In this paper we will perturb the scalar curvature of compact Kahler manifolds by incorporating it with higher Chern forms, and then show that the perturbed scalar curvature has many common properties with the unperturbed scalar curvature. In particular the perturbed scalar curvature becomes a moment map, with respect to a perturbed symplectic structure, on the space of all complex structures on a fixed symplectic manifold, which extends the results of Donaldson and Fujiki on the unperturbed case.
We consider the primitive decomposition of $\bar \partial, \partial$, Bott-Chern and Aeppli-harmonic $(k,k)$-forms on compact almost Kähler manifolds $(M,J,ω)$. For any $D \in \{\bar\partial, \partial, BC, A\}$, we prove that the $L^k P^0$ component of $ψ\in \mathcal{H}_{D}^{k,k}$, is a constant multiple of $ω^k$. Focusing on dimension 8, we give a full description of the spaces $\mathcal{H}_{BC}^{2,2}$ and $\mathcal{H}_{A}^{2,2}$, from which follows $\mathcal{H}^{2,2}_{BC}\subseteq\mathcal{H}^{2,2}_{\partial}$ and $\mathcal{H}^{2,2}_{A}\subseteq\mathcal{H}^{2,2}_{\bar\partial}$. We also provi…
Let $(X,J,ω)$ be a compact $2n$-dimensional almost Kähler manifold. We prove primitive decompositions for Bott-Chern and Aeppli harmonic forms in special bidegrees and show that such bidegrees are optimal. We also show how the spaces of primitive Bott-Chern, Aeppli, Dolbeault and $\partial$-harmonic forms on $(X,J,ω)$ are related.
We show a relationship between Chern-Simons 1- and 3-forms and harmonic forms on a principal bundle. Doing so requires one to consider an adiabatic limit. For the 3-form case, assume that G is simple and the corresponding Chern-Weil 4-form is exact. Then, the Chern-Simons 3-form on the princpal bundle G-bundle, minus a canonical term from the base, is harmonic in the adiabatic limit.
We introduce the notions of Chern-Dirac bundles and Chern-Dirac operators on Hermitian manifolds. They are analogues of classical Dirac bundles and Dirac operators, with Levi-Civita connection replaced by Chern connection. We then show that the tensor product of canonical and the anticanonical spinor bundles, called V-spinor bundle, is a bigraded Chern-Dirac bundle with spaces of harmonic spinors isomorphic to the full Dolbeault cohomology class. A similar construction establishes isomorphisms between other types of harmonic spinors and Bott-Chern, Aeppli and twisted cohomology.
We prove that on a compact almost Hermitian 4-manifold the space of $\bar\partial$-harmonic $(1,1)$-forms always has dimension $h_{\bar\partial}^{1,1} = b_- +1$ or $b_-$, whilst the space of Bott-Chern harmonic $(1,1)$-forms always has dimension $h_{BC}^{1,1} = b_- +1$. We also perform calculations of $h^{2,1}_{BC}$ and $h^{1,2}_{BC}$ on the Kodaira-Thurston manifold, thereby providing a full account of when $h^{p,q}_{BC}$ is or is not invariant of the choice of almost Hermitian metric. Finally, we introduce a decomposition of the space of $L^2$ functions on all torus bundles over $S^1$, which…
A version of smooth K-theory is constructed, which is adapted to the total Chern class instead of the Chern character (contrarily to previous theories). Some total Chern class morphism from this K-theory to Cheeger-Simons differential characters is constructed. This answers a question raised by U. Bunke.
Let $(M,J,g,ω)$ be a $2n$-dimensional almost Hermitian manifold. We extend the definition of the Bott-Chern Laplacian on $(M,J,g,ω)$, proving that it is still elliptic. On a compact Kähler manifold, the kernels of the Dolbeault Laplacian and of the Bott-Chern Laplacian coincide. We show that such a property does not hold when $(M,J,g,ω)$ is a compact almost Kähler manifold, providing an explicit almost Kähler structure on the Kodaira-Thurston manifold. Furthermore, if $(M,J,g,ω)$ is a connected compact almost Hermitian $4$-manifold, denoting by $h^{1,1}_{BC}$ the dimension of the space of Bott…
We provide an integral formula for the Maslov index of a pair $(E,F)$ over a surface $Σ$, where $E\rightarrowΣ$ is a complex vector bundle and $F\subset E_{|\partialΣ}$ is a totally real subbundle. As in Chern-Weil theory, this formula is written in terms of the curvature of $E$ plus a boundary contribution. When $(E,F)$ is obtained via an immersion of $(Σ,\partialΣ)$ into a pair $(M,L)$ where $M$ is Kähler and $L$ is totally real, the formula allows us to control the Maslov index in terms of the geometry of $(M,L)$. We exhibit natural conditions on $(M,L)$ which lead to bounds and monotonicit…
Under suitable conditions, we show that the Euler characteristic of a foliated Riemannian manifold can be computed only from curvature invariants which are transverse to the leaves. Our proof uses the hypoelliptic sub-Laplacian on forms recently introduced by two of the authors.
We consider several differential operators on compact almost-complex, almost-Hermitian and almost-Kähler manifolds. We discuss Hodge Theory for these operators and a possible cohomological interpretation. We compare the associated spaces of harmonic forms and cohomologies with the classical de Rham, Dolbeault, Bott-Chern and Aeppli cohomologies.
In this note, we show that for a closed almost-Kähler manifold $(X,J)$ with the almost complex structure $J$ satisfies $\dim\ker P_{J}=b_{2}-1$ the space of de Rham harmonic forms is contained in the space of symplectic-Bott-Chern harmonic forms. In particular, suppose that $X$ is four-dimension, if the self-dual Betti number $b^{+}_{2}=1$, then we prove that the second non-HLC degree measures the gap between the de Rham and the symplectic-Bott-Chern harmonic forms.
Let $(M,J,g,ω)$ be a Kähler manifold. We prove a $W^{1,2}$ weak Bott-Chern decomposition and a $W^{1,2}$ weak Dolbeault decomposition, following the $L^2$ weak Kodaira decomposition on Riemannian manifolds. Moreover, if the Kähler metric is complete and the sectional curvature is bounded, the $W^{1,2}$ Bott-Chern decomposition is strictly related to the space of $W^{1,2}$ Bott-Chern harmonic forms, i.e., $W^{1,2}$ smooth differential forms which are in the kernel of an elliptic differential operator of order $4$, called Bott-Chern Laplacian. We also generalize to the non compact case the well …
We show that Chern-Weil theory for tensor bundles over manifolds is a consequence of the existence of natural closed differential forms on total spaces of torsion free connections on frame bundles.
On a Hermitian manifold we construct a symmetric $(1,1)$- tensor $H$ using the torsion and the curvature of the Chern connection. On a compact balanced Hermitian manifold we find necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of the tensor $H$ for a harmonic $1$-form to be analytic and for an analytic $1$-form to be harmonic. We prove that if $H$ is positive definite then the first Betti number $b_1 = 0$ and the Hodge number $h^{1,0} = 0$. We obtain an obstruction to the existence of Killing vector fields in terms of the Ricci tensor of the Chern connection: if the Chern form of the Chern connec…
In this paper we introduce higher extremal Kahler metrics. We provide an example of the same on a minimal ruled surface. We also prove a perturbation result that implies that there are non-trivial examples of higher constant scalar curvature metrics, which are basically metrics where the top Chern form is harmonic. We also give a relatively short proof of a formula due to Liu for the Bando-Futaki invariants (which are obstructions for the existence of harmonic Chern forms) of hypersurfaces in projective space.
Embedded minimal surfaces of finite total curvature in $\mathbb{R}^3$ are reasonably well understood: From far away, they look like intersecting catenoids and planes, suitably desingularized. We consider the larger class of harmonic embeddings in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ of compact Riemann surfaces with finitely many punctures where the harmonic coordinate functions are given as real parts of meromorphic functions. This paper is motivated by two outstanding features of such surfaces: They can have highly complicated ends, and they still have total Gauss curvature being a multiple of $2π$. This poses t…
We give explicit harmonic representatives of Dolbeault cohomology of Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds and show that they are geometrically Dolbeault formal. We also give explicit harmonic representatives of Bott-Chern cohomology of Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds of type $(s,1)$ and study the Angella-Tomassini inequality.
On a compact n-dimensional manifold, it has been conjectured that a critical point metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unit volume, will be Einstein. This conjecture was proposed in 1984 by Besse, but has yet to be proved. In this paper, we prove that if the manifold with the critical point metric has harmonic curvature, then it is isometric to a standard sphere.
It is known that Hirzebruch surfaces of non zero degree do not admit any constant scalar curvature Kähler metric \cite{ACGT,G,M17}. In this note, we describe how to construct Hermitian metrics of positive constant Chern scalar curvature on Hirzebruch surfaces using Page--Bérard-Bergery's ansatz \cite{P78,B82}. We also construct the interesting case of Hermitian metrics of zero Chern scalar curvature on some ruled surfaces. Furthermore, we discuss the problem of the existence in a conformal class of critical metrics of the total Chern scalar curvature, studied by Gauduchon in \cite{G80,G84}.
Let $H^p(L^2(M))$ be the space of all $L^2$-harmonic $p$-forms $(2\leq p\leq n-2)$ on complete submanifolds $M$ with flat normal bundle in spheres. In this paper, we first show that $H^p(L^2(M))$ is trivial if the total curvature of $M$ is less than a positive constant depending only on $n$. Second, we show that the dimension of $H^p(L^2(M))$ is finite if the total curvature of $M$ is finite. The vanishing theorem is a generalized version of Gan-Zhu-Fang theorem and the finiteness theorem is an extension of Zhu-Fang theorem.
The authors showed in a preceding paper that in a connected locally harmonic manifold, the volume of a tube of small radius about a regularly parameterized simple arc depends only on the length of the arc and the radius. In this paper, we show that this property characterizes harmonic manifolds even if it is assumed only for tubes about geodesic segments. As a consequence, we obtain similar characterizations of harmonic manifolds in terms of the total mean curvature and the total scalar curvature of tubular hypersurfaces about curves. We find simple formulae expressing the volume, total mean c…
Let $x:M^m\to \bar M$, with $m\geq 3$, be an isometric immersion of a complete noncompact manifold $M$ in a complete simply-connected manifold $\bar M$ with sectional curvature satisfying $-c^2\leq K_{\bar M}\leq 0$, for some constant $c$. Assume that the immersion has finite total curvature. If $c\neq 0$, assume further that the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian of $M$ is bounded from below by a suitable constant. We prove that the space of the $L^2$ harmonic 1-forms on $M$ has finite dimension. Moreover there exists a constant $\La>0$, explicitly computed, such that if the total curvature is…
In this paper, we present two kinds of total Chern forms $c(E,G)$ and $\mathcal{C}(E,G)$ as well as a total Segre form $s(E,G)$ of a holomorphic Finsler vector bundle $π:(E,G)\to M$ expressed by the Finsler metric $G$, which answers a question of J. Faran (\cite{Faran}) to some extent. As some applications, we show that the signed Segre forms $(-1)^ks_k(E,G)$ are positive $(k,k)$-forms on $M$ when $G$ is of positive Kobayashi curvature; we prove, under an extra assumption, that a Finsler-Einstein vector bundle in the sense of Kobayashi is semi-stable; we introduce a new definition of a flat Fi…
We introduce the totally absolute lightcone curvature for a spacelike submanifold with general codimension and investigate global properties of this curvature. One of the consequences is that the Chern-Lashof type inequality holds. Then the notion of lightlike tightness is naturally induced.
We generalise the classical Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula to a class of 4-dimensional manifolds with finitely many conformally flat ends and singular points. This extends results of Chang-Qing-Yang in the smooth case. Under the assumptions of finite total Q curvature and positive scalar curvature at the ends and at the singularities, we obtain a new Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula with error terms that can be expressed as isoperimetric deficits. This is the first such formula in a dimension higher than two which allows the underlying manifold to have isolated branch points or conical singularities.
In this paper we continue our study of the fourth order transgression on hyperähler manifolds introduced in the previous paper. We give a local construction for the fourth-order transgression of the Chern character form of an arbitrary vector bundle supplied with a self-dual connection on a four dimensional hyperkähler manifold. The construction is based on the harmonic twistor formalism. Remarkably, the resulted expression for the fourth order transgression is given in terms of the determinant of the $\bar{\partial}$-operator defined on fibers of the twistor fibration.
We study the curvature of a manifold on which there can be defined a complex-valued submersive harmonic morphism with either, totally geodesic fibers or that is holomorphic with respect to a complex structure which is compatible with the second fundamental form. We also give a necessary curvature condition for the existence of complex-valued harmonic morphisms with totally geodesic fibers on Einstein manifolds.
We define Aeppli and Bott-Chern cohomology for bi-generalized complex manifolds and show that they are finite dimensional for compact bi-generalized Hermitian manifolds. For totally bounded double complexes $(A, d', d'')$, we show that the validity of $d'd''$-lemma is equivalent to having the same dimension of several cohomology groups. Some calculations of Bott-Chern cohomology groups of some bi-generalized Hermitian manifolds are given.
Inspired by the Finn-Osserman (1964), Chern (1969), do Carmo-Peng (1979) proofs of the Bernstein theorem, which characterizes flat planes as the only entire minimal graphs, we prove a new rigidity theorem for associate families connecting the doubly periodic Scherk graphs and the singly periodic Scherk towers. Our characterization of Scherk's surfaces discovers a new idea from the original Finn-Osserman curvature estimate. Combining two generically independent flat structures introduced by Chern and Ricci, we shall construct geometric harmonic functions on minimal surfaces, and establish that …
We study the transversally harmonic maps between foliated Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we prove that under some curvature conditions, any transversally harmonic map is transversally totally geodesic.
For three classes of elliptic pseudodifferential operators on a compact manifold with boundary which have `geometric K-theory', namely the `transmission algebra' introduced by Boutet de Monvel, the `zero algebra' introduced by Mazzeo and the `scattering algebra' from [MR95k:58168] we give explicit formulae for the Chern character of the index bundle in terms of the symbols (including normal operators at the boundary) of a Fredholm family of fibre operators. This involves appropriate descriptions, in each case, of the cohomology with compact supports in the interior of the total space of a vect…
We prove an inequality between the sum of the Betti numbers of a complex projective manifold and its total curvature, and we characterize the complex projective manifolds whose total curvature is minimal. These results extend the classical theorems of Chern and Lashof to complex projective space.
We use Chern-Weil theory for Hermitian holomorphic vector bundles with canonical connections for explicit computation of the Chern forms of trivial bundles with special non-diagonal Hermitian metrics. We prove that every del-dellbar exact real form of the type (k,k) on an n-dimensional complex manifold X arises as a difference of the Chern character forms of trivial Hermitian vector bundles with canonical connections, and that (modulo the image of del and delbar) every real form of type (k,k), k<n, arises as a Bott-Chern form for two Hermitian metrics on some trivial vector bundle over X. The …
We define the total curvature of a semialgebraic embedding of a graph in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We prove that it satisfies a Chern-Lashof type inequality and we describe when the equality holds. We also prove a generalization of a classical result of Fary and Milnor stating that certain graphs cannot be knotted if they are not too curved. The techniques employed are Morse theoretic.
We study harmonic and totally invariant measures in a foliated compact Riemannian manifold isometrically embedded in an Euclidean space. We introduce geometrical techniques for stochastic calculus in this space. In particular, using these techniques we can construct explicitely an Stratonovich equation for the foliated Brownian motion (cf. L. Garnett \cite{LG} and others). We present a characterization of totally invariant measures in terms of the flow of diffeomorphisms of associated to this equation. We prove an ergodic formula for the sum of the Lyapunov exponents in terms of the geometry o…
