The $L^2$-metric or Fubini-Study metric on the non-linear Grassmannian of all submanifolds of type $M$ in a Riemannian manifold $(N,g)$ induces geodesic distance 0. We discuss another metric which involves the mean curvature and shows that its geodesic distance is a good topological metric. The vanishing phenomenon for the geodesic distance holds also for all diffeomorphism groups for the $L^2$-metric.
The geodesic distance vanishes on the group of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a Riemannian manifold $M$ of bounded geometry, for the right invariant weak Riemannian metric which is induced by the Sobolev metric $H^s$ of order $0\le s<\tfrac12$ on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak X_c(M)$ of vector fields with compact support.
It is proved, that if M is a connected, complete submanifold of a complex space form N and each geodesic of M lies in an 1-dimensional totally geodesic complex submanifold of N, then M is totally geodesic in N and is a real space form or a complex space form.
We investigate submanifolds in space forms such that every geodesic orthogonal to the submanifold intersects a fixed totally geodesic submanifold. We obtain an application to horospheres in Hadamard manifolds.
We give a full description of totally geodesic submanifolds in the tangent bundle of a Riemannian 2-manifold of constant curvature and present a new class of a cylinder-type totally geodesic submanifolds in the general case.
In the present paper we study pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds which have 3-planar geodesic normal sections.We consider W-curves (helices) on pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds. Finally, we give neccessary and sufficient condition for a normal section to be a W-curve on pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds.
The space of embedded submanifolds plays an important role in applications such as computational anatomy and shape analysis. We can define two different classes on Riemannian metrics on this space: so-called outer metrics are metrics that measure shape changes using deformations of the ambient space and they find applications mostly in computational anatomy; the second class that are defined directly on the space of embeddings using intrinsic differential operations and they are used in shape analysis. In this paper we compare for the first time the topologies and the geodesic distance functio…
In this article, relations between the root space decomposition of a Riemannian symmetric space of compact type and the root space decompositions of its totally geodesic submanifolds (symmetric subspaces) are described. These relations provide an approach to the classification of totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces. In this way a classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the complex quadric $Q^m := \SO(m+2)/(\SO(2) \times \SO(m))$ is obtained. It turns out that the earlier classification of totally geodesic submanifolds of $Q^m$ by Chen and Nagano is incom…
We classify maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in exceptional symmetric spaces up to isometry. Moreover, we introduce an invariant for certain totally geodesic embeddings of semisimple symmetric spaces, which we call the Dynkin index. We prove a result analogous to the index conjecture: for every irreducible symmetric space of non-compact type, there exists a totally geodesic submanifold which is of minimal codimension and whose non-flat irreducible factors have Dynkin index equal to one.
In the first part of this expository article, the most important constructions and classification results concerning totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces are summarized. In the second part, I describe the results of my classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2.
In this article, I classify the totally geodesic submanifolds in the complex 2-Grassmannians and in the quaternionic 2-Grassmannians. It turns out that for both of these spaces, the earlier classification of maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2, published by Chen and Nagano (B.-Y. Chen, T. Nagano, "Totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces, II", Duke Math. J. 45 (1978), 405--425) is incomplete. For example, G_2(H^n) with n >= 7 contains totally geodesic submanifolds isometric to a HP^2, its metric scaled such that the minimal sectional curvatur…
We use the Cartan representations of $SO(3)$ and $SU(3)$, and an irreducible 14-dimensional representation of $Sp(3)$ to construct certain totally geodesic submanifolds in "skew" position in the complex quadrics, the complex 2-Grassmannians and the quaternionic 2-Grassmannians.
We present classifications of totally geodesic and totally umbilical Legendrian submanifolds of $(κ,μ)$-spaces with Boeckx invariant $I \leq -1$. In particular, we prove that such submanifolds must be, up to local isometries, among the examples that we explicitly construct.
Given a finite dimensional manifold $N$, the group $\operatorname{Diff}_{\mathcal S}(N)$ of diffeomorphism of $N$ which fall suitably rapidly to the identity, acts on the manifold $B(M,N)$ of submanifolds on $N$ of diffeomorphism type $M$ where $M$ is a compact manifold with $\dim M<\dim N$. For a right invariant weak Riemannian metric on $\operatorname{Diff}_{\mathcal S}(N)$ induced by a quite general operator $L:\frak X_{\mathcal S}(N)\to Γ(T^*N\otimes\operatorname{vol}(N))$, we consider the induced weak Riemannian metric on $B(M,N)$ and we compute its geodesics and sectional curvature. For …
In the paper we investigate submanifolds in a tangent bundle endowed with g-natural metric G, defined by a vector field on a base manifold. We give a sufficient condition for a vector field on M to defined totally geodesic submanifold in (TM,G). The parallel vector field is discussed in more detail.
We determine the Riemannian manifolds for which the group of exact volume preserving diffeomorphisms is a totally geodesic subgroup of the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms, considering right invariant $L^2$-metrics. The same is done for the subgroup of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms as a subgroup of the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms in the Kähler case. These are special cases of totally geodesic subgroups of diffeomorphisms with Lie algebras big enough to detect the vanishing of a symmetric 2-tensor field.
In this paper I have studied about CR(Cauchy-Riemann)-submanifolds of Lorentzian Concircular Structure manifold ((LCS)n-manifold), Lorentzian Para-Sasakian(LP)-cosymplectic manifold, S-manifold and Generalized Kenmotsu (GKM) manifold. I have discussed some results regarding distribution, structure vector field, totally geodesic submanifold, leaf etc.. I have obtained results on totally umbilical contact CR-submanifold where the anti-invariant distribution has some properties. Next, I have studied some results about D-totally geodesic CR-submanifold (D is the distribution), a contact CR-submani…
We study Sobolev-type metrics of fractional order $s\geq0$ on the group $\Diff_c(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$. We show that for the important special case $M=S^1$ the geodesic distance on $\Diff_c(S^1)$ vanishes if and only if $s\leq\frac12$. For other manifolds we obtain a partial characterization: the geodesic distance on $\Diff_c(M)$ vanishes for $M=\R\times N, s<\frac12$ and for $M=S^1\times N, s\leq\frac12$, with $N$ being a compact Riemannian manifold. On the other hand the geodesic distance on $\Diff_c(M)$ is positive for $\dim(M)=1, s>\frac12$ and $\dim(…
A conformal structure on a manifold $M^n$ induces natural second order conformally invariant operators, called Möbius and Laplace structures, acting on specific weight bundles of $M$, provided that $n\ge 3$. By extending the notions of Möbius and Laplace structures to the case of surfaces and curves, we develop here the theory of extrinsic conformal geometry for submanifolds, find tensorial invariants of a conformal embedding, and use these invariants to characterize various forms of geodesic submanifolds.
We classify totally geodesic submanifolds of Damek-Ricci spaces and show that they are either homogeneous (such submanifolds are known to be "smaller" Damek-Ricci spaces) or isometric to rank-one symmetric spaces of negative curvature. As a by-product, we obtain that a totally geodesic submanifold of any known harmonic manifold is by itself harmonic. We prove that the Cayley hyperbolic plane admits no Einstein hypersurfaces and that the only Einstein hypersurfaces in the Cayley projective plane are geodesic spheres of a particular radius; this completes the classification of Einstein hypersurf…
In this paper we obtain an existence theorem for normal geodesics joining two given submanifolds in a globally hyperbolic stationary spacetime. The proof is based on both variational and geometric arguments involving the causal structure of the spacetime, the completeness of suitable Finsler metrics associated to it and some basic properties of a submersion. By this interaction, unlike previous results on the topic, also non--spacelike submanifolds can be handled.
In this note, we prove that given a submanifold $P$ in a Finsler manifold $(M,F)$, (i) the orthogonal geodesics to $P$ minimize the distance from $P$ at least in some interval, (ii) there exist tubular neighbourhoods around each point of $P$, (iii) the distance from $P$ is smooth in some open neighbourhood of $P$ (but not necessarily in $P$).
We introduce the equation of n-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds of a manifold E as a submanifold of the second order jet space of n-dimensional submanifolds of E. Next we study the geometry of n-Grassmannian equivalent connections, that is linear connections without torsion admitting the same equation of n-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds. We define the n-Grassmannian structure as the equivalence class of such connections, recovering for n=1 the case of theory of projectively equivalent connections. By introducing the equation of parametrized n-dimensional totally geodesic su…
For $n\geq 4$ we show that generic closed Riemannian $n$-manifolds have no nontrivial totally geodesic submanifolds, answering a question of Spivak. An immediate consequence is a severe restriction on the isometry group of a generic Riemannian metric. Both results are widely believed to be true, but we are not aware of any proofs in the literature.
One purpose of this article is to establish a general method to determine stability of totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces. The method is used to determine the stability of the basic totally geodesic submanifolds $M_+,M_-$ introduced and studied by Chen and Nagano in [Totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces, II, Duke Math. J. 45 (1978), 405--425] as minimal submanifolds. The other purpose is to establish a stability theorem for minimal totally real submanifolds of Kählerian manifolds.
This article provides an overview of various notions of shape spaces, including the space of parametrized and unparametrized curves, the space of immersions, the diffeomorphism group and the space of Riemannian metrics. We discuss the Riemannian metrics that can be defined thereon, and what is known about the properties of these metrics. We put particular emphasis on the induced geodesic distance, the geodesic equation and its well-posedness, geodesic and metric completeness and properties of the curvature.
We bring together those systems of hydrodynamical type that can be written as geodesic equations on diffeomorphism groups or on extensions of diffeomorphism groups with right invariant $L^2$ or $H^1$ metrics. We present their formal derivation starting from Euler's equation, the first order equation satisfied by the right logarithmic derivative of a geodesic in Lie groups with right invariant metrics.
Let M be an irreducible Riemannian symmetric space. The index i(M) of M is the minimal codimension of a totally geodesic submanifold of M. In previous work the authors proved that i(M) is bounded from below by the rank rk(M) of M. In this paper we classify all irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces M for which the equality holds, that is, rk(M) = i(M). In this context we also obtain an explicit classification of all non-semisimple maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type and show that they are closely related to irreducible symmetric …
It is well-known that if $ξ$ is a smooth vector field on a given Riemannian manifold $M^n$ then $ξ$ naturally defines a submanifold $ξ(M^n)$ transverse to the fibers of the tangent bundle $TM^n$ with Sasaki metric. In this paper, we are interested in transverse totally geodesic submanifolds of the tangent bundle. We show that a transverse submanifold $N^l$ of $TM^n$ ($1 \leq l \leq n$) can be realized locally as the image of a submanifold $F^l$ of $M^n$ under some vector field $ξ$ defined along $F^l$. For such images $ξ(F^l)$, the conditions to be totally geodesic are presented. We show that t…
We study the family of $α$-connections of Amari-Chentsov on the homogeneous space $\mathcal{D}(M)/\mathcal{D}_μ(M)$ of diffeomorphisms modulo volume-preserving diffeomorphims of a compact manifold $M$. We show that in some cases their geodesic equations yield completely integrable Hamiltonian systems.
The present article is the final part of a series on the classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds of the irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2. After this problem has been solved for the 2-Grassmannians in my previous papers cited in the present paper as [K1] and [K2], and for the space SU(3)/SO(3) in [K3], Section 6, we now solve the classification for the remaining irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2 and compact type: SU(6)/Sp(3), SO(10)/U(5), E6/(U(1)*Spin(10)), E6/F4, G2/SO(4), SU(3), Sp(2) and G2. Similarly as for the spaces already investigated in the…
We prove that there exists a metric of positive curvature in a three-sphere which admits a given torus knot as a closed geodesic.We also sketch a construction of a metric in a four sphere, very likely of positive curvature, which admits a totally geodesic projective plane with Euler number four. Surpisingly, the technique borrows a lot from the Mostow-Siu-Gromov-Thurston constuction of exotic negatively curved manifolds.
In this paper, we define and study CR-lightlike submanifolds of a golden semi-Riemannian manifold. We investigate some properties of geodesic CR-submanifolds of a golden semi-Riemannian manifold. Moreover, we obtain many interesting results for totally geodesic and totally umbilical CR-submanifolds on a golden Riemannian manifold. A non-trivial example of CR-lightlike submanifold of a golden semi-Riemannian manifold is also constructed.
$H$-umbilicity was introduced as an analogue of total umbilicity for Lagrangian submanifolds since, in some relevant cases, totally umbilical Lagrangian submanifolds are automatically totally geodesic. In this paper, we show that in the homogeneous nearly Kähler $\mathbb{S}^3\times\mathbb{S}^3$, also $H$-umbilical Lagrangian submanifolds are automatically totally geodesic.
In an earlier paper we discussed soldered forms, multivector fields and Riemannian metrics. In particular, we showed that a Riemannian submanifold is totally geodesic iff the metric is soldered to the submanifold. In the present note we discuss general, soldered tensor fields. In particular, we prove that the almost complex structure of an almost Kähler manifold is soldered to a submanifold iff the latter is an invariant, totally geodesic submanifold.
We study the geodesic distance induced by right-invariant metrics on the group $\operatorname{Diff}_\text{c}(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms, for various Sobolev norms $W^{s,p}$. Our main result is that the geodesic distance vanishes identically on every connected component whenever $s<\min\{n/p,1\}$, where $n$ is the dimension of $M$. We also show that previous results imply that whenever $s > n/p$ or $s \ge 1$, the geodesic distance is always positive. In particular, when $n\ge 2$, the geodesic distance vanishes if and only if $s<1$ in the Riemannian case $p=2$, contrary to a conj…
We study the geodesic distance induced by right-invariant metrics on the group $\operatorname{Diff}_c(M)$ of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$, and show that it vanishes for the critical Sobolev norms $W^{s,n/s}$, where $n$ is the dimension of $M$ and $s\in(0,1)$. This completes the proof that the geodesic distance induced by $W^{s,p}$ vanishes if $sp\le n$ and $s<1$, and is positive otherwise. The proof is achieved by combining the techniques of two recent papers --- [JM19] by the authors, which treated the sub-critical case, and [BHP18] of Bauer, Harms and Preston, which …
We prove an equidistribution result for totally geodesic submanifolds in a compact locally symmetric space. In the case of Hermitian locally symmetric spaces, this gives a convergence theorem for currents of integration along totally geodesic subvarieties. As a corollary, we obtain that on a complex surface which is a compact quotient of the bidisc or of the 2-ball, there is at most a finite number of totally geodesic curves with negative self intersection. More generally, we prove that there are only finitely many exceptional totally geodesic divisors in a compact Hermitian locally symmetric …
Let (M,J) be an almost complex manifold. We show that the infinite-dimensional space Tau of totally real submanifolds in M carries a natural connection. This induces a canonical notion of geodesics in Tau and a corresponding definition of when a functional, defined on Tau, is convex. Geodesics in Tau can be expressed in terms of families of J-holomorphic curves in M; we prove a uniqueness result and study their existence. When M is Kähler we define a canonical functional on Tau; it is convex if M has non-positive Ricci curvature. Our construction is formally analogous to the notion of geodesic…
We discover new monotonicity formulae for minimal submanifolds in space forms, which imply the sharp area bound for minimal submanifolds through a prescribed point in a geodesic ball. These monotonicity formulae involve an energy-like integral over sets which are, in general, not geodesic balls. In the Euclidean case, these sets reduce to the moving-centre balls introduced by the second author in [Zhu18].
In hyperbolic space $H^n$ we set a geodesic ball of radius $ρ$. Consider a $k$ dimensional minimal submanifold passing through the origin of the geodesic ball with boundary lies on the boundary of that geodesic ball. We prove that its area is no less than the totally geodesic $k$ dimensional submanifold passing through the origin in that geodesic ball. This is a partial generalization of the corresponding problem in $R^n$.
We consider a variety of geodesic equations on Sobolev diffeomorphism groups, including the equations of ideal hydrodynamics. We prove that solutions of the corresponding two-point boundary value problems are precisely as smooth as their boundary conditions. We further utilise this regularity property to construct continuously differentiable exponential maps in the Frechét setting.
