The mean curvature flow approach to the symplectic isotopy problem

Mean curvature flows and isotopy problems

In this note, we discuss the mean curvature flow of graphs of maps between Riemannian manifolds. Special emphasis will be placed on estimates of the flow as a non-linear parabolic system of differential equations. Several global existence theorems and applications to isotopy problems in geometry and topology will be presented. The results are based on joint works of the author with his collaborators I. Medoš, K. Smoczyk, and M.-P. Tsui.

Mean Curvature Flows and Isotopy of Maps Between Spheres

Let f be a smooth map between unit spheres of possibly different dimensions. We prove the global existence and convergence of the mean curvature flow of the graph of f under various conditions. A corollary is that any area-decreasing map between unit spheres (of possibly different dimensions) is homotopic to a constant map.

Compactness and isotopy finiteness for submanifolds with uniformly bounded geometric curvature energies

In this paper, we establish compactness for various geometric curvature energies including integral Menger curvature, and tangent-point repulsive potentials, defined a priori on the class of compact, embedded $m$-dimensional Lipschitz submanifolds in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$. It turns out that due to a smoothing effect any sequence of submanifolds with uniformly bounded energy contains a subsequence converging in $C^1$ to a limit submanifold. This result has two applications. The first one is an isotopy finiteness theorem: there are only finitely many isotopy types of such submanifolds below a given e…

Total curvature and isotopy of graphs in $R^3$

Knot theory is the study of isotopy classes of embeddings of the circle $S^1$ into a 3-manifold, specifically $R^3$. The Fáry-Milnor Theorem says that any curve in $R^3$ of total curvature less than $4π$ is unknotted. More generally, a (finite) graph consists of a finite number of edges and vertices. Given a topological type of graphs $Γ$, what limitations on the isotopy class of $Γ$ are implied by a bound on total curvature? What does ``total curvature" mean for a graph? We define a natural notion of net total curvature of a graph $Γ$ in $R^3$, and prove that if $Γ$ is homeomorphic to the $θ$…

Concordance and isotopy of metrics with positive scalar curvature, II

In this article, the author provides full details of the proof of the concordance/isotopy problem. The first published proof, [5], accomplished this task only partially since there was an error, see the erratum [6], which damaged the main argument of [5, Theorem 2.9], and, consequently, the proof of [5, Theorem A].

Remarks on symplectic sectional curvature

In [11], I. M. Gelfand, V. Retakh, and M. Shubin defined the symplectic sectional curvature of a torsion-free connection preserving a symplectic form. The present article defines the corresponding notion of constant symplectic sectional curvature and characterizes this notion in terms of the curvature tensor of the symplectic connection and its covariant derivatives. Some relations between various more general conditions on the symplectic sectional curvature and the geometry of the symplectic connection or that induced on a symplectic submanifold are explored as well.

Concordance and isotopy of metrics with positive scalar curvature

Two positive scalar curvature metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ on a manifold $M$ are psc-isotopic if they are homotopic through metrics of positive scalar curvature. It is well known that if two metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ of positive scalar curvature on a closed compact manifold $M$ are psc-isotopic, then they are psc-concordant: i.e., there exists a metric $\bar{g}$ of positive scalar curvature on the cylinder $M\times I$ which extends the metrics $g_0$ on $M\times {0}$ and $g_1$ on $M\times {1}$ and is a product metric near the boundary. The main result of the paper is that if psc-metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ on $M$ …

Symplectic surfaces in a fixed homology class

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the following problem: For a fixed 2-dimensional homology class K in a simply connected symplectic 4-manifold, up to smooth isotopy, how many connected smoothly embedded symplectic submanifolds represent K? We show that when K can be represented by a symplectic torus, there are many instances when K can be representated by infinitely many non-isotopic symplectic tori.

A closed symplectic four-manifold has almost Kaehler metrics of negative scalar curvature

We show that every closed symplectic four-dimensional manifold admits compatible almost Kaehler metrics of negative scalar curvature.

A Curvature Flow Unifying Symplectic Curvature Flow And Pluriclosed Flow

Streets and Tian introduced pluriclosed flow and symplectic curvature flow in recent years. Here we construct a curvature flow to unify these two flows. We show the short time existence of our flow and exhibit an obstruction to long time existence.

局部共形辛流形的乘积

Products of locally conformal symplectic manifolds

该研究构造了两个局部共形辛流形乘积的覆叠空间上的自然LCS结构族，推广了标准辛乘积，证明了C^0-小哈密顿同痕的不动点下界，并构造了拉格朗日子流形的纬垂。

关于辛平均曲率流古代解的伯恩斯坦定理

A Bernstein theorem for ancient solution to symplectic mean curvature flow

本文通过复相位映射，证明了辛平均曲率流古代解的伯恩斯坦定理。

Translating solitons to symplectic and Lagrangian mean curvature flows

In this paper, we construct finite blow-up examples for symplectic mean curvature flows and we study properties of symplectic translating solitons. We prove that, the Kähler angle $α$ of a symplectic translating soliton with $\max |A|=1$ satisfies that $\sup |α|>\fracπ{4}\frac{|T|}{|T|+1}$ where $T$ is the direction in which the surface transltes.

Singularities of symplectic and Lagrangian mean curvature flows

In this paper we study the singularities of the mean curvature flow from a symplectic surface or from a Lagrangian surface in a Kähler-Einstein surface. We prove that the blow-up flow $Σ_s^\infty$ at a singular point $(X_0, T_0)$ of a symplectic mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ or of a Lagrangian mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ is a non trivial minimal surface in ${\bf R}^4$, if $Σ_{-\infty}^\infty$ is connected.

Symplectic mean curvature flows in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures

In this paper, we mainly study the mean curvature flow in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures. We prove that if the ratio of the maximum and the minimum of the holomorphic sectional curvatures is less than 2, then there exists a positive constant $δ$ depending on the ratio such that $\cosα\geqδ$ is preserved along the flow.

Singularities of codimension two mean curvature flow of symplectic surfaces

We prove that for a mean curvature flow of a compact symplectic surface in a compact Kaehler-Einstein surface, the tangent cone at the first blow-up time consists of a finite union of more than two 2-planes in $R^4$ which are complex in a complex structure on $R^4$.

Long time existence of the symplectic mean curvature flow

Let $(M,\bar{g})$ be a Kähler surface with a constant holomorphic sectional curvature $k>0$, and $Σ$ an immersed symplectic surface in $M$. Suppose $Σ$ evolves along the mean curvature flow in $M$. In this paper, we show that the symplectic mean curvature flow exists for long time and converges to a holomorphic curve if the initial surface satisfies $|A|^2\leq 2/3|H|^2+1/2 k$ and $\cosα\geq \frac{\sqrt{30}}{6}$ or $|A|^2\leq 2/3 |H|^2+4/5 k\cosα$ and $\cosα\ge251/265$.

Remarks on symplectic mean curvature flows in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures

In this paper, we mainly study the mean curvature flow in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures. First, we prove that if the ratio $λ$ of the maximum and the minimum of the holomorphic sectional curvatures $< 2$, then there exists a positive constant $δ>\frac{29(λ-1)}{\sqrt{(48-24λ)^{2}+(29λ-29)^{2}}}$ such that $\cosα\geqδ$ is preserved along the flow, improving the main theorem in [LY]; Secondly, as similar as the main theorem in [HL0], we prove that when $\cosα$ is close to $1$ enough, then the symplectic mean curvature flow exists for long time and converges to a h…

同痕类上预定平均曲率泛函极小子的最佳正则性

Optimal regularity for minimizers of the prescribed mean curvature functional over isotopies

本文证明了同痕类上预定平均曲率泛函极小子的最佳 $C^{1,1}$ 正则性，并在标准三维球面中针对特定 $L^{\infty}$ 范数条件下的预定函数找到了具有预定平均曲率的嵌入球面。

Scalar Curvature Functions of Almost-Kähler Metrics

For a closed smooth manifold $M$ admitting a symplectic structure, we define a smooth topological invariant $Z(M)$ using almost-Kähler metrics, i.e. Riemannian metrics compatible with symplectic structures. We also introduce $Z(M, [[ω]])$ depending on symplectic deformation equivalence class $[[ω]]$. We first prove that there exists a 6-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ with more than one deformation equivalence classes with different signs of $Z(M, [[ω]] )$. Using $Z$ invariants, we set up a Kazdan-Warner type problem of classifying symplectic manifolds into three categories. We finally prove t…

Curvature of the space of positive Lagrangians

A Lagrangian submanifold in an almost Calabi-Yau manifold is called positive if the real part of the holomorphic volume form restricted to it is positive. An exact isotopy class of positive Lagrangian submanifolds admits a natural Riemannian metric. We compute the Riemann curvature of this metric and show all sectional curvatures are non-positive. The motivation for our calculation comes from mirror symmetry. Roughly speaking, an exact isotopy class of positive Lagrangians corresponds under mirror symmetry to the space of Hermitian metrics on a holomorphic vector bundle. The latter space is an…

The mean curvature flow along the Kähler-Ricci flow

Let $(M,\overline{g})$ be a Kähler surface, and $Σ$ an immersed surface in $M$. The Kähler angle of $Σ$ in $M$ is introduced by Chern-Wolfson \cite{CW}. Let $(M,\overline{g}(t))$ evolve along the Kähler-Ricci flow, and $Σ_t$ in $(M,\overline{g}(t))$ evolve along the mean curvature flow. We show that the Kähler angle $α(t)$ satisfies the evolution equation: $$ (\frac{\partial}{\partial t}-Δ)\cosα=|\overline\nabla J_{Σ_t}|^2\cosα+R\sin^2α\cosα, $$ where $R$ is the scalar curvature of $(M, \overline{g}(t))$. The equation implies that, if the initial surface is symplectic (Lagrangian), then along …

A finiteness theorem via the mean curvature flow with surgery

In this article, we use the recently developed mean curvature flow with surgery for 2 convex hypersurfaces to prove several isotopy existence and finally extrinsic finiteness results (in the spirit of Cheeger's compactness theorem) for the space of 2 convex hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$.

Uniqueness of optimal symplectic connections

Consider a holomorphic submersion between compact Kähler manifolds, such that each fibre admits a constant scalar curvature Kähler metric. When the fibres admit continuous automorphisms, a choice of fibrewise constant scalar curvature Kähler metric is not unique. An optimal symplectic connection is choice of fibrewise constant scalar curvature Kähler metric satisfying a geometric partial differential equation. The condition generalises the Hermite-Einstein condition for a holomorphic vector bundle, through the induced fibrewise Fubini-Study metric on the associated projectivisation. We prove v…

Symmetric symplectic spaces with Ricci-type curvature

We determine the isomorphism classes of symmetric symplectic manifolds of dimension at least 4 which are connected, simply-connected and have a curvature tensor which has only one non-vanishing irreducible component -- the Ricci tensor.

On the lower bounds of the L^2-norm of the Hermitian scalar curvature

On a pre-quantized symplectic manifold, we show that the symplectic Futaki invariant, which is an obstruction to the existence of constant Hermitian scalar curvature almost-Kähler metrics, is actually an asymptotic invariant. This allows us to deduce a lower bound for the L^2-norm of the Hermitian scalar curvature as obtained by S. Donaldson \cite{Don} in the Kähler case.

拉格朗日与辛平移孤子的刚性定理

Rigidity theorems of Lagrangian and symplectic translating solitons

利用精细点态估计，证明了拉格朗日与辛平移孤子的更优刚性定理。

具有平行辛Weyl曲率的Fedosov流形

Fedosov manifolds with parallel symplectic Weyl curvature

该论文将Roter关于平行Weyl曲率流形的经典定理推广到辛范畴，证明具有平行辛Weyl曲率的Fedosov流形必为局部对称或Weyl平坦。

A note on mean curvature, Maslov class and symplectic area of Lagrangian immersions

In this note we prove a simple relation between the mean curvature form, symplectic area, and the Maslov class of a Lagrangian immersion in a Kähler-Einstein manifold. An immediate consequence is that in Kähler-Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature, minimal Lagrangian immersions are monotone.

Homogeneous and locally homogeneous solutions to symplectic curvature flow

J. Streets and G. Tian recently introduced symplectic curvature flow, a geometric flow on almost Kähler manifolds generalising Kähler-Ricci flow. The present article gives examples of explicit solutions to this flow of non-Kähler structures on several nilmanifolds and on twistor fibrations over hyperbolic space studied by J. Fine and D. Panov. The latter lead to examples of non-Kähler static solutions of symplectic curvature flow which can be seen as analogues of Kähler-Einstein manifolds in Kähler-Ricci flow.

The second type singularity of symplectic and Lagrangian mean curvature flows

In this paper we mainly study the type II singularities of the mean curvature flow from a symplectic surface or from an almost calibrated Lagrangian surface in a K ähler-Einstein surface. We show the relation between the maximum of the Kähler angle and the maximum of $|H|^2$ on the limit flow.

Homogeneous symplectic manifolds with Ricci-type curvature

We consider invariant symplectic connections $\nabla$ on homogeneous symplectic manifolds $(M,ω)$ with curvature of Ricci type. Such connections are solutions of a variational problem studied by Bourgeois and Cahen, and provide an integrable almost complex structure on the bundle of almost complex structures compatible with the symplectic structure. If $M$ is compact with finite fundamental group then $(M,ω)$ is symplectomorphic to $¶_n(\C)$ with a multiple of its Kähler form and $\nabla$ is affinely equivalent to the Levi-Civita connection.

四维辛曲率流的静态解

Static solutions to symplectic curvature flow in dimension four

该研究针对四维辛曲率流，推导静态解的全纯数据局部正规形并证明完备静态解为凯勒-爱因斯坦度量，同时通过外微分系统分析与嘉当-凯勒定理证明孤子的局部存在性与一般性。

Symplectic curvature flow

We introduce a parabolic flow of almost Kahler structures, providing an approach to constructing canonical geometric structures on symplectic manifolds. We exhibit this flow as one of a family of parabolic flows of almost Hermitian structures, generalizing our previous work on parabolic flows of Hermitian metrics. We exhibit a long time existence obstruction for solutions to this flow by showing certain smoothing estimates for the curvature and torsion. We end with a discussion of the limiting objects as well as some open problems related to the symplectic curvature flow.

$h$-Principle for Curves with Prescribed Curvature

We prove that every immersed $C^2$-curve $γ$ in $\mathbb R^n$, $n\geqslant 3$ with curvature $k_γ$ can be $C^1$-approximated by immersed $C^2$-curves having prescribed curvature $k>k_γ$. The approximating curves satisfy a $C^1$-dense $h$-principle. As an application we obtain the existence of $C^2$-knots of arbitrary positive curvature in each isotopy class, which generalizes a similar result by McAtee for $C^2$-knots of constant curvature.

Mean Curvature Flow of Surfaces in Einstein Four-Manifolds

Let Σbe a compact oriented surface immersed in a four dimensional Kähler-Einstein manifold M. We consider the evolution of Σin the direction of its mean curvature vector. It is proved that being symplectic is preserved along the flow and the flow does not develop type I singularity. When M has two parallel Kähler forms ω' and ω'' that determine different orientations andΣis symplectic with respect to both ω' and ω'', we prove the mean curvature flow of Σexists smoothly for all time. In the positive curvature case, the flow indeed converges at infinity.

Symplectic curvature flow revisited

We continue studying a parabolic flow of almost Kähler structures introduced by Streets and Tian which naturally extends Kähler-Ricci flow onto symplectic manifolds. In the system of primarily the symplectic form, almost complex structure, Chern torsion and Chern connection, we establish new formulas for the evolutions of canonical quantities, in particular those related to the Chern connection. Using this, we give an extended characterization of fixed points of the flow originally performed by Streets and Tian.

Finite Time Singularities for Lagrangian Mean Curvature Flow

Given any embedded Lagrangian on a four dimensional compact Calabi-Yau, we find another Lagrangian in the same Hamiltonian isotopy class which develops a finite time singularity under mean curvature flow. This contradicts a weaker version of the Thomas-Yau conjecture regarding long time existence and convergence of Lagrangian mean curvature flow.

Structure of the curvature tensor on symplectic spinors

We study symplectic manifolds $(M^{2l},ω)$ equipped with a symplectic torsion-free affine (also called Fedosov) connection $\nabla$ and admitting a metaplectic structure. Let $\mathcal{S}$ be the so called symplectic spinor bundle and let $R^S$ be the curvature tensor field of the symplectic spinor covariant derivative $\nabla^S$ associated to the Fedosov connection $\nabla.$ It is known that the space of symplectic spinor valued exterior differential 2-forms, $Γ(M,\bigwedge^2T^*M\otimes {\mathcal{S}}),$ decomposes into three invariant spaces with respect to the structure group, which is the m…

Lagrangian spheres in Del Pezzo surfaces

Lagrangian spheres in the symplectic Del Pezzo surfaces arising as blow-ups of the complex projective plane in 4 or fewer points are classified up to Lagrangian isotopy. Unlike the case of the 5-point blow-up, there is no Lagrangian knotting.

Supermanifolds, symplectic geometry and curvature

We present a survey of some results and questions related to the notion of scalar curvature in the setting of symplectic supermanifolds.

Symplectic monodromy, quasi-homogeneous polynomials and spectral flow

We encode the variation structure of a quasihomogeneous polynomial with an isolated singularity as introduced by Nemethi in a set of spectral flows of the signature operator on the Milnor bundle by varying global elliptic boundary conditions in a specific way using the quasihomogeneous circle action on the Brieskorn lattice. For this, we use adiabatic techniques and well-known results on spectral flow and Maslov index. Furthermore we interpret the inequality of a certain member of this family of spectral flows with a spectral flow induced by a Reeb flow on the boundary of the Milnor fibre as g…

pluriclosed流的导数估计

Derivative estimates of pluriclosed flow

本文为pluriclosed流提供导数估计，控制高阶导数，并在二维及Hermitian-symplectic情形下导出挠率估计和单调量，证明所有Hermitian-symplectic孤子为Kähler Ricci孤子。

On the symplectic curvature flow for locally homogeneous manifolds

Recently, J. Streets and G. Tian introduced a natural way to evolve an almost-Kähler manifold called the symplectic curvature flow, in which the metric, the symplectic structure and the almost-complex structure are all evolving. We study in this paper different aspects of the flow on locally homogeneous manifolds, including long-time existence, solitons, regularity and convergence. We develop in detail two classes of Lie groups, which are relatively simple from a structural point of view but yet geometrically rich and exotic: solvable Lie groups with a codimension one abelian normal subgroup a…

Hamiltonian mean curvature flow

Let (Σ, ω) be a compact Riemann surface with constant curvature c. In this work, we proved that the mean curvature flow of a given Hamiltonian diffeomorphism on Σ provides a smooth path in Ham(Σ), the group of all Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of Σ. This result gives a proof, in the case of graph of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms to the conjecture of Thomas and Yau asserting that the mean curvature flow of a compact embedded Lagrangian submanifold S with zero Maslov class in a Calabi- Yau manifolds M exists for all time and converges smoothly to a special Lagrangian submanifold in the Hamiltonian i…

Invariants of Lagrangian surfaces

We define a nonnegative integer $\la(L,L_0;ϕ)$ for a pair of diffeomorphic closed Lagrangian surfaces $L_0,L$ embedded in a symplectic 4-manifold $(M,\w)$ and a diffeomorphism $ϕ\in\Diff^+(M)$ satisfying $ϕ(L_0)=L$. We prove that if there exists $ϕ\in\Diff^+_o(M)$ with $ϕ(L_0)=L$ and $\la(L,L_0;ϕ)=0$, then $L_0,L$ are symplectomorphic. We also define a second invariant $n(L_1,L_0;[L_t])=n(L_1,L_0,[ϕ_t])$ for a smooth isotopy $L_t=ϕ_t(L_0)$ between two Lagrangian surfaces $L_0$ and $L_1$ with $\la (L_1,L_0;ϕ_1)=0$, which serves as an obstruction of deforming $L_t$ to a Lagrangian isotopy with $…

Generalized Lagrangian mean curvature flows in symplectic manifolds

An almost Kähler structure on a symplectic manifold $(N, ω)$ consists of a Riemannian metric $g$ and an almost complex structure $J$ such that the symplectic form $ω$ satisfies $ω(\cdot, \cdot)=g(J(\cdot), \cdot)$. Any symplectic manifold admits an almost Kähler structure and we refer to $(N, ω, g, J)$ as an almost Kähler manifold. In this article, we propose a natural evolution equation to investigate the deformation of Lagrangian submanifolds in almost Kähler manifolds. A metric and complex connection $\hn$ on $TN$ defines a generalized mean curvature vector field along any Lagrangian subman…

Fedosov几何中的维度曲率恒等式

Dimensional curvature identities in Fedosov geometry

本文研究Fedosov几何中辛联络曲率张量及其协变导数满足的恒等式，利用自然运算理论和辛群不变理论，刻画了任意维数和偶数指标下p-协变曲率恒等式的第一个空间。

具有正迷向曲率的紧流形的分类

Classification of compact manifolds with positive isotropic curvature

该研究针对维数不小于12的正迷向曲率紧流形，运用紧轨形上带手术的Ricci flow等方法完成分类，推广并改进了前人相关结果。

超流形上的辛标量曲率

Symplectic scalar curvature on supermanifolds

本文在 Fedosov 流形上的超流形中研究辛标量曲率，提出两族奇超 Fedosov 结构，并证明分次非对称联络可产生非平凡曲率，以环面为例给出具体计算。

Curvature of scalar-flat Kahler metrics on non-compact symplectic toric 4-manifolds

In this paper, we show that the complete scalar-flat Kahler metrics constructed by Abreu and the author on strictly unbounded toric 4-dimensional orbifolds have finite $L^2$ norm of the full Riemannian tensor. In particular, this answers a question of Donaldon's on the corresponding Generalized Taub-NUT metric on $R^4$. This norm is explicitly determined when the underlying toric manifold is the minimal resolution of a cyclic singularity. In the Ricci-flat case corresponding to gravitational instantons, this recovers a recent result of Atiyah-Lebrun.

关于 Jacobi 曲线及其共形曲率的分类

On the classification of Jacobi curves and their conformal curvatures

本文研究辛空间中 Jacobi 曲线的分类问题，提出用共形辛不变曲率族和约化正规 Cartan 矩阵完整刻画可容许 Jacobi 曲线，并证明 cycle 对应平坦 Jacobi 曲线。

Special Lagrangians, Lagrangian mean curvature flow and the Gibbons-Hawking ansatz

The Gibbons-Hawking ansatz provides a large family of circle-invariant hyperkaehler 4-manifolds, and thus Calabi-Yau 2-folds. In this setting, we prove versions of the Thomas conjecture on existence of special Lagrangian representatives of Hamiltonian isotopy classes of Lagrangians, and the Thomas-Yau conjecture on long-time existence of the Lagrangian mean curvature flow. We also make observations concerning closed geodesics, curve shortening flow and minimal surfaces.

Symplectic fillings and positive scalar curvature

Let X be a 4-manifold with contact boundary. We prove that the monopole invariants of X introduced by Kronheimer and Mrowka vanish under the following assumptions: (i) a connected component of the boundary of X carries a metric with positive scalar curvature and (ii) either b_2^+(X)>0 or the boundary of X is disconnected. As an application we show that the Poincare homology 3-sphere, oriented as the boundary of the positive E_8 plumbing, does not carry symplectically semi-fillable contact structures. This proves, in particular, a conjecture of Gompf, and provides the first example of a 3-manif…