14 pages, the Einstein condition in the assumptions of the Main theorem is generalized to the assumption that the Weyl tensor is divergence-free, clarity improved, typos corrected
We give an answer to a question posed recently by R.Bryant, namely we show that a compact 7-dimensional manifold equipped with a G2-structure with closed fundamental form is Einstein if and only if the Riemannian holonomy of the induced metric is contained in G2. This could be considered to be a G2 analogue of the Goldberg conjecture in almost Kahler geometry. The result was generalized by R.L.Bryant to closed G2-structures with too tightly pinched Ricci tensor. We extend it in another direction proving that a compact G2-manifold with closed fundamental form and divergence-free Weyl tensor is a G2-manifold with parallel fundamental form. We introduce a second symmetric Ricci-type tensor and show that Einstein conditions applied to the two Ricci tensors on a closed G2-structure again imply that the induced metric has holonomy group contained in G2.
The $π$-exterior derivative $ød$, which is the Finslerian generalization of the (usual) exterior derivative $d$ of Riemannian geometry, is defined. The notion of a $ød$-closed vector field is introduced and investigated. Various characterizations of $ød$-closed vector fields are established. Some results concerning $ød$-closed vector fields in relation to certain special Finsler spaces are obtained.
In this paper we examine different aspects of the geometry of closed conformal vector fields on Riemannian manifolds. We begin by getting obstructions to the existence of closed conformal and nonparallel vector fields on complete manifolds with nonpositive Ricci curvature, thus generalizing a theorem of T. K. Pan. Then we explain why it is so difficult to find examples, other than trivial ones, of spaces having at least two closed, conformal and homothetic vector fields. We then focus on isometric immersions, firstly generalizing a theorem of J. Simons on cones with parallel mean curvature to …
We find the minimal value of the length in de Sitter space of closed space-like curves with non-vanishing non-space-like geodesic curvature vector. These curves are in correspondence with closed almost-regular canal surfaces, and their length is a natural magnitude in conformal geometry. As an application, we get a lower bound for the total conformal torsion of closed space curves.
Given a complete and (locally) cartesian closed category U, it is shown that the category of functors from the category of Weil algebras to the category U is (locally, resp.) cartesian closed. The corresponding axiomatization for differential geometry based upon Weil functors is then given.
To any compact Riemann surface of genus g one may assign a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension g, the Jacobian of the Riemann surface. The Jacobian is a complex torus, and a Gram matrix of the lattice of a Jacobian is called a period Gram matrix. This paper provides upper and lower bounds for all the entries of the period Gram matrix with respect to a suitable homology basis. These bounds depend on the geometry of the cut locus of non-separating simple closed geodesics. Assuming that the cut loci can be calculated, a theoretical approach is presented followed by an example where…
We prove that the L^2 Riemannian metric on the manifold of all smooth Riemannian metrics on a fixed closed, finite-dimensional manifold induces a metric space structure. As the L^2 metric is a weak Riemannian metric, this fact does not follow from general results. In addition, we prove several results on the exponential mapping and distance function of a weak Riemannian metric on a Hilbert/Frechet manifold. The statements are analogous to, but weaker than, what is known in the case of a Riemannian metric on a finite-dimensional manifold or a strong Riemannian metric on a Hilbert manifold.
We extend a result of Patodi for closed Riemannian manifolds to the context of closed contact manifolds by showing the condition that a manifold is an $η$-Einstein Sasakian manifold is spectrally determined. We also prove that the condition that a Sasakian space form has constant $ϕ$-sectional curvature $c$ is spectrally determined.
We study the asymptotic cones of the universal covering spaces of closed 4-dimensional nonpositively curved real analytic manifolds. We show that the existence of nonstandard components in the Tits boundary, discovered by Christoph Hummel and Victor Schroeder, depends only on the quasi-isometry type of the fundamental group.
We introduce the concept of a Clifford-Weyl structure on a conformal manifold, which consists of an even Clifford structure parallel with respect to the tensor product of a metric connection on the Clifford bundle and a Weyl structure on the manifold. We show that the Weyl structure is necessarily closed except for some "generic" low-dimensional instances, where explicit examples of non-closed Clifford-Weyl structures can be constructed.
The SL(2)-character variety X of a closed surface M enjoys a natural complex-symplectic structure invariant under the mapping class group G of M. Using the ergodicity of G on the SU(2)-character variety, we deduce that every G-invariant meromorphic function on X is constant. The trace functions of closed curves on M determine regular functions which generate complex Hamiltonian flows. For simple closed curves, these complex Hamiltonian flows arise from holomorphic flows on the representation variety generalizing the Fenchel-Nielsen twist flows on Teichmueller space and the complex quakebend fl…
We prove Wadsley's theorem for foliations by closed non-lightlike geodesics. As an application we show that every pseudo-Riemannian and non-Riemannian 2-mainfold, all of whose time- or spacelike geodesics are closed, is diffeomorphic to $S^1\times \R$. Further we show that every pseudo-Riemannian 2-manifold with index 1 contains a non-closed timelike or spacelike geodesic.
Motivated by analogous results in locally conformal symplectic geometry, we study different classes of G$_2$-structures defined by a locally conformal closed 3-form. In particular, we give a complete characterization of invariant exact locally conformal closed G$_2$-structures on simply connected Lie groups, and we present examples of compact manifolds with different types of locally conformal closed G$_2$-structures.
We prove a general result about the stability of geometric flows of "closed" sections of vector bundles on compact manifolds. Our theorem allows to prove a stability result for the modified Laplacian coflow in G2-geometry introduced by Grigorian and for the balanced flow introduced by the authors in a previous paper.
We consider closed and orientable immersed hypersurfaces of translational manifolds. Given a vector field on such a hypersurface, we define a perturbation of its Gauss map, which allows us to obtain topological invariants for the immersion that depends on the geometry of the manifold and the ambient space. We use these quantities to find obstructions to the existence of certain codimension one foliations.
We describe the 8-dimensional Wolf spaces as cohomogeneity one SU(3)-manifolds, and discover perturbations of the quaternion-kaehler metric on the simply-connected 8-manifold G_2/SO(4) that carry a closed fundamental 4-form but are not Einstein.
We begin with a basic exploration of the (point-set topological) notion of Hausdorff closed limits in the spacetime setting. Specifically, we show that this notion of limit is well suited to sequences of achronal sets, and use this to generalize the `achronal limits' introduced in [12]. This, in turn, allows for a broad generalization of the notion of Lorentzian horosphere introduced in [12]. We prove a new rigidity result for such horospheres, which in a sense encodes various spacetime splitting results, including the basic Lorentzian splitting theorem. We use this to give a partial proof of …
We consider vector fields $X$ on a closed manifold $M$ with rest points of Morse type. For such vector fields we define the property of exponential growth. A cohomology class $ξ\in H^1(M;\mathbb R)$ which is Lyapunov for $X$ defines counting functions for isolated instantons and closed trajectories. If $X$ has exponential growth property we show, under a mild hypothesis generically satisfied, how these counting functions can be recovered from the spectral geometry associated to $(M,g,ω)$ where $g$ is a Riemannian metric and $ω$ is a closed one form representing $ξ$. This is done with the help …
On a closed 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold, we give a lower bound for the square of the first eigenvalue of the Yamabe operator in terms of the total Branson's Q-curvature. As a consequence, if the manifold is spin, we relate the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator to the total Branson's Q-curvature. On a closed n-dimensional manifold, $n\ge 5$, we compare the three basic conformally covariant operators : the Branson-Paneitz, the Yamabe and the Dirac operator (if the manifold is spin) through their first eigenvalues. Equality cases are also characterized.
The main goal of this paper is to generalize some Li-Yau type gradient estimates to Finsler geometry in order to derive Harnack type inequalities. Moreover, we obtain, under some curvature assumption, a general gradient estimate for positive solutions of the heat equation when the manifold evolving along the Finsler Ricci flow.
We observe that the DeTurck Laplacian flow of G2-structures introduced by Bryant and Xu as a gauge fixing of the Laplacian flow can be regarded as a flow of G2-structures (not necessarily closed) which fits in the general framework introduced by Hamilton in [4].
Ray nil-affine geometries are defined on nilpotent spaces. They occur in every parabolic geometry and in those cases, the nilpotent space is an open dense subset of the corresponding flag manifold. We are interested in closed manifolds having a ray nil-affine structure. We show that under a rank one condition on the isotropy, closed manifolds are either complete or their developing map is a cover onto the complement of a nil-affine subspace. We prove that if additionally there is a parallel volume or if the automorphism group acts non properly then closed manifolds are always complete.This pap…
We relate small 1-form Laplacian eigenvalues to relative cycle complexity on closed hyperbolic manifolds: small eigenvalues correspond to closed geodesics no multiple of which bounds a surface of small genus. We describe potential applications of this equivalence principle toward proving optimal torsion homology growth in families of hyperbolic 3-manifolds Benjamini-Schramm converging to $\mathbb{H}^3.$
We consider a vector field $X$ on a closed manifold which admits a Lyapunov one form. We assume $X$ has Morse type zeros, satisfies the Morse--Smale transversality condition and has non-degenerate closed trajectories only. For a closed one form $η$, considered as flat connection on the trivial line bundle, the differential of the Morse complex formally associated to $X$ and $η$ is given by infinite series. We introduce the exponential growth condition and show that it guarantees that these series converge absolutely for a non-trivial set of $η$. Moreover the exponential growth condition guaran…
In Arakelov theory a completion of an arithmetic surface is achieved by enlarging the group of divisors by formal linear combinations of the ``closed fibers at infinity''. Manin described the dual graph of any such closed fiber in terms of an infinite tangle of bounded geodesics in a hyperbolic handlebody endowed with a Schottky uniformization. In this paper we consider arithmetic surfaces over the ring of integers in a number field, with fibers of genus $g\geq 2$. We use Connes' theory of spectral triples to relate the hyperbolic geometry of the handlebody to Deninger's Archimedean cohomology…
We prove an upper bound for the number of shortest closed geodesics in a closed hyperbolic manifold of any dimension in terms of its volume and systole, generalizing a theorem of Parlier for surfaces. We also obtain bounds on the number of primitive closed geodesics with length in a given interval that are uniform for all closed hyperbolic manifolds with bounded geometry. The proofs rely on the Selberg trace formula.
We study the special algebraic properties of alternating 3-forms in 6 and 7 dimensions and introduce a diffeomorphism-invariant functional on the space of differential 3-forms on a closed manifold M in these dimensions. Restricting the functional to closed forms in a fixed cohomology class, we find that a critical point which is generic in a suitable sense defines in the 6-dimensional case a complex threefold with trivial canonical bundle and in 7 dimensions a Riemannian manifold with holonomy G2. This approach gives a direct method of finding a local moduli space, with its special geometry, f…
In this work, we establish new rigidity results for the Maslov class of Lagrangian submanifolds in large classes of closed and convex symplectic manifolds. Our main result establishes upper bounds for the minimal Maslov number of displaceable Lagrangian submanifolds which are product manifolds whose factors each admit a metric of negative sectional curvature. Such Lagrangian submanifolds exist in every symplectic manifold of dimension greater than six or equal to four. The proof utilizes the relations between closed geodesics on the Lagrangian, the periodic orbits of geometric Hamiltonian flow…
In this note we establish the large time non-negativity of the heat kernel for a class of elliptic differential operators on closed, Riemannian manifolds, and apply this result to a problem from conformal differential geometry.
A closed equilateral random walk in 3-space is a selection of unit length vectors giving the steps of the walk conditioned on the assumption that the sum of the vectors is zero. The sample space of such walks with $n$ edges is the $(2n-3)$-dimensional Riemannian manifold of equilateral closed polygons in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We study closed random walks using the symplectic geometry of the $(2n-6)$-dimensional quotient of the manifold of polygons by the action of the rotation group $\operatorname {SO}(3)$. The basic objects of study are the moment maps on equilateral random polygon space given by t…
Several results from differential geometry of hypersurfaces in R^n are derived to form a tool box for the direct mapping method. The latter technique has been widely employed to solve problems with moving interfaces, and to study the asymptotics of the induced semiflows.
In this paper, we consider a class of fully nonlinear equations on closed smooth Riemannian manifolds, which can be viewed as an extension of $σ_k$ Yamabe equation. Moreover, we prove local gradient and second derivative estimates for solutions to these equations and establish an existence result associated to them.
Let $(X,ω)$ be a compact Kähler manifold of dimension $n$, and $θ$ be a closed smooth real $(1,1)$-form representing a big and nef cohomology class. We introduce a metric $d_p, p\geq 1$, on the finite energy space $\mathcal{E}^p(X,θ)$, making it a complete geodesic metric space.
Let $(M,ω)$ be a Kahler manifold. An integrable function on M is called $ω^q$-plurisubharmonic if it is subharmonic on all q-dimensional complex subvarieties. We prove that a smooth $ω^q$-plurisubharmonic function is q-convex. A continuous $ω^q$-plurisubharmonic function admits a local approximation by smooth, $ω^q$-plurisubharmonic functions. For any closed subvariety $Z\subset M$, $\dim Z < q$, there exists a strictly $ω^q$-plurisubharmonic function in a neighbourhood of $Z$ (this result is known for q-convex functions). This theorem is used to give a new proof of Sibony's lemma on integrabi…
We investigate the geometry of word metrics on fundamental groups of manifolds associated with the generating sets consisting of elements represented by closed geodesics. We ask whether the diameter of such a metric is finite or infinite. The first answer we interpret as an abundance of closed geodesics, while the second one as their scarcity. We discuss examples for both cases.
The results of this paper have been greatly superseded by those in the paper "Contact geometry and isosystolic inequalities" (arXiv:1109.4253) by the same authors.
The formal structure of geometrical thermodynamics is reviewed with particular emphasis on the geometry of equilibria submanifolds. On these submanifolds thermodynamic metrics are defined as the Hessian of thermodynamic potentials. Links between geometry and thermodynamics are explored for single and multiple component, closed and open systems. For multi-component closed and open systems the Gibbs free energy is employed as the thermodynamic potential to investigate the connection between geometry and thermodynamics. The Gibbs free energy is chosen for the analysis of multicomponent systems an…
We prove global results about actions of cocompact lattices in higher-rank simple Lie groups on closed manifolds endowed with either a projective class of connections or a conformal class of pseudo-Riemannian metrics of signature $(p,q)$, with $\min(p,q) \geq 2$. In the continuity of a recent article, provided that such a structure is locally equivalent to its model $\mathbf{X}$, the main question treated here is the completeness of the associated $(G,\mathbf{X})$-structure. Because of the similarities between the model spaces of projective geometry and non-Lorentzian conformal geometry, a num…
We study the geometry of manifolds carrying symplectic pairs consisting of two closed 2-forms of constant ranks, whose kernel foliations are complementary. Using a variation of the construction of Boothby and Wang we build contact-symplectic and contact pairs from symplectic pairs.
We introduce a general setting for multidimensional dispersionless integrable hierarchy in terms of differential $m$-form $Ω_m$ with the coefficients satisfying the Plücker relations, which is gauge-invariantly closed and its gauge-invariant coordinates (ratios of coefficients) are (locally) holomorphic with respect to one of the variables (the spectral variable). We demonstrate that this form defines a hierarchy of dispersionless integrable equations in terms of commuting vector fields locally holomorphic in the spectral variable. The equations of the hierarchy are given by the gauge-invarian…
For a fundamental solution of Laplace's equation on the $R$-radius $d$-dimensional hypersphere, we compute the azimuthal Fourier coefficients in closed form in two and three dimensions. We also compute the Gegenbauer polynomial expansion for a fundamental solution of Laplace's equation in hyperspherical geometry in geodesic polar coordinates. From this expansion in three-dimensions, we derive an addition theorem for the azimuthal Fourier coefficients of a fundamental solution of Laplace's equation on the 3-sphere. Applications of our expansions are given, namely closed-form solutions to Poisso…
We construct a C-space associated with every closed 3-form on a spacetime $M$ and show that it depends on the class of the form in $H^3(M, Z)$. We also demonstrate that C-spaces have a relation to generalized geometry and to gerbes. C-spaces are constructed after introducing additional coordinates at the open sets and at their double overlaps of a spacetime generalizing the standard construction of Kaluza-Klein spaces for 2-forms. C-spaces may not be manifolds and satisfy the topological geometrization condition. Double spaces arise as local subspaces of C-spaces that cannot be globally extend…
We show that the Lagrangian of classical mechanics on a Riemannian manifold of bounded geometry carries a periodic solution of motion with rescribed energy, provided the potential satisfies an asymptotic growth condition, changes sign, and the negative set of the potential is non-trivial in the relative homology.
