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.
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.
Motivated by Gray's work on tube formulae for complex submanifolds of complex projective space equipped with the Fubini-Study metric, Riemannian foliations of projective space are studied. We prove that there are no complex Riemannian foliations of any open subset of $\mathbb{P}^n$ of codimension one. As a consequence there is no Riemannian foliation of the projective plane by Riemann surfaces, even locally. We determine how a complex submanifold may arise as an exceptional leaf of a non-trivial singular Riemannian foliation of maximal dimension. Gray's tube formula is applied to obtain a volu…
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.
In this paper, we introduce the notion of a marginal tube, which is a hypersurface foliated by marginal surfaces. It generalises the notion of a marginally trapped tube and several notions of black hole horizons, for example trapping horizons, isolated horizons, dynamical horizons, etc. We prove that if every spacelike section of a marginal tube is a marginal surface, then the marginal tube is null. There is no assumption on the topology of the marginal tube. To prove it, we study the geometry of spacelike surfaces in a 4-dimensional spacetime with the help of double null coordinate systems. T…
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.
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.
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 $\partial M$.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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 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…
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 …
Given a singular Riemannian foliation on a compact Riemannian manifold, we study the mean curvature flow equation with a regular leaf as initial datum. We prove that if the leaves are compact and the mean curvature vector field is basic, then any finite time singularity is a singular leaf, and the singularity is of type I. These results generalize previous results of Liu and Terng, Pacini and Koike. In particular our results can be applied to partitions of Riemannian manifolds into orbits of actions of compact groups of isometries.
In this paper we investigate the mean curvature flow (MCF) of a regular leaf of a closed generalized isoparametric foliation as initial datum, generalizing previous results of Radeschi and first author. We show that, under bounded curvature conditions, any finite time singularity is a singular leaf, and the singularity is of type I. We also discuss the existence of basin of attractions, how cylinder structures can affect convergence of basic MCF of immersed submanifolds and make a few remarks on MCF of non closed leaves of generalized isoparametric foliation.
A flow of metrics, $g_t$, on a manifold is a solution of a differential equation $\dt g = S(g)$, where a geometric functional $S(g)$ is a symmetric $(0,2)$-tensor usually related to some kind of curvature. The mixed sectional curvature of a foliated manifold regulates the deviation of leaves along the leaf geodesics. We introduce and study the flow of metrics on a foliation (called the 'Partial Ricci Flow'), where $S=-2 r$ and $r$ is the partial Ricci curvature of the foliation; in other words, the velocity for a unit vector $X$ orthogonal to the leaf, $-2 r(X,X)$, is the mean value of section…
We give a generalized curvature-dimension inequality connecting the geometry of sub-Riemannian manifolds with the properties of its sub-Laplacian. This inequality is valid on a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds obtained from Riemannian foliations. We give a geometric interpretation of the invariants involved in the inequality. Using this inequality, we obtain a lower bound for the eigenvalues of the sub-Laplacian. This inequality also lays the foundation for proving several powerful results in Part~II.
We prove that every closed, smooth $n$-manifold $X$ admits a Riemannian metric together with a smooth, transversely oriented CMC foliation if and only if its Euler characteristic is zero, where by CMC foliation we mean a codimension-one, transversely oriented foliation with leaves of constant mean curvature and where the value of the constant mean curvature can vary from leaf to leaf. Furthermore, we prove that this CMC foliation of $X$ can be chosen so that the constant values of the mean curvatures of its leaves change sign. We also prove a general structure theorem for any such non-minimal …
Given a closed manifold $M$ and a vector bundle $ξ$ of rank $n$ over $M$, by gluing two copies of the disc bundle of $ξ$, we can obtain a closed manifold $D(ξ, M)$, the so-called double manifold. In this paper, we firstly prove that each sphere bundle $S_r(ξ)$ of radius $r>0$ is an isoparametric hypersurface in the total space of $ξ$ equipped with a connection metric, and for $r>0$ small enough, the induced metric of $S_r(ξ)$ has positive Ricci curvature under the additional assumptions that $M$ has a metric with positive Ricci curvature and $n\geq3$. As an application, if $M$ admits a metric …
We generalize the Bochner technique to foliations with non-negative transverse Ricci curvature. In particular, we obtain a new vanishing theorem for basic cohomology. Subsequently, we provide two natural applications, namely to degenerate 3-$(α,δ) $-Sasaki and certain Sasaki-$ η$-Einstein manifolds, which arise for example as Boothby-Wang bundles over hyperkähler and Calabi-Yau manifolds, respectively.
We show the existence of a local foliation of a three dimensional Riemannian manifold by critical points of the Willmore functional subject to a small area constraint around non-degenerate critical points of the scalar curvature. This adapts a method developed by Rugang Ye to construct foliations by surfaces of constant mean curvature.
Here, a Finsler manifold (M, F) is considered with corresponding curvature tensor, regarded as 2-forms on the bundle of non-zero tangent vectors. Certain subspaces of the tangent spaces of M determined by the curvature are introduced and called k-nullity foliations of the curvature operator. It is shown that if the dimension of foliation is constant then the distribution is involutive and each maximal integral manifold is totally geodesic. Characterization of the k-nullity foliation is given, as well as some results concerning constancy of the flag curvature, and completeness of their integral…
Using the curvature-dimension inequality proved in Part~I, we look at consequences of this inequality in terms of the interaction between the sub-Riemannian geometry and the heat semigroup $P_t$ corresponding to the sub-Laplacian. We give bounds for the gradient, entropy, a Poincaré inequality and a Li-Yau type inequality. These results require that the gradient of $P_t f$ remains uniformly bounded whenever the gradient of $f$ is bounded and we give several sufficient conditions for this to hold.
We extend the Chern-Heinz inequalities about mean curvature and scalar curvature of graphs of $C^{2}$-functions to leaves of transversally oriented codimension one $C^{2}$-foliations of Riemannian manifolds. That extends partially Salavessa's work on mean curvature of graphs and generalize results of Barbosa-Kenmotsu-Oshikiri \cite{barbosa-kenmotsu-Oshikiri} and Barbosa-Gomes-Silveira \cite{barbosa-gomes-silveira} about foliations of 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds by constant mean curvature surfaces. These Chern-Heinz inequalities for foliations can be applied to prove Haymann-Makai-Osserm…
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 $(M,g^{TM})$ be a noncompact (not necessarily complete) enlargeable Riemannian manifold in the sense of Gromov-Lawson and $F$ an integrable subbundle of $T M$ . Let $k^F$ be the leafwise scalar curvature associated to $g^F=g^{TM}|_F$. We show that if either $TM$ or $F$ is spin, then ${\rm inf}(k^F)\leq 0$. This generalizes the famous result of Gromov-Lawson on enlargeable manifolds to the case of foliations. It also extends an ansatz of Gromov on hyper-Euclidean spaces to general enlargeable Riemannian manifolds, as well as recent results on compact enlargeable foliated manifolds due to Be…
B. Wilking introduced the dual foliation associated to a metric foliation in a Riemannian manifold with nonnegative sectional curvature, and proved that when the curvature is strictly positive, the dual foliation contains a single leaf, so that any two points in the ambient space can be joined by a horizontal curve. We show that the same phenomenon often occurs for nonnegatively curved Riemannian submersions even without the strict positive curvature condition, and irrespective of the particular metric.
We consider a problem of prescribing the partial Ricci curvature on a locally conformally flat manifold $(M^n, g)$ endowed with the complementary orthogonal distributions $D_1$ and $D_2$. We provide conditions for symmetric $(0,2)$-tensors $T$ of a simple form (defined on $M$) to admit metrics $\tilde g$, conformal to $g$, that solve the partial Ricci equations. The solutions are given explicitly. Using above solutions, we also give examples to the problem of prescribing the mixed scalar curvature related to $D_i$. In aim to find "optimally placed" distributions, we calculate the variations of…
The mixed scalar curvature of a foliated Riemannian manifold, i.e., an averaged mixed sectional curvature, has been considered by several geometers. We explore the Yamabe type problem: to prescribe the constant mixed scalar curvature for a foliation by a conformal change of the metric in normal directions only. For a harmonic foliation, we derive the leafwise elliptic equation and explore the corresponding nonlinear heat type equation. We assume that the leaves are compact submanifolds and the manifold is fibered instead of being foliated, and use spectral parameters of certain Schrödinger ope…
Given a (possibly singular) Riemannian foliation $\mathcal{F}$ with closed leaves on a compact manifold $M$ with an adapted metric, we investigate the wave trace invariants for the basic Laplacian about a non-zero period. We compare them to the wave invariants of the underlying Riemannian orbifold that exists when the leaves in the regular region are identified to points, equipped with the metric that is transverse to the leaves of the foliation. Recalling that the basic Laplacian differs from the underlying orbifold Laplacian by a term that is the mean curvature vector field associated to the…
Generalizing results of Chou and Wang \cite{1} we study the flows of the leaves $(M_Θ)_{Θ>0}$ of a foliation of $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus \{0\}$ consisting of uniformly convex hypersurfaces in the direction of their outer normals with speeds $-\log(F/f)$. For quite general functions $F$ of the principal curvatures of the flow hypersurfaces and $f$ a smooth and positive function on $S^n$ (considered as a function of the normal) we show that there is a distinct leaf $M_{Θ_{*}}$ in this foliation with the property that the flow starting from $M_{Θ_{*}}$ converges to a translating solution of the…
In this paper, we investigate the volume-prserving mean curvature flow starting from a tube (of nonconstant radius) over a compact closed domain of a reflective submanifold in a symmetric space. We prove that the tubeness is preserved along the flow under certain conditions.
We prove transverse Weitzenböck identities for the horizontal Laplacians of a totally geodesic foliation. As a consequence, we obtain nullity theorems for the de Rham cohomology assuming only the positivity of curvature quantities transverse to the leaves. Those curvature quantities appear in the adiabatic limit of the canonical variation of the metric.
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.
Some curvature estimates are derived from geometrical data concerning quasi-conformality properties of some commuting linearly independent vector fields on a compact Riemannian manifold.
In this paper we generalize the Local Removable Singularity Theorem in [16] for minimal laminations to the case of weak $H$-laminations (with $H\in \mathbb{R}$ constant) in a punctured ball of a Riemannian three-manifold. We also obtain a curvature estimate for any weak CMC foliation (with possibly varying constant mean curvature from leaf to leaf) of a compact Riemannian three-manifold $N$ with boundary solely in terms of a bound of the absolute sectional curvature of $N$ and of the distance to the boundary of $N$. We then apply these results to classify weak CMC foliations of $\mathbb{R}^3$ …
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.
In 1993, Bartnik introduced a quasi-spherical construction of metrics of prescribed scalar curvature on 3-manifolds. Under quasi-spherical ansatz, the problem is converted into the initial value problem for a semi-linear parabolic equation of the lapse function. The original ansatz of Bartnik started with a background foliation with round metrics on the 2-sphere leaves. This has been generalized by several authors under various assumptions on the background foliation. In this article, we consider background foliations given by conformal round metrics, and by the Ricci flow on 2-spheres. We dis…
We generalize the notion of fixed point homogeneous isometric group actions to the context of singular Riemannian foliations. We find that in some cases, positively curved manifolds admitting these so-called point leaf maximal SRF's are diffeo/homeomorphic to compact rank one symmetric spaces. In all cases, manifolds admitting such foliations are cohomology CROSSes or finite quotients of them. Among non-simply connected manifolds, we find examples of such foliations which are non-homogeneous
We calculate the Gaussian curvature of a curved, twisted crease in terms of the rate of change of solid angle along its length; we find that this depends on the fold angle across the crease and on the curvature along it but is independent of twist. We use this result to resolve a paradox concerning the geometry of a creased, twisted-prismatic tube; that there can be no Gaussian curvature overall despite the surface being doubly-curved.
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.
We generalize an inequality of E. Heintze and H. Karcher [8] for the volume of tubes around minimal submanifolds to an inequality based on integral bounds for $k$-Ricci curvature. Even in the case of a pointwise bound, this generalizes the classical inequality by replacing a sectional curvature bound with a $k$-Ricci bound. This work is motivated by the estimates of Petersen-Shteingold-Wei for the volume of tubes around a geodesic [12] and generalizes their result. Using similar ideas we also prove a Hessian comparison theorem for $k$-Ricci curvature which generalizes the usual Hessian and Lap…
We introduce and study the flow of metrics on a foliated Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, whose velocity along the orthogonal distribution is proportional to the mixed scalar curvature, $\Sc_{\,\rm mix}$. The flow is used to examine the question: When a foliation admits a metric with a given property of $\Sc_{\,\rm mix}$ (e.g., positive or negative)\/? We observe that the flow preserves harmonicity of foliations and yields the Burgers type equation along the leaves for the mean curvature vector $H$ of orthogonal distribution. If $H$ is leaf-wise conservative, then its potential obeys the non-linea…
The central idea of the proof is to show that a minimal flow v on a compact 3-manifold M implies the existence of a codimension one foliation F on it, which is transverse to the flow. If M is the 3-sphere, Novikov's theorem applies to show that one of the leaves of F is a compact surface X. It is now easy to derive a contradiction. The foliation is achieved by an induction procedure in which the manifold M is partitioned into spaces called 'tubes', each of which is homeomorphic to a closed hollow cylinder. These cylinders are, in turn, 'filled in' with closed discs, each of which has its bound…
We study the geometry of the foliation by constant Gaussian curvature surfaces $(Σ_k)_k$ of a hyperbolic end, and how it relates to the structures of its boundary at infinity and of its pleated boundary. First, we show that the Thurston and the Schwarzian parametrizations are the limits of two families of parametrizations of the space of hyperbolic ends, defined by Labourie in 1992 in terms of the geometry of the leaves $Σ_k$. We give a new description of the renormalized volume using the constant curvature foliation. We prove a generalization of McMullen's Kleinian reciprocity theorem, which …
