In this paper we study the Ricci flow on compact four-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature and with no essential incompressible space form. Our purpose is two-fold. One is to give a complete proof of Hamilton's classification theorem on four-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature and with no essential incompressible space form; the other is to extend some recent results of Perelman on the three-dimensional Ricci flow to four-manifolds. During the the proof we have actually provided, up to slight modifications, all necessary details for the part from Section 1 to Section 5 of Perelman's second paper on the Ricci flow.
We introduce singular Ricci flows, which are Ricci flow spacetimes subject to certain asymptotic conditions. We consider the behavior of Ricci flow with surgery starting from a fixed initial compact Riemannian 3-manifold, as the surgery parameter varies. We prove that the flow with surgery subconverges to a singular Ricci flow as the surgery parameter tends to zero. We establish a number of geometric and analytical properties of singular Ricci flows.
This is a technical paper, which is a continuation of math.DG/0211159. Here we construct Ricci flow with surgeries and verify most of the assertions, made in section 13 of that e-print; the exceptions are (1) the statement that manifolds that can collapse with local lower bound on sectional curvature are graph manifolds - this is deferred to a separate paper, since the proof has nothing to do with the Ricci flow, and (2) the claim on the lower bound for the volume of maximal horns and the smoothness of solutions from some time on, which turned out to be unjustified and, on the other hand, irre…
In this paper, we construct smooth forward Ricci flow evolutions of singular initial metrics resulting from rotationally symmetric neckpinches on S^(n+1), without performing an intervening surgery. In the restrictive context of rotational symmetry, this construction gives evidence in favor of Perelman's hope for a "canonically defined Ricci flow through singularities".
We study the formation of finite time singularities of the Kahler-Ricci flow in relation to high codimensional birational surgery in algebraic geometry. We show that the Kahler-Ricci flow on an n-dimensionl Kahler manifold contracts a complex submanifold $\mathbb{P}^m$ with normal bundle $\oplus_{j=1}^{n-m}\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^m}(-a_j)$ for $a_j\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ and $\sum_{j=1}^{n-m} a_j \leq m$ in Gromov-Hausdorff topology with suitable initial Kahler class. We also show that the Kahler-Ricci flow resolves a family of isolated singularities uniquely in Gromov-Hausdorff topology. In particul…
We construct a rotationally invariant Ricci flow through surgery starting at any closed rotationally invariant Riemannian manifold. We demonstrate that a sequence of such Ricci flows with surgery converges to a Ricci flow spacetime in the sense of [32]. Results of Bamler-Kleiner [8] and Haslhofer [29] then guarantee the uniqueness and stability of these spacetimes given initial data. We simplify aspects of this proof in our setting, and show that for rotationally invariant Ricci flows, the closeness of spacetimes can be measured by equivariant comparison maps. Finally we show that the blowup r…
We present a new curvature condition which is preserved by the Ricci flow in higher dimensions. For initial metrics satisfying this condition, we establish a higher dimensional version of Hamilton's neck-like curvature pinching estimate. Using this estimate, we are able to prove a version of Perelman's Canonical Neighborhood Theorem in higher dimensions. This makes it possible to extend the flow beyond singularities by a surgery procedure in the spirit of Hamilton and Perelman. As a corollary, we obtain a classification of all diffeomorphism types of such manifolds in terms of a connected sum …
We apply an equivariant version of Perelman's Ricci flow with surgery to study smooth actions by finite groups on closed 3-manifolds. Our main result is that such actions on elliptic and hyperbolic 3-manifolds are conjugate to isometric actions. Combining our results with results by Meeks and Scott [17], it follows that such actions on geometric 3-manifolds (in the sense of Thurston) are always geometric, i.e. there exist invariant locally homogeneous Riemannian metrics. This answers a question posed by Thurston in [32].
We decribe and announce some results (joint with G. Besson, L. Bessieres, M. Boileau and J.Porti) about the geometry and topology of 3-manifolds. Most of the article is primarily intended as an introduction for nonexperts to geometrization of 3-manifolds, Ricci flow with surgery, and the simplicial volume approach to collapsing theorems. In the last section, Ricci flow with surgery on open 3-manifolds and obstructions to positive scalar curvature are discussed.
Hamilton's Ricci flow (RF) equations were recently expressed in terms of a sparsely-coupled system of autonomous first-order nonlinear differential equations for the edge lengths of a d-dimensional piecewise linear (PL) simplicial geometry. More recently, this system of discrete Ricci flow (DRF) equations was further simplified by explicitly constructing the Forman-Ricci tensor associated to each edge, thereby diagonalizing the first-order differential operator and avoiding the need to invert large sparse matrices at each time step. We recently showed analytically and numerically that these eq…
We show that every $n$-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, noncompact, complete ancient solution to the Ricci flow with uniformly PIC for $n=4$ or $n\ge 12$ has weakly PIC$_2$ and bounded curvature. Combining this with earlier results, we prove that any such solution is isometric to either a family of shrinking cylinders (or a quotient thereof) or the Bryant soliton. Also, we classify all complex 2-dimensional, $κ$-noncollapsed, complete ancient solutions to the Kähler Ricci flow with weakly PIC.
We show that in dimensions $n \geq 12$, a non-flat complete gradient shrinking solitons with uniformly positive isotropic curvature (PIC) must be a quotient of either the round sphere $S^n$ or the cylinder $S^{n-1} \times \mathbb{R}$. We also observe that in dimensions $n \geq 5$, a complete gradient shrinking soliton that is strictly PIC and weakly PIC2 must be a quotient of either the round sphere $S^n$ or the cylinder $S^{n-1} \times \mathbb{R}$.
In this note we prove the following result: Let $X$ be a complete, connected 4-manifold with uniformly positive isotropic curvature, with bounded geometry and with no essential incompressible space form. Then $X$ is diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^4$, or $\mathbb{RP}^4$, or $\mathbb{S}^3\times \mathbb{S}^1$, or $\mathbb{S}^3\widetilde{\times} \mathbb{S}^1$, or a possibly infinite connected sum of them. This extends work of Hamilton and Chen-Zhu to the noncompact case. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery on complete 4-manifolds, and is inspired by recent work of Bessi$\grave{e}$res, Besson and …
We study the Ricci flow for initial metrics with positive isotropic curvature (strictly PIC for short). In the first part of this paper, we prove new curvature pinching estimates which ensure that blow-up limits are uniformly PIC in all dimensions. Moreover, in dimension $n \geq 12$, we show that blow-up limits are weakly PIC2. This can be viewed as a higher-dimensional version of the fundamental Hamilton-Ivey pinching estimate in dimension $3$. In the second part, we develop a theory of ancient solutions which have bounded curvature; are $κ$-noncollapsed; are weakly PIC2; and are uniformly PI…
In this paper, the concept of isotropic projective Ricci curvature has been investigated. By classification of Randers metric of isotropic projective Ricci curvature, it is shown that Randers metric of projective Ricci curvature is reversible if and only if it is of square projective Ricci curvature.
In this paper, we introduce the weighted projective Ricci curvature as an extension of projective Ricci curvature introduced by Z. Shen. We characterize the class of Randers metrics of weighted projective Ricci flat curvature. We find the necessary and sufficient condition under which a Kropina metric has weighted projective Ricci flat curvature. Finally, we show that every projectively flat metric with isotropic weighted projective Ricci and isotropic S-curvature is a Kropina metric or Randers metric.
These are detailed notes on Perelman's papers "The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications" and "Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds".
Let M be a closed oriented three-manifold, whose prime decomposition contains no aspherical factors. We show that for any initial riemannian metric on M the solution to the Ricci flow with surgery, defined in our previous paper math.DG/0303109, becomes extinct in finite time. The proof uses a version of the minimal disk argument from 1999 paper by Richard Hamilton, and a regularization of the curve shortening flow, worked out by Altschuler and Grayson.
We describe the local structure of self-dual gradient Ricci solitons in neutral signature. If the Ricci soliton is non-isotropic then it is locally conformally flat and locally isometric to a warped product of the form $I\times_φN(c)$, where $N(c)$ is a space of constant curvature. If the Ricci soliton is isotropic, then it is locally isometric to the cotangent bundle of an affine surface equipped with the Riemannian extension of the connection, and the Ricci soliton is described by the underlying affine structure. This provides examples of self-dual gradient Ricci solitons which are not local…
Let ${\bf M}$ be a compact Riemannian manifold and the metrics $g=g(t)$ evolve by the Ricci flow. We prove the following result. The Sobolev imbedding by Aubin or Hebey, perturbed by a scalar curvature term and modulo sharpness of constants, holds uniformly for $({\bf M}, g(t))$ for all time if the Ricci flow exists for all time; and if the Ricci flow develops a singularity in finite time, then the same Sobolev imbedding holds uniformly after a standard normalization. As a consequence, long time non-collapsing results are derived, which improve Perelman's local non-collapsing results. An appli…
This is the first of a series of papers on the long-time behavior of 3 dimensional Ricci flows with surgery. In this paper we first fix a notion of Ricci flows with surgery, which will be used in this and the following three papers. Then we review Perelman's long-time estimates and generalize them to the case in which the underlying manifold is allowed to have a boundary. Eventually, making use of Perelman's techniques, we prove new long-time estimates, which hold whenever the metric is sufficiently collapsed.
We show that an orientable 3-dimensional manifold M admits a complete riemannian metric of bounded geometry and uniformly pos- itive scalar curvature if and only if there exists a finite collection F of spherical space-forms such that M is a (possibly infinite) connected sum where each summand is diffeomorphic to S2xS1 or to some mem- ber of F. This result generalises G. Perelman's classification theorem for compact 3-manifolds of positive scalar curvature. The main tool is a variant of Perelman's surgery construction for Ricci flow.
We study a positivity condition for the curvature of oriented Riemannian 4-manifolds: The half-$PIC$ condition. It is a slight weakening of the positive isotropic curvature ($PIC$) condition introduced by M. Micallef and J. Moore. We observe that the half-$PIC$ condition is preserved by the Ricci flow and satisfies a maximality property among all Ricci flow invariant positivity conditions on the curvature of oriented 4-manifolds. We also study some geometric and topological aspects of half-$PIC$ manifolds.
The main result of this paper is that a Lorentzian manifold is locally conformally equivalent to a manifold with recurrent lightlike vector field and totally isotropic Ricci tensor if and only if its conformal tractor holonomy admits a 2-dimensional totally isotropic invariant subspace. Furthermore, for semi-Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary signature we prove that the conformal holonomy algebra of a $C$-space is a Berger algebra. For Ricci-flat spaces we show how the conformal holonomy can be obtained by the holonomy of the ambient metric and get results for Riemannian manifolds and plane wav…
We prove a uniform Sobolev inequality for Ricci flow, which is independent of the number of surgeries. As an application, under less assumptions, a non-collapsing result stronger than Perelman's $κ$ non-collapsing with surgery is derived. The proof is shorter and seems more accessible. The result also improves some earlier ones where the Sobolev inequality depended on the number of surgeries.
On a smooth metric measure spacetime $(M,g,e^{-f} dvol_g)$, we define a weighted Einstein tensor. It is given in terms of the Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor as a tensor which is symmetric, divergence-free, concomitant of the metric and the density function. We consider the associated vacuum weighted Einstein field equations and show that isotropic solutions have nilpotent Ricci operator. Moreover, the underlying manifold is a Brinkmann wave if it is $2$-step nilpotent and a Kundt spacetime if it is $3$-step nilpotent. More specific results are obtained in dimension $3$, where all isotropic solutions…
Let (M,g) be a steady gradient Ricci soliton of dimension n \geq 4 which has positive sectional curvature and is asymptotically cylindrical. Under these assumptions, we show that (M,g) is rotationally symmetric. In particular, our result applies to steady gradient Ricci solitons in dimension 4 which are κ-noncollapsed and have positive isotropic curvature.
In this second part of a series of papers on the long-time behavior of Ricci flows with surgery, we establish a bound on the evolution of the infimal area of simplicial complexes inside a 3-manifold under the Ricci flow. This estimate generalizes an area estimate of Hamilton, which we will recall in the first part of the paper. We remark that in this paper we will mostly be dealing with non-singular Ricci flows. The existence of surgeries will not play an important role.
This paper concerns conditions related to the first finite singularity time of a Ricci flow solution on a closed manifold. In particular, we provide a systematic approach to the mean value inequality method, suggested by N. Le and F. He. We also display a close connection between this method and time slice analysis of B. Wang. As an application, we prove several inequalities for a Ricci flow solution on a manifold with nonnegative isotropic curvature.
Weighted Ricci curvatures with various weights of the S-curvature have played an important role in Finsler geometry, especially in the control of volumes of Finsler manifolds. In this paper, we study general weighted Ricci curvatures, and characterize Randers metrics of almost isotropic weighted Ricci curvatures.
We show that a four-dimensional complete gradient shrinking Ricci soliton with positive isotropic curvature is either a quotient of S^4 or a quotient of S^3 cross R. This gives a clean classification result removing the earlier additional assumptions in [13] by Wallach and the second author.
In the third part of this series of papers, we establish several topological results that will become important for studying the long-time behavior of Ricci flows with surgery. In the first part of this paper we recall some elementary observations in the topology of 3-manifolds. The main part is devoted to the construction of certain simplicial complexes in a given 3-manifold that exhibit useful intersection properties with embedded, incompressible solid tori. This paper is purely topological in nature and Ricci flows will not be used.
We verify a conjecture of Perelman, which states that there exists a canonical Ricci flow through singularities starting from an arbitrary compact Riemannian 3-manifold. Our main result is a uniqueness theorem for such flows, which, together with an earlier existence theorem of Lott and the second named author, implies Perelman's conjecture. We also show that this flow through singularities depends continuously on its initial condition and that it may be obtained as a limit of Ricci flows with surgery. Our results have applications to the study of diffeomorphism groups of three manifolds --- i…
In the following series of papers we analyze the long-time behavior of 3 dimensional Ricci flows with surgery. Our main result will be that if the surgeries are performed correctly, then only finitely many surgeries occur and after some time the curvature is bounded by $C t^{-1}$. This result confirms a conjecture of Perelman. In the course of the proof, we also obtain a qualitative description of the geometry as $t \to \infty$.
This is the fourth and last part of a series of papers on the long-time behavior of 3 dimensional Ricci flows with surgery. In this paper, we prove our main two results. The first result states that if the surgeries are performed correctly, then the flow becomes non-singular eventually and the curvature is bounded by $C t^{-1}$. The second result provides a qualitative description of the geometry as $t \to \infty$.
Geometrical flows (GF) play an important role in modern mathematics and physics. In this letter we have considered some integrable isotropic GF -- Ricci flows (RF) and mean curvature flows (MCF) -- which are related with integrable Heisenberg ferromagnets. In 2+1 dimensions, these GF have a singularity at $t=t_{0}$.
In this paper we analyze the long-time behaviour of 3 dimensional Ricci flow with surgery. We prove that under the topological condition that the initial manifold only has non-aspherical or hyperbolic components in its geometric decomposition, there are only finitely many surgeries and the curvature is bounded by $C t^{-1}$ for large $t$. This answers an open question in Perelman's work, which was made more precise by Lott and Tian, for this class of initial topologies. More general classes will be discussed in subsequent papers using similar methods.
The paper provides a different proof of the result of Brendle-Schoen on the differential sphere theorem. It is shown directly that the invariant cone of curvature operators with positive (or non-negative) complex sectional curvature is preserved by the Ricci flow. This implies, by a result of Böhm-Wilking, that the normalized Ricci flow deforms such a metric to a metric of constant positive curvature. Using earlier work of Yau and Zheng it can be shown that a metric with strictly (pointwise) 1/4-pinched sectional curvature has positive complex sectional curvature. This gives a direct proof of …
The Ricci flow is an evolution system on metrics. For a given metric as initial data, its local existence and uniqueness on compact manifolds was first established by Hamilton \cite{Ha1}. Later on, De Turck \cite{De} gave a simplified proof. In the later of 80's, Shi \cite{Sh1} generalized the local existence result to complete noncompact manifolds. However, the uniqueness of the solutions to the Ricci flow on complete noncompact manifolds is still an open question. Recently it was found that the uniqueness of the Ricci flow on complete noncompact manifolds is important in the theory of the Ri…
In [10], R. Hamilton established a differential Harnack inequality for solutions to the Ricci flow with nonnegative curvature operator. We show that this inequality holds under the weaker condition that M x R^2 has nonnegative isotropic curvature.
We prove that the moduli space of complete Riemannian metrics of bounded geometry and uniformly positive scalar curvature on an orientable 3-manifold is path-connected. This generalizes the main result of the fourth author [Mar12] in the compact case. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery as well as arguments involving performing infinite connected sums with control on the geometry.
We prove that Ricci flows with almost maximal extinction time must be nearly round, provided that they have positive isotropic curvature when crossed with $\mathbb{R}^{2}$. As an application, we show that positively curved metrics on $S^{3}$ and $RP^{3}$ with almost maximal width must be nearly round.
