this we obtain total extrinsic mean curvatures.
We study the global geometry of surfaces in Sasakian space forms whose mean curvature vector is parallel in the normal bundle (these include the Riemannian Heisenberg space of dimension $2n+1$). We prove a codimension reduction theorem. We introduce two holomorphic quadratic differentials on anti-invariant such surfaces and use them to obtain classification theorems.
We derive intrinsic curvature and radius estimates for compact disks embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with nonzero constant mean curvature and apply these estimates to study the global geometry of complete surfaces embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with nonzero constant mean curvature.
In this note, we affirm the partial answer to the long open Conjecture which states that any closed embeddable strictly pseudoconvex CR $3$-manifold admits a contact form $θ$ with the vanishing CR $Q$-curvature. More precisely, we deform the contact form according to an CR analogue of $Q$%-curvature flow in a closed strictly pseudoconvex CR $3$-manifold $(M,\ J,[θ_{0}])$ of the vanishing first Chern class $c_{1}(T_{1,0}M)$. Suppose that $M$ is embeddable and the CR Paneitz operator $P_{0}$ is nonnegative with kernel consisting of the CR pluriharmonic functions. We show that the solution of CR …
A global secondary CR invariant is defined as the integral of a pseudo-hermitian invariant which is independent of a choice of pseudo-Einstein contact form. We prove that any global secondary CR invariant on CR five-manifolds is a linear combination of the total $Q'$-curvature, the total $\mathcal{I}'$-curvature, and the integral of a local CR invariant.
The aim of the present paper is to provide a global presentation of the theory of special Finsler manifolds. We introduce and investigate globally (or intrinsically, free from local coordinates) many of the most important and most commonly used special Finsler manifolds: locally Minkowskian, Berwald, Landesberg, general Landesberg, $P$-reducible, $C$-reducible, semi-$C$-reducible, quasi-$C$-reducible, $P^{*}$-Finsler, $C^{h}$-recurrent, $C^{v}$-recurrent, $C^{0}$-recurrent, $S^{v}$-recurrent, $S^{v}$-recurrent of the second order, $C_{2}$-like, $S_{3}$-like, $S_{4}$-like, $P_{2}$-like, $R_{3}$…
In this note we complete a study of globally homogeneous Riemannian quotients $Γ\backslash (M,ds^2)$ in positive curvature. Specifically, $M$ is a homogeneous space $G/H$ that admits a $G$-invariant Riemannian metric of strictly positive sectional curvature, and $ds^2$ is a $G$--invariant Riemannian metric on $M$, not necessarily normal and not necessarily positively curved. The Homogeneity Conjecture is that $Γ\backslash (M,ds^2)$ is (globally) homogeneous if and only if $(M,ds^2)$ is homogeneous and every $γ\in Γ$ is of constant displacement on $(M,ds^2)$. In an earlier paper we verified tha…
We consider the evolution of starshaped hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space by general curvature functions. Under appropriate conditions on the curvature function, we prove the global existence and convergence of the flow to a hypersurface of prescribed curvature.
Let $V$ be a maximal globally hyperbolic flat $n+1$--dimensional space--time with compact Cauchy surface of hyperbolic type. We prove that $V$ is globally foliated by constant mean curvature hypersurfaces $M_τ$, with mean curvature $τ$ taking all values in $(-\infty, 0)$. For $n \geq 3$, define the rescaled volume of $M_τ$ by $\Ham = |τ|^n \Vol(M,g)$, where $g$ is the induced metric. Then $\Ham \geq n^n \Vol(M,g_0)$ where $g_0$ is the hyperbolic metric on $M$ with sectional curvature -1. Equality holds if and only if $(M,g)$ is isometric to $(M,g_0)$.
Let $(M, g)$ be a complete Riemannian $3$-manifold that is asymptotic to Schwarzschild with positive mass and whose scalar curvature vanishes. We \textsl{unconditionally} characterize the large, embedded stable constant mean curvature spheres in $(M, g)$.
In this paper, we introduce a new combinatorial curvature on triangulated surfaces with inversive distance circle packing metrics. Then we prove that this combinatorial curvature has global rigidity. To study the Yamabe problem of the new curvature, we introduce a combinatorial Ricci flow, along which the curvature evolves almost in the same way as that of scalar curvature along the surface Ricci flow obtained by Hamilton \cite{Ham1}. Then we study the long time behavior of the combinatorial Ricci flow and obtain that the existence of a constant curvature metric is equivalent to the convergenc…
