We solve the Bonnet problem for surfaces in the homogeneous 3-manifolds with a 4-dimensional isometry group. More specifically, we show that a simply connected real analytic surface in H^2xR or S^2xR is uniquely determined pointwise by its metric and its principal curvatures if and only if it is not a minimal or a properly helicoidal surface. In the remaining three types of homogeneous 3-manifolds, we show that except for constant mean curvature surfaces and helicoidal surfaces, all simply connected real analytic surfaces are pointwise determined by their metric and principal curvatures.
From the point of view of index theory, we give a simple proof of a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for all Finsler manifolds by the Cartan connection. Based on this, we establish a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for any metric-compatible connection and also derive the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula of Lackey.
In this paper, we prove a positive mass theorem and Penrose-type inequality of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass $m_2$ for the graphic manifold with flat normal bundle.
We prove the Bonnet theorem for statistical manifolds, which states that if a statistical manifold admits tensors satisfying the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci equations, then it is locally embeddable to a flat statistical manifold (or a Hessian manifold). The proof is based on the notion of statistical embedding to the product of a vector space and its dual space introduced by Lauritzen. As another application of Lauritzen's embedding, we show that a statistical manifold admitting an affine embedding of codimension 1 or 2 is locally embeddable to a flat statistical manifold of the same codimension.
In this paper, we establish an intrinsic Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for Finsler manifolds by using the Mathai-Quillen's superconnection formalism, in which no extra vector field is involved. Furthermore, we prove a more general Lichnerowicz formula in this direction through a geometric localization procedure.
This paper defines two new extrinsic curvature quantities on the corner of a four-dimensional Riemannian manifold with corner. One of these is a pointwise conformal invariant, and the conformal transformation of the other is governed by a new linear second-order pointwise conformally invariant partial differential operator. The Gauss-Bonnet theorem is then stated in terms of these quantities.
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 give a simple proof of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem for a real oriented Finsler vector bundle with rank equal to the dimension of the base manifold. As an application, a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for any metric-compatible connection is established on Finsler manifolds.
The authors Balogh-Tyson-Vecchi in arXiv:1604.00180 utilize the Riemannian approximations scheme $(\mathbb H^1,<,>_L)$, in the Heisenberg group, introduced by Gromov, to calculate the limits of Gaussian and normal curvatures defined on surfaces of $\mathbb H^1$ when $L\rightarrow\infty$. They show that these limits exist (unlike the limit of Riemannian surface area form or length form), and they obtain Gauss-Bonnet theorem in $\mathbb H^1$ as limit of Gauss-Bonnet theorems in $(\mathbb H^1,<,>_L)$ when $L$ goes to infinity. This construction was extended by Wang-Wei in arXiv:1912.00302 to the …
This expository paper contains a detailed introduction to some important works concerning the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem. The study of this theorem has a long history dating back to Gauss's Theorema Egregium (Latin: Remarkable Theorem) and culminated in Chern's groundbreaking work [14] in 1944, which is a deep and wonderful application of Elie Cartan's formalism. The idea and tools in [14] have a great generalization and continue to produce important results till today. In this paper, we give four different proofs of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem on Riemannian manifolds, namely Chern's simple…
We give a short proof of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for a real oriented Riemannian vector bundle $E$ of even rank over a closed compact orientable manifold $M$. This theorem reduces to the classical Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem in the special case when $M$ is a Riemannian manifold and $E$ is the tangent bundle of $M$ endowed with the Levi-Civita connection. The proof is based on an explicit geometric construction of the Thom class for 2-plane bundles.
In this paper we show positive mass theorems and Penrose type inequalities for the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass, which was introduced recently in \cite{GWW}, for asymptotically flat CF manifolds and its rigidity.
We give an explicit formula for the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass of an asymptotically flat graphical manifold of arbitrary codimension and use it to prove the positive mass theorem and the Penrose inequality for graphs with flat normal bundle.
We present several deformation and rigidity results within the classes of closed Riemannian manifolds which either are $2k$-Einstein (in the sense that their $2k$-Ricci tensor is constant) or have constant $2k$-Gauss-Bonnet curvature. The results hold for a family of manifolds containing all non-flat space forms and the main ingredients in the proofs are explicit formulae for the linearizations of the above invariants obtained by means of the formalism of double forms.
In a previous article, we generalised the classical four-dimensional Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula to a class of manifolds with finitely many conformally flat ends and singular points, in particular obtaining the first such formula in a dimension higher than two which allows the underlying manifold to have isolated conical singularities. In the present article, we extend this result to all even dimensions $n\geq 4$ in the case of a class of conformally flat manifolds.
In this paper we introduce a family of center of masses that complement the definition of the family of Gauss-Bonnet-Chern masses by Ge-Wang-Wu and Li-Nguyen. In order to prove the existence and the well-definedness of the center of mass, we use the formalism of double forms of Kulkarni and Labbi. This allows for transparent conceptual proofs, which apply to all known cases of asymptotic invariants of asymptotically flat manifolds.
In this note, we prove two Kazdan-Warner type identities involving $v^{(2k)}$, the renormalized volume coefficients of a Riemannian manifold $(M^n,g)$, and $G_{2r}$, the so-called Gauss-Bonnet curvature, and a conformal Killing vector field on $(M^n,g)$. In the case when the Riemannian manifold is locally conformally flat, $v^{(2k)}=(-2)^{-k}σ_k$, $G_{2r}(g)=\frac{4^r(n-r)!r!}{(n-2r)!}σ_r$, and our results reduce to earlier ones established by Viaclovsky and by the second author.
It is shown in the paper "Variational Properties of the Gauss-Bonnet Curvatures" of M.L. Labbi, that metrics with constant 2k-Gauss-Bonnet curvature on a closed n-dimensional manifold, 1<2k<n, are critical points for a certain Hilbert type functional with respect to volume preserving conformal variations. This motivates the corresponding Yamabe problem: is it true that any metric on a closed manifold is conformal to a metric with constant 2k-Gauss-Bonnet curvature? Using perturbative methods we affirmatively answer this question for small perturbations of certain space forms. More precisely, i…
We use the mapping cone for the relative deRham cohomology of a manifold with boundary in order to show that the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for oriented Riemannian vector bundles over such manifolds is a manifestation of Lefschetz Duality in any of the two embodiments of the latter. We explain how Thom isomorphism fits into this picture, complementing thus the classical results about Thom forms with compact support. When the rank is odd, we construct, by using secondary transgression forms introduced here, a new closed pair of forms on the disk bundle associated to a vector bundle, pair which …
In this paper, we prove the following two results: First, we study a class of conformally invariant operators $P$ and their related conformally invariant curvatures $Q$ on even-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. When the manifold is locally conformally flat(LCF) and compact without boundary, $Q$-curvature is naturally related to the integrand in the classical Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula, i.e., the Pfaffian curvature. For a class of even-dimensional complete LCF manifolds with integrable $Q$% -curvature, we establish a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern inequality. Second, a finiteness theorem for certain classe…
In this short note we outline a simple probabilistic proof of the Gauss-Bonnet formula for compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary, which adapts to this setting an argument due to Hsu \cite{Hs1,Hs2} in the closed case. The new technical ingredient is the Feynman-Kac formula for differential forms satisfying absolute boundary conditions proved in \cite{dL}. Combined with the so-called supersymmetric aproach to index theory, this leads to a path integral representation of the Euler characteristic of the manifold in terms of normally reflected Brownian motion whose short time asymptotics clari…
On an oriented Riemannian manifold, the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula asserts that the Pfaffian of the metric represents, in de Rham cohomology, the Euler class of the tangent bundle. Hence, if the underlying manifold is compact, the integral of the Pfaffian is a topological invariant; namely, the Euler characteristic of the manifold. In this paper we refine a result originally due to Gilkey that characterizes this formula as the only (non-trivial) integral of a differential invariant that is independent of the underlying metric.
We derive the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for manifolds with smooth non-degenerate boundary in the pseudo-Riemannian context from the corresponding result in the Riemannian setting by examining the Euler-Lagrange equations associated to the Pfaffian of a complex "metric" on the tangent space and then applying analytic continuation.
We prove a Bonnet-Myers type theorem for quaternionic contact manifolds of dimension bigger than 7. If the manifold is complete with respect to the natural sub-Riemannian distance and satisfies a natural Ricci-type bound expressed in terms of derivatives up to the third order of the fundamental tensors, then the manifold is compact and we give a sharp bound on its sub-Riemannian diameter.
Up to dimension five, we can prove that given any closed Riemannian manifold with nonnegative scalar curvature, of which the universal covering has vanishing homology group $H_k$ for all $k\geq 3$, either it is flat or it has Gauss-Bonnet quantity (defined by (1.3)) no greater than $8π$. In the second case, the equality for Gauss-Bonnet quantity yields that the universal covering splits as the Riemannian product of a $2$-sphere with non-negative sectional curvature and the Euclidean space. We also establish a dominated version of this result and its application to homotopical $2$-systole estim…
We consider a generalization of Riemannian geometry that naturally arises in the framework of control theory. Let $X$ and $Y$ be two smooth vector fields on a two-dimensional manifold $M$. If $X$ and $Y$ are everywhere linearly independent, then they define a classical Riemannian metric on $M$ (the metric for which they are orthonormal) and they give to $M$ the structure of metric space. If $X$ and $Y$ become linearly dependent somewhere on $M$, then the corresponding Riemannian metric has singularities, but under generic conditions the metric structure is still well defined. Metric structures…
The goal of this paper is to describe Zermelo's navigation problem on Riemannian manifolds as a time-optimal control problem and give an efficient method in order to evaluate its control curvature. We will show that up to change the Riemannian metric on the manifold the control curvature of Zermelo's problem has a simple to handle expression which naturally leads to a generalization of the classical Gauss-Bonnet formula in an inequality. This Gauss-Bonnet inequality enables to generalize for Zermelo's problems the E. Hopf theorem on flatness of Riemannian tori without conjugate points.
This note computes the "renormalized volume" and a renormalizedGauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for the Euler characteristic ofasymptotically complex hyperbolic Einstein (in short: ACHE)4-manifolds.
We give a topological interpretation of the space of $L^2$-harmonic forms on Manifold with flat ends. It is an answer to an old question of J. Dodziuk. We also give a Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula for the $L^2$-Euler characteristic of some of these Manifolds. These results are applications of general theorems on complete Riemannian Manifold whose Gauss-Bonnet operator is non-parabolic at infinity.
We prove that a Gaussian ensemble of smooth random sections of a real vector bundle over compact manifold canonically defines a metric on the bundle together with a connection compatible with it. Additionally, we prove a refined Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem stating that if the bundle and the manifold are oriented, then the Euler form of the above connection can be identified, as a current, with the expectation of the random current defined by the zero-locus of a random section in the above Gaussian ensemble.
Index expectation curvature K(x) = E[i_f(x)] on a compact Riemannian 2d-manifold M is the expectation of Poincare-Hopf indices i_f(x) and so satisfies the Gauss-Bonnet relation that the interval of K over M is Euler characteristic X(M). Unlike the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern integrand, such curvatures are in general non-local. We show that for small 2d-manifolds M with boundary embedded in a parallelizable 2d-manifold N of definite sectional curvature sign e, an index expectation K(x) with definite sign e^d exists. The function K(x) is constructed as a product of sectional index expectation curvature a…
We derive a curvature identity that holds on any 6-dimensional Riemannian manifold, from the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet theorem for a 6-dimensional closed Riemannian manifold. We also introduce some applications of this curvature identity.
A weakly Einstein manifold is a generalization of a 4-dimensional Einstein manifold, which is defined as an application of a curvature identity derived from the generalized Gauss-Bonnet formula for a 4-dimensional compact oriented Riemannian manifold. In this paper, we shall give a characterization of a weakly Einstein manifold.
We give a curvature identity derived from the generalized Gauss-Bonnet formula for 4-dimensional compact oriented Riemannian manifolds. We prove that the curvature identity holds on any 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold which is not necessarily compact. We also provide some applications of the identity.
We obtain a partial parallelism of the complex structure on Kähler Finsler manifolds. As applications, we prove Synge-Tsukamoto theorem and Bonnet-Myers theorem for positively curved Kähler Finsler manifolds. Moreover, we generalize a comparison theorem due to Ni-Zheng by introducing the notion of orthogonal Ricci curvature to Kähler Finsler geometry.
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.
On Kahler manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below, we establish some theorems which are counterparts of some classical theorems in Riemannian geometry, for example, Bishop-Gromov's relative volume comparison, Bonnet-Meyers theorem, and Yau's gradient estimate for positive harmonic functions. The tool is a Bochner type formula reflecting the Kahler structure.
In this paper we introduce a mass for asymptotically flat manifolds by using the Gauss-Bonnet curvature. We first prove that the mass is well-defined and is a geometric invariant, if the Gauss-Bonnet curvature is integrable and the decay order $τ$ satisfies $τ> \frac {n-4}{3}.$ Then we show a positive mass theorem for asymptotically flat graphs over ${\mathbb R}^n$. Moreover we obtain also Penrose type inequalities in this case.
For any k which is at least 2, we exhibit complete k-curvature homogeneous neutral signature pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are not k+1-affine curvature homogeneous, and hence not locally homogeneous. All the local scalar Weyl invariants of these manifolds vanish. These manifolds are Ricci flat, Osserman, and Ivanov-Petrova.
We define the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor as a generalization of the orthogonal Ricci curvature, and then study diameter theorems on Kähler and quaternionic Kähler manifolds under positivity assumption on the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor. Moreover, under such assumptions on the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor and the holomorphic or quaternionic sectional curvature on a Kähler manifold or a quaternionic Kähler manifold respectively, the Bonnet-Myers type diameter bounds are sharper than in the Riemannian case.
For k at least 2, we exhibit complete k-curvature homogeneous neutral signature pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are not locally affine homogeneous (and hence not locally homogeneous). The curvature tensor of these manifolds is modeled on that of an indecomposible symmetric space. All the local scalar Weyl curvature invariants of these manifolds vanish.
After analyzing renormalization schemes on a Poincaré-Einstein manifold, we study the renormalized integrals of scalar Riemannian invariants. The behavior of the renormalized volume is well-known, and we show any scalar Riemannian invariant renormalizes similarly. We consider characteristic forms and their behavior under a variation of the Poincaré-Einstein structure, and obtain, from the renormalized integral of the Pfaffian, an extension of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.
In previous papers, a fundamental affine method for studying homogeneous geodesics was developed. Using this method and elementary differential topology it was proved that any homogeneous affine manifold and in particular any homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifold admits a homogeneous geodesic through arbitrary point. In the present paper this affine method is refined and adapted to the pseudo-Riemannian case. Using this method and elementary topology it is proved that any homogeneous Lorentzian manifold of even dimension admits a light-like homogeneous geodesic. The method is illustrated in d…
Compact flat surfaces of homogeneous Riemannian 3-manifolds with isometry group of dimension 4 are classified. Non-existence results for compact constant Gauss curvature surfaces in these 3-manifolds are established.
In spin geometry, traceless cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds equipped with a homogeneous spin structure can be viewed as the simplest manifolds after Riemannian symmetric spin spaces. In this paper, we give some characterizations and properties of cyclic and traceless cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds and we obtain the classification of simply-connected cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds of dimension less than or equal to four. We also present a wide list of examples of non-compact irreducible Riemannian $3$-symmetric spaces admitting cyclic metrics and give the expression of…
Patterson discussed the curvature identities on Riemannian manifolds in [14], and a curvature identity for any 6-dimensional Riemannian manifold was independently derived from the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem [8]. In this paper, we provide the explicit formulae of Patterson's curvature identity that holds on 5-dimensional and 6-dimensional Einstein manifolds. We confirm that the curvature identities on the Einstein manifold from the previous work [8] are the same as the curvature identities deduced from Patterson's result. We also provide examples that support the theorems.
In this paper we discuss the index problem for geometric differential operators (Spin-Dirac operator, Gauß-Bonnet operator, Signature operator) on manifolds with metric horns. On singular manifolds these operators in general do not have unique closed extensions. But there always exist two extremal extensions $D_{min}$ and $D_{max}$. We describe the quotient ${\cal D}(D_{max}) / {\cal D}(D_{min})$ explicitely in geometric resp. topologic terms of the base manifolds of the metric horns. We derive index formulas for the Spin-Dirac and Gauß-Bonnet operator. For the Signature operator we present a …
