This paper addresses Cheeger and Gromoll's question of which vector bundles admit a complete metric of nonnegative curvature, and relates their question to the issue of which sphere bundles admit a metric of positive curvature. We show that any vector bundle which admits a metric of nonnegative curvature must admit a connection, a tensor, and a metric on the base space which together satisfy a certain differential inequality. On the other hand, a slight sharpening of this condition is sufficient for the associated sphere bundle to admit a metric of positive curvature. Our results sharpen and generalize Walschap and Strake's conditions under which a vector bundle admits a connection metric of nonnegative curvature.
We prove several finiteness theorems for the normal bundles to souls in nonnegatively curved manifolds. More generally, we obtain finiteness results for open Riemannian manifolds whose topology is concentrated on compact domains of ``bounded geometry''.
We study manifolds with almost nonnegative curvature operator (ANCO) and provide first examples of closed simply connected ANCO mannifolds that do not admit nonnegative curvature operator.
In this note we show that every (real or complex) vector bundle over a compact rank one symmetric space carries, after taking the Whitney sum with a trivial bundle of sufficiently large rank, a metric with nonnegative sectional curvature. We also examine the case of complex vector bundles over other manifolds, and give upper bounds for the rank of the trivial bundle that is necessary to add when the base is a sphere.
We show that all vector bundles over CP^2 which are not spin admit a complete metric with nonnegative sectional curvature. In the proof we construct a nonnegatively curved metric on the corresponding principle bundle by showing that it admits a cohomogeneity one action with singular orbits of codimension 2. This is closely related to the problem of when an action of G on the base of an L principle bundle lifts to the total space, such that the lift commutes with L. We solve this lifting problem for all SO(k) principle bundles over a 4-dimensional simply connected base B with G a cohomogeneity …
We show that in each dimension $n\ge 10$ there exist infinite sequences of homotopy equivalent but mutually non-homeomorphic closed simply connected Riemannian $n$-manifolds with $0\le \sec\le 1$, positive Ricci curvature and uniformly bounded diameter. We also construct open manifolds of fixed diffeomorphism type which admit infinitely many complete nonnegatively pinched metrics with souls of bounded diameter such that the souls are mutually non-homeomorphic. Finally, we construct examples of noncompact manifolds whose moduli spaces of complete metrics with $\sec\ge 0$ have infinitely many co…
Let $M$ be a Milnor sphere or, more generally, the total space of a linear $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$ with $H^4(M;\mathbb{Q})=0$. We show that the moduli space of metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on $M$ has infinitely many path components. The same holds true for the moduli space of metrics of positive Ricci curvature on $M$.
Let M be a closed minimal hypersurface in 5-dimensional Euclidean sphere with constant nonnegative scalar curvature. We prove that, if the sum of the cubes of all principal curvatures and the number of distinct principal curvatures are constant, then M is isoparametric. Moreover, We give all possible values for squared length of the second fundamental form of M. This result provides another piece of supporting evidence to the Chern conjecture.
We show in this article that if a holomorphic vector bundle has a nonnegative Hermitian metric in the sense of Bott and Chern, which always exists on globally generated holomorphic vector bundles, then some special linear combinations of Chern forms are strongly nonnegative. This particularly implies that all the Chern numbers of such a holomorphic vector bundle are nonnegative and can be bounded below and above respectively by two special Chern numbers. As applications, we obtain a family of new results on compact connected complex manifolds which are homogeneous or can be holomorphically imm…
We construct new examples of manifolds of positive Ricci curvature which, topologically, are vector bundles over compact manifolds of almost nonnegative Ricci curvature. In particular, we prove that if E is the total space of a vector bundle over a compact manifold of nonnegative Ricci curvature, then the product of E and R^p admits a complete metric of positive Ricci curvature for all large p.
We construct a metrical framed structure on the tensor bundle of a Riemannian manifold equipped with a Cheeger-Gromoll type metric and by restricting this structure to the tensor sphere bundle, we obtain an almost metrical paracontact structure on the tensor sphere bundle. Moreover, we show that the tensor sphere bundles endowed with the induced metric are never space forms.
Using the higher analytic torsion form of Bismut and Lott we construct a characteristic class for smooth sphere bundles. We calculate this class in the case where the sphere bundle comes from a complex vector bundle. Related to these characteristic classes we define nontrivial continuous group cohomology classes of the diffeomorphism group of odd dimensional spheres.
We show that the moduli space of nonnegatively curved metrics on each member of a large class of 2-connected 7-manifolds, including each smooth manifold homeomorphic to $S^7$, has infinitely many connected components. The components are distinguished using the Kreck-Stolz $s$-invariant computed for metrics constructed by Goette, Kerin and Shankar. The invariant is computed by extending each metric to the total space of an orbifold disc bundle and applying generalizations of the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem for orbifolds with boundary. We develop methods for computing characteristic class…
We prove a result on equivariant deformations of flat bundles, and as a corollary, we obtain two ``splitting in a finite cover'' theorems for isometric group actions on Riemannian manifolds with infinite fundamental groups, where the manifolds are either compact of nonnegative Ricci curvature, or complete of nonnegative sectional curvature.
In this note we adapt the work of Hall to find quasi-Einstein metrics on sphere bundles over products of Fano Kaehler-Einstein manifolds, as well as bundles where only one end is blown down.
We characterize Willmore tori in the 4-sphere with nontrivial normal bundle as Twistor projections of elliptic curves in complex projective space or as inverted minimal tori (with planar ends) in Euclidean 4-space.
We determine the curvature equations of natural metrics on tangent bundles and radius r tangent sphere bundles S_rM of a Riemannian manifold M. A family of positive scalar curvature metrics on S_rM is found, for any M with bounded sectional curvature and any chosen constant r.
Let $X_{\mathbb{C}}$ be a smooth real affine variety with compact real points $X_{\mathbb{R}}$. We show that $X_{\mathbb{C}}$ is diffeomorphic to the normal bundle of $X_{\mathbb{R}}$ provided that $X_{\mathbb{C}}$ admits a complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature which is also invariant under the conjugation.
We describe a construction of Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on a closed smooth nonorientable 4-manifold with fundamental group of order two that realizes a homotopy class that was not previously known to contain nonnegatively curved manifolds. The procedure yields new metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on any 2-sphere bundle with base space the 2-sphere or the real projective plane.
We construct Yang-Mills connections on SO(n)-bundles over spheres equipped with the Euclidean metric. We use a cohomogeneity one group action on the bundle to reduce the Yang-Mills-equation to a system of ordinary differential equations. The system is shown to have solutions by variational methods, using ideas from harmonic map theory. Examples include Yang-Mills connections on each of the countably many principal SO(6)-bundles over $S^6$, and countably many Yang-Mills connections on $TS^n$ for $n\in\{5,...,9\}$.
A contact metric manifold is said to be $H$-contact, if the characteristic vector field is harmonic. We prove that the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold $M$ equipped with the standard contact metric structure is $H$-contact if and only if $M$ is $2$-stein.
A positive answer is given to the existence of Sasakian structures on the tangent sphere bundle of some Riemannian manifold whose sectional curvature is not constant. Among other results, it is proved that the tangent sphere bundle Tr(G/K), for any r > 0, of a compact rank-one symmetric space G/K, not necessarily of constant sectional curvature, admits a unique K-contact structure whose characteristic vector field is the standard field of T(G/K). Such a structure is in fact Sasakian and it can be expressed as an induced structure from an almost Hermitian structure on the punctured tangent bund…
We show that the moduli space of positive Ricci curvature metrics on all the total spaces of $S^7$-bundles over $S^8$ which are rational homology spheres has infinitely many path components. Furthermore, we carry out the diffeomorphism classification of quotients of Milnor spheres by a certain involution and show that the moduli space of metrics of non-negative sectional on them has infinitely many path components. Finally, a diffeomorphism finiteness result is obtained on quotients of Shimada spheres by the same type of involution and we show that for the types that can be expressed by an inf…
In this paper we study a Riemanian metric on the tangent bundle $T(M)$ of a Riemannian manifold $M$ which generalizes Sasaki metric and Cheeger Gromoll metric and a compatible almost complex structure which together with the metric confers to $T(M)$ a structure of locally conformal almost Kählerian manifold. This is the natural generalization of the well known almost Kählerian structure on $T(M)$. We found conditions under which $T(M)$ is almost Kählerian, locally conformal Kählerian or Kählerian or when $T(M)$ has constant sectional curvature or constant scalar curvature. Then we will restric…
We show that almost nonnegatively curved m-dimensional manifolds are, up to finite cover, nilpotent spaces in the sense of homotopy theory and have C(m)-nilpotent fundamental groups. We also show that up to a finite cover almost nonnegatively curved manifolds are fiber bundles with simply connected fibers over nilmanifolds.
We consider the energy functional on the space of sections of a sphere bundle over a Riemannian manifold (M, <,>) equipped with the Sasaki metric and we discuss the characterising condition for critical points. Likewise, we provide a useful method for computing the tension field in some particular situations. Such a method is shown to be adequate for many tensor fields defined on manifolds M equipped with a G-structure compatible with <,>. This leads to the construction of a lot of new examples of differential forms which are harmonic sections or determine a harmonic map from (M,<,>) into its …
We establish a link between rational homotopy theory and the problem which vector bundles admit complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature. As an application, we show for a large class of simply-connected nonnegatively curved manifolds that, if C lies in the class and T is a torus of positive dimension, then "most" vector bundles over the product of C and T admit no complete nonnegatively curved metric.
We construct the first examples of manifolds, the simplest one being the product of S^3, S^4, and R^5, which admit infinitely many complete nonnegatively curved metrics with pairwise nonhomeomorphic souls.
In this paper we obtain several curvature properties of the twistor and reflector spaces of a paraquaternionic Kähler manifold and prove the existence of both positive and negative mixed 3-Sasakian structures in a principal SO(2,1)-bundle over a paraquaternionic Kähler manifold.
Natural metric structures on the tangent bundle and tangent sphere bundles $S_rM$ of a Riemannian manifold $M$ with radius function $r$ enclose many important unsolved problems. Admitting metric connections on $M$ with torsion, we deduce the equations of induced metric connections on those bundles. Then the equations of reducibility of $TM$ to the almost Hermitian category. Our purpose is the study of the natural contact structure on $S_rM$ and the $G_2$-twistor space of any oriented Riemannian 4-manifold.
Let $G/H$ be a Riemannian homogeneous space. For an orthogonal representation $ϕ$ of $H$ on the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{k+1}$, there corresponds the vector bundle $E=G\times_ϕ\mathbb{R}^{k+1} \to G/H$ with fiberwise inner product. Provided that $ϕ$ is the direct sum of at most two representations which are either trivial or irreducible, we construct metrics of constant scalar curvature on the unit sphere bundle $UE$ of $E$. When $G/H$ is the round sphere, we study the number of constant scalar curvature metrics in the conformal classes of these metrics.
We construct metrics of positive Ricci curvature on some vector bundles over tori (or more generally, over nilmanifolds). This gives rise to the first examples of manifolds with positive Ricci curvature which are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic to manifolds of nonnegative sectional curvature.
We study nonnegatively curved metrics on S^2xR^4. First, we prove rigidity theorems for connection metrics; for example, the holonomy group of the normal bundle of the soul must lie in a maximal torus of SO(4). Next, we prove that Wilking's almost-positively curved metric on S2xS3 extends to a nonnegatively curved metric on S^2xR^4 (so that Wilking's space becomes the distance sphere of radius 1 about the soul). We describe in detail the geometry of this extended metric.
We construct a co-dimension $3$ completely non-holonomic sub-bundle on the Gromoll-Meyer exotic $7$ sphere based on its realization as a base space of a Sp(2)-principal bundle with the structure group Sp(1). The same method is valid for constructing a co-dimension 3 completely non-holonomic sub-bundle on the standard 7 sphere (or more general on a $4n+3$ dimensional standard sphere). In the latter case such a construction based on the Hopf bundle is well-known. Our method provides an alternated simple proof for the standard sphere $\mathbb{S}^7$.
Starting from $g$-natural pseudo-Riemannian metrics of suitable signature on the unit tangent sphere bundle $T_1 M$ of a Riemannian manifold $(M,\langle,\rangle)$, we construct a family of paracontact metric structures. We prove that this class of paracontact metric structures is invariant under $\mathcal D$-homothetic deformations, and classify paraSasakian and paracontact $(κ,μ)$-spaces inside this class. We also present a way to build paracontact $(κ,μ)$-spaces from corresponding contact metric structures on $T_1 M$.
We provide new examples of manifolds which admit a Riemannian metric with sectional curvature nonnegative, and strictly positive at one point. Our examples include the unit tangent bundles of $CP^n$, $HP^n$ and $CaP^2$, and a family of lens space bundles over $CP^n$. All new examples are consequences of a general sufficient condition for a homogeneous fiber bundle over a homogeneous space to admit such a metric.
Natural metric structures on tangent bundles and tangent sphere bundles enclose many important problems, from the topology of the base to the determination of their holonomy. We make here a brief study of the topic. We find the characteristic classes of some of those structures. We solve the question of when two given tangent sphere bundles S_rM of a Riemannian manifold M,g are homothetic, assuming different variable radius functions r and weighted metrics induced only by the conformal class of g. We determine their Riemannian, Ricci, scalar and mean curvatures in some cases. We find a family …
Let $M^4$ be a PL-manifold of nonnegative curvature that is homeomorphic to a product of two spheres, $S^2 \times S^2$. We prove that $M$ is a direct metric product of two spheres endowed with some polyhedral metrics. In other words, $M$ is a direct metric product of the surfaces of two convex polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$. The background for the question is the following. The classical H.Hopf's hypothesis states: for any Riemannian metric on $S^2 \times S^2$ of nonnegative sectional curvature the curvature cannot be strictly positive at all points. There is no quick answer to this question: it …
We find new obstructions to the existence of complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature on manifolds with infinite fundamental groups. In particular, we construct many examples of vector bundles whose total spaces admit no nonnegatively curved metric.
We prove that all smooth sphere bundles that admit fiberwise 1/4-pinched metrics are induced bundles of vector bundles, so their structure groups reduce from the diffeomorphism group of the sphere to the orthogonal group. This result implies the existence of many smooth n-sphere bundles over a k-sphere that do not support strictly 1/4-pinched positively curved Riemannian metrics on their fibers.
The nearly Kähler structures on the 6-sphere, as a twistor bundle sections are researched. We show that for any point of twistor bundle there exists an 1-parametric family of sections, passing through the point, which give nearly Kähler structures on the round sphere. Some properties of those sections are found.
This is a slightly altered version of the authors thesis from 2014. In the first main part we show that the quotient space of a compact, simply connected and nonnegatively curved Riemannian 4-manifold by an effective, isometric circle-action admits an approximation in Gromov-Hausdorff topology by smooth, positively curved Riemannian 3-manifolds. In the second main part we show that a compact, nonnegatively curved and fixed point homogeneous manifold is diffeomorphic to the unit normal bundles of two smooth closed submanifolds glued together along their boundaries. As a corollary we show that a…
We consider cohomogeneity one homogeneous disk bundles and adress the question when these admit a nonnegatively curved invariant metric with normal collar, i.e., such that near the boundary the metric is the product of an interval and a normal homogeneous space. If such a bundle is not (the quotient of) a trivial bundle, then we show that its rank has to be in $\{2,3,4,6,8\}$. Moreover, we give a complete classification of such bundles of rank 6 and 8, and a partial classification for rank 3.
Let $(M,\langle,\rangle_{TM})$ be a Riemannian manifold. It is well-known that the Sasaki metric on $TM$ is very rigid but it has nice properties when restricted to $T^{(r)}M=\{u\in TM,|u|=r \}$. In this paper, we consider a general situation where we replace $TM$ by a vector bundle $E\longrightarrow M$ endowed with a Euclidean product $\langle,\rangle_E$ and a connection $\nabla^E$ which preserves $\langle,\rangle_E$. We define the Sasaki metric on $E$ and we consider its restriction $h$ to $E^{(r)}=\{a\in E,\langle a,a\rangle_E=r^2 \}$. We study the Riemannian geometry of $(E^{(r)},h)$ gener…
We show that complete conformally flat manifolds of dimension n>2 with nonnegative Ricci curvature enjoy nice rigidity properties: they are either flat, or locally isometric to a product of a sphere and a line, or are globally conformally equivalent to flat space or to a spherical spaceform. This extends previous works by Q.-M. Cheng, M.H. Noronha, B.-L. Chen and X.-P. Zhu, and S. Zhu.
We define and study natural $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-structures, in the sense of Conti-Salamon, on the total space $\cal S$ of the tangent sphere bundle of any given oriented Riemannian 3-manifold $M$. We recur to a fundamental exterior differential system of Riemannian geometry. Essentially, two types of structures arise: the contact-hypo and the non-contact and, for each, we study the conditions for being hypo, nearly-hypo or double-hypo. We discover new double-hypo structures on $S^3\times S^2$, of which the well-known Sasaki-Einstein are a particular case. Hyperbolic geometry examples also appear.…
