We prove that the mean curvature $τ$ of the slices given by a constant mean curvature foliation can be used as a time function, i.e. $τ$ is smooth with non-vanishing gradient.
In this work we obtain the limit of the Hawking energy of a large class of foliations along general null hypersurfaces $Ω$ satisfying a weak notion of asymptotic flatness. The foliations are not required to be either geodesic or approaching large spheres at infinity. The limit is obtained in terms of a reference background geodesic foliation approaching large spheres and a positive function, constant along the null generators on $Ω$, which describes the relation between the two foliations at infinity. The integrand in the limit expression has interesting covariance and invariance properties wi…
We introduce a new elliptic operator on null hypersurfaces of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds. This operator depends on the first and second fundamental forms of the sections of a foliation of the null hypersurface and its novelty originates from its covariant transformation under change of foliation. It thus provides at any point an elliptic structure intimately connected with the geometry of the null hypersurface, independent of the choice of a specific section through that point. No analytic or algebraic symmetries or other conditions are imposed on the metric. The spectral properties…
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.
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 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.
Let $\mathcal{H}$ denote the future outgoing null hypersurface emanating from a spacelike 2-sphere $S$ in a vacuum spacetime $(\mathcal{M},\mathbf{g})$. In this paper we study the so-called canonical foliation on $\mathcal{H}$ introduced by Klainerman and Nicolò and show that the corresponding geometry is controlled locally only in terms of the initial geometry on $S$ and the $L^2$ curvature flux through $\mathcal{H}$. In particular, we show that the ingoing and outgoing null expansions $\mathrm{tr} χ$ and $\mathrm{tr} \underlineχ$ are both locally uniformly bounded. The proof of our estimates…
We study foliations of space forms by complete hypersurfaces, under some mild conditions on its higher order mean curvatures. In particular, in Euclidean space we obtain a Bernstein-type theorem for graphs whose mean and scalar curvature do not change sign but may otherwise be nonconstant. We also establish the nonexistence of foliations of the standard sphere whose leaves are complete and have constant scalar curvature, thus extending a theorem of Barbosa, Kenmotsu and Oshikiri. For the more general case of {\em r-}minimal foliations of the Euclidean space, possibly with a singular set, we ar…
Let Y be a hypersurface in a 2n-dimensional holomorphic symplectic manifold X. The restriction $σ|_Y$ of the holomorphic symplectic form induces a rank one foliation on Y. We investigate situations where this foliation has compact leaves; in such cases we obtain a space of leaves Y/F which has dimension 2n-2 and admits a holomorphic symplectic form.
In this work, we study the geometric properties of spacelike foliations by hypersurfaces on a Lorentz manifold. We investigate conditions for the leaves being stable, totally geodesic or totally umbilical. We consider that $\overline{M}^{n+1}$ is equipped with a timelike closed conformal vector field $ξ$. If the foliation has constant mean curvature, we show that the leaves are stable. When the leaves are compact spacelike hypersurfaces we show that, under certain conditions, its are totally umbilic hypersurfaces. In the case of foliations by complete noncompact hypersurfaces, we using a Maxim…
We show that the constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in the hyperbolic n-space spanning the boundary of a star shaped C^{1,1} domain in the asymptotic sphere give a foliation of the hyperbolic n-space. We also show that if C is a closed codimension-1 C^{2,a} submanifold in the asymptotic sphere bounding a unique constant mean curvature hypersurface S_H in the hyperbolic n-space with asymptotic boundary C for any -1<H<1, then the constant mean curvature hypersurfaces {S_H} foliates the hyperbolic n-space.
In this paper we prove that every smooth complete closed complex hypersurface in the open unit ball $\mathbb{B}_n$ of $\mathbb{C}^n$ $(n\ge 2)$ is a level set of a noncritical holomorphic function on $\mathbb{B}_n$ all of whose level sets are complete. This shows that $\mathbb{B}_n$ admits a nonsingular holomorphic foliation by smooth complete closed complex hypersurfaces and, what is the main point, that every hypersurface in $\mathbb{B}_n$ of this type can be embedded into such a foliation. We establish a more general result in which neither completeness nor smoothness of the given hypersurf…
The main objective of this paper is to control the geometry of null cones with time foliation in Einstein vacuum spacetime under the assumptions of small curvature flux and a weaker condition on the deformation tensor for $\bT$. We establish a series of estimates on Ricci coefficients, which plays a crucial role to prove the improved breakdown criterion in [12].
For $2+1$ spacetime dimensions, we derive sufficient conditions for the twisting function in a twisted product spacetime, such that there is a global foliation by spacelike CMC surfaces.
An energy estimate is proved for the Bel--Robinson energy along a constant mean curvature foliation in a spatially compact vacuum spacetime, assuming an $L^{\infty}$ bound on the second fundamental form, and a bound on a spacetime version of Bel--Robinson energy.
We construct a $T$-axisymmetric, spacelike, spherically symmetric, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces foliation in the Kruskal extension with properties that the mean curvature varies in each slice and ranges from minus infinity to plus infinity. This family of hypersurfaces extends the CMC foliation discussions posted by Malec and Ó Murchadha in 2009.
We consider spacetimes with compact Cauchy hypersurfaces and with Ricci tensor bounded from below on the set of timelike unit vectors, and prove that the results known for spacetimes satisfying the timelike convergence condition, namely, foliation by CMC hypersurfaces, are also valid in the present situation, if corresponding further assumptions are satisfied. In addition we show that the volume of any sequence of spacelike hypersurfaces, which run into the future singularity, decays to zero provided there exists a time function covering a future end, such that the level hypersurfaces have non…
In this article we consider solvable hypersurfaces of the form $N \exp(\R H)$ with induced metrics in the symmetric space $M = SL(3,\C)/SU(3)$, where $H$ a suitable unit length vector in the subgroup $A$ of the Iwasawa decomposition $SL(3,\C) = NAK$. Since $M$ is rank $2$, $A$ is $2$-dimensional and we can parametrize these hypersurfaces via an angle $α\in [0,π/2]$ determining the direction of $H$. We show that one of the hypersurfaces (corresponding to $α= 0$) is minimally embedded and isometric to the non-symmetric $7$-dimensional Damek-Ricci space. We also provide an explicit formula for th…
We construct 2-surfaces of prescribed mean curvature in 3-manifolds carrying asymptotically flat initial data for an isolated gravitating sysqtem with rather general decay conditions. The surfaces in question form a regular foliation of the asymptotic region of such a manifold. We recover physically relevant data, especially the ADM-momentum, from the geometry of the foliation. For a given set of data (M,g,K), with a three dimensional manifold M, its Riemannian metric g, and the second fundamental form K in the surrounding four dimensional Lorentz space time manifold, the equation we solve is …
We prove that every $(3+1)$-dimensional flat GHMC Minkowski spacetime which is not a translation spacetime or a Misner spacetime carries a unique foliation by spacelike hypersurfaces of constant scalar curvature. In otherwords, we prove that every such spacetime carries a unique time function with isochrones of constant scalar curvature. Furthermore, this time function is a smooth submersion.
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 $(M,g_0)$.
The spherically symmetric null hypersurfaces in a Schwarzschild spacetime are smooth away from the singularities and foliate the spacetime. We prove the existence of more general foliations by null hypersurfaces without the spherical symmetry condition. In fact we also relax the spherical symmetry of the ambient spacetime and prove a more general result: in a perturbed Schwarzschild spacetime (not necessary being vacuum), nearly round null hypersurfaces can be extended regularly to the past null infinity, thus there exist many foliations by regular null hypersurfaces in the exterior region of …
A well known conjecture of Yau states that the first eigenvalue of every closed minimal hypersurface $M^n$ in the unit sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$ is just its dimension $n$. The present paper shows that Yau conjecture is true for minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces. Moreover, the more fascinating result of this paper is that the first eigenvalues of the focal submanifolds are equal to their dimensions in the non-stable range.
We generalize a result of Giroux which says that a closed surface in a contact $3$-manifold with Morse-Smale characteristic foliation is convex. Specifically, we show that the result holds in contact manifolds of arbitrary dimension. As an application, we show that a particular closed hypersurface introduced by A. Mori is $C^{\infty}$-close to a convex hypersurface.
Using a new type of Jacobi field estimate we will prove a duality theorem for singular Riemannian foliations in complete manifolds of nonnegative sectional curvature.
We show that every regular domain $\mathcal D$ in Minkowski space $\mathbb R^{n,1}$ which is not a wedge admits an entire hypersurface whose domain of dependence is $\mathcal D$ and whose scalar curvature is a prescribed constant (or function, under suitable hypotheses) in $(-\infty,0)$. Under rather general assumptions, these hypersurfaces are unique and provide foliations of $\mathcal D$. As an application, we show that every maximal globally hyperbolic Cauchy compact flat spacetime admits a foliation by hypersurfaces of constant scalar curvature, generalizing to any dimension previous resul…
We generalize the famous result of Gromov and Lawson on the nonexistence of metric of positive scalar curvature on enlargeable manifolds to the case of foliations, without using index theorems on noncompact manifolds.
We solve the spacelike, spherically symmetric, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in the maximally extended Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime with the charge smaller than the mass. Based on these results, we construct constant mean curvature foliations with fixed or varied mean curvature in each slice in this spacetime.
In this paper I study the constant mean curvature surface in asymptotically flat 3-manifolds with general asymptotics. Under some weak condition, I prove that outside some compact set in the asymptotically flat 3-manifold with positive mass, the foliation of stable spheres of constant mean curvature is unique.
In this paper, two sequences of minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces are constructed via representations of Clifford algebras. Based on these, we give estimates on eigenvalues of the Laplacian of the focal submanifolds of isoparametric hypersurfaces in unit spheres. This improves results of [TY13] and [TXY14]. Eells and Lemaire [EL83] posed a problem to characterize the compact Riemannian manifold M for which there is an eigenmap from M to S^n. As another application of our constructions, the focal maps give rise to many examples of eigenmaps from minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces to unit sph…
We determine the structure of the fundamental group of the regular leaves of a closed singular Riemannian foliation on a compact, simply connected Riemannian manifold. We also study closed singular Riemannian foliations whose leaves are homeomorphic to aspherical or to Bieberbach manifolds. These foliations, which we call A-foliations and B-foliations, respectively, generalize isometric torus actions on Riemannian manifolds. We apply our results to the classification problem of compact, simply connected Riemannian 4- and 5-manifolds with positive or nonnegative sectional curvature.
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold of dimension $n+1$ with smooth boundary and $p\in \partial M$. We prove that there exists a smooth foliation around $p$ whose leaves are submanifolds of dimension $n$, constant mean curvature and its arrive perpendicular to the boundary of M, provided that $p$ is a nondegenerate critical point of the mean curvature function of $\partial M$.
A parametric manifold can be viewed as the manifold of orbits of a (regular) foliation of a manifold by means of a family of curves. If the foliation is hypersurface orthogonal, the parametric manifold is equivalent to the 1-parameter family of hypersurfaces orthogonal to the curves, each of which inherits a metric and connection from the original manifold via orthogonal projections; this is the well-known Gauss-Codazzi formalism. We generalize this formalism to the case where the foliation is not hypersurface orthogonal. Crucial to this generalization is the notion of deficiency, which measur…
In this paper, we study polar foliations on simply connected symmetric spaces with non-negative curvature. We will prove that all such foliations are isoparametric as defined by Heintze, Liu and Olmos. We will also prove a splitting theorem which reduces the study of such foliations to polar foliations in compact simply connected symmetric spaces. Moreover, we will show that solutions to mean curvature flow of regular leaves in such foliations are always ancient solutions. This generalizes part of the results of Liu and Terng for the mean curvature flow of isoparametric submanifolds in spheres…
This note provides an alternative proof of a result of Labourie. We show that the two complements of the convex core of a three dimensional quasi-fuchsian hyperbolic manifold may be foliated by embedded hypersurfaces of constant Gaussian curvature.
We study properties of the mean curvature one-form and its holomorphic and antiholomorphic cousins on a transverse Kähler foliation. If the mean curvature of the foliation is automorphic, then there are some restrictions on basic cohomology similar to that on Kähler manifolds, such as the requirement that the odd basic Betti numbers must be even. However, the full Hodge diamond structure does not apply to basic Dolbeault cohomology unless the foliation is taut.
In this paper, we investigate the mean curvature flows starting from all non-minimal leaves of the isoparametric foliation given by a certain kind of solvable group action on a symmetric space of non-compact type. We prove that the mean curvature flow starting from each non-minimal leaf of the foliation exists in infinite time, if the foliation admits no minimal leaf, then the flow asymptotes the self-similar flow starting from another leaf, and if the foliation admits a minimal leaf (in this case, it is shown that there exists the only one minimal leaf), then the flow converges to the minimal…
We prove the existence and uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem for spacelike, spherically symmetric, constant mean curvature equation with symmetric boundary data in the extended Schwarzschild spacetime. As an application, we completely solve the CMC foliation conjecture which is posted by Malec and O Murchadha in 2003.
Let $(M,g)$ be an asymptotically hyperbolic manifold with a smooth conformal compactification. We establish a general correspondence between semilinear elliptic equations of scalar curvature type on $\del M$ and Weingarten foliations in some neighbourhood of infinity in $M$. We focus mostly on foliations where each leaf has constant mean curvature, though our results apply equally well to foliations where the leaves have constant $σ_k$-curvature. In particular, we prove the existence of a unique foliation near infinity in any quasi-Fuchsian 3-manifold by surfaces with constant Gauss curvature.…
We construct new examples of embedded, complete minimal hypersurfaces in quaternionc hyperbolic space and also some minimal foliations. We introduce fans an construct analytic deformations of bisectors.
We extend the deep and important results of Lichnerowicz, Connes, and Gromov-Lawson which relate geometry and characteristic numbers to the existence and non-existence of metrics of positive scalar curvature (PSC). In particular, we show: that a spin foliation with Hausdorff homotopy groupoid of an enlargeable manifold admits no PSC metric; that any metric of PSC on such a foliation is bounded by a multiple of the reciprocal of the foliation K-area of the ambient manifold; and that Connes' vanishing theorem for characteristic numbers of PSC foliations extends to a vanishing theorem for Haeflig…
Let $Γ$ be a nondegenerate geodesic in a compact Riemannian manifold $M$. We prove the existence of a partial foliation of a neighbourhood of $Γ$ by CMC surfaces which are small perturbations of the geodesic tubes about $Γ$. There are gaps in this foliation, which correspond to a bifurcation phenomenon. Conversely, we also prove, under certain restrictions, that the existence of a partial CMC foliation of this type about a submanifold $Γ$ of any dimension implies that $Γ$ is minimal.
In 1996, Huisen-Yau proved that every three-dimensional, asymptotically Schwarzschilden manifold with positive mass is uniquely foliated by stable spheres of constant mean curvature and they defined the center of mass using this CMC-foliation. Rigger and Neves-Tian showed in 2004 and 2009/10 analogous existence and uniqueness theorems for three-dimensional, asymptotically Anti-de Sitter and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds with positive mass aspect function, respectively. Last year, Cederbaum-Cortier-Sakovich proved that the CMC-foliation characterizes the center of mass in the hyperbolic s…
In this note we construct an explicit example of a (compact) conformally flat Riemannian manifold which admits a totally geodesic foliation of codimension one with no isoparametric leaves. This answers negatively the question: is every hypersurface with constant principal curvatures isoparametric?
It is shown that in a class of maximal globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting two local Killing vectors, the past (defined with respect to an appropriate time orientation) of any compact constant mean curvature hypersurface can be covered by a foliation of compact constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. Moreover, the mean curvature of the leaves of this foliation takes on arbitrarily negative values and so the initial singularity in these spacetimes is a crushing singularity. The simplest examples occur when the spatial topology is that of a torus, with the standard global Killing vectors, bu…
Benedetti and Guadagnini have conjectured that the marked lenght spectrum of the constant mean curvature foliation $M_τ$ in a 2+1 dimensional flat spacetime $V$ with compact hyperbolic Cauchy surfaces converges, in the direction of the singularity, to that of the marked measure spectrum of the R-tree dual to the measured foliation corresponding to the translational part of the holonomy of $V$. We prove that this is the case for $n+1$ dimensional, $n \geq 2$, {\em simplicial} flat spacetimes with compact hyperbolic Cauchy surface. A simplicial spacetime is obtained from the Lorentz cone over a …