We find a different approach to define convex functions in the sub-Riemannian setting. A function on a sub-Riemannian manifold is nonholonomically geodesic convex if its restriction to any nonholonomic (straightest) geodesic is convex. In the case of Carnot groups, this definition coincides with that by Danniell-Garofalo-Nieuhn (equivalent to that by Lu-Manfredi-Stroffolini). Nonholonomic geodesics are defined using the horizontal connection. A new distance corresponding to the horizontal connection has been introduced and near regular points proven to be equivalent to the Carnot-Carathèodory distance. Some basic properties of convex functions are studied. In particular we prove that any nonholonomically geodesic convex function locally bounded from above is locally Lipschitzian with respect to the Carnot-Carathèodory distance.
The usual notion of set-convexity, valid in the classical Euclidean context, metamorphoses into several distinct convexity types in the more general Riemannian setting. By studying this phenomenon in reverse, we characterize complete manifolds for which certain convexity types are assumed a priori to coincide.
A characterization of the proximal normal cone is obtained and a separation theorem for convex subsets of Riemannian manifolds is established. Moreover, the convexity of the distance function $d_S$ for a convex subset $S$ in the cases where the boundary of $S$ contains a geodesic segment, the boundary of $S$ is $C^2$ or the boundary of $S$ is not regular is discussed. Furthermore, a nonsmooth version of positive semi-definiteness of Hessian of convex functions on Riemannian manifolds is established.
We give a necessary condition on a geodesic in a Riemannian manifold that can run in some convex hypersurface. As a corollary we obtain peculiar properties that hold true for every convex set in any generic Riemannian manifold (M,g). For example, if a convex set in (M,g) is bounded by a smooth hypersurface, then it is strictly convex.
We propose a new approach to the study of compact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary or positive Ricci curvature and convex boundary. Several conjectures are formulated. Some partial results that support these conjectures are established.
In this paper, we establish various L2-estimates for the exterior differential operator on p-convex Riemannian manifolds in the sense of Harvey and Lawson. As geometric applications, we prove vanishing and finiteness results for the de Rham cohomology groups.
We show that a complete Riemannian manifold with boundary is uniquely determined, up to an isometry, by its distance difference representation on the boundary. Unlike previously known results, we do not impose any restrictions on the boundary.
We prove the existence of minimal hypersurfaces for the Dirichlet that extends a similar result of Jenkins and Serrin in Euclidean Space to Riemannian ambient manifolds
This paper is devoted to the study of non-existence of certain type of convex functions on a Riemannian manifold with a pole. To this end, we have developed the notion of odd and even function on a Riemannian manifold with a pole and proved the non-existence of non-trivial and non-negative differentiable odd convex function whose gradient is complete. Finally, we have deduced some isoperimetric type inequality related with convex function.
We survey the main extensions of the classical Hadamard, Liebmann and Cohn-Vossen rigidity theorems on convex surfaces of $3$-Euclidean space to the context of convex hypersurfaces of Riemannian manifolds. The results we present include the one by Professor Renato Tribuzy (in collaboration with H. Rosenberg) on rigidity of convex surfaces of homogeneous $3$-manifolds.
Given a Riemannian manifold M and a hypersurface H in M, it is well known that infinitesimal convexity on a neighborhood of a point in H implies local convexity. We show in this note that the same result holds in a semi-Riemannian manifold. We make some remarks for the case when only timelike, null or spacelike geodesics are involved. The notion of geometric convexity is also reviewed and some applications to geodesic connectedness of an open subset of a Lorentzian manifold are given.
In this paper we have generalized the notion of $λ$-radial contraction in complete Riemannian manifold and developed the concept of $p^λ$-convex function. We have also given a counter example proving the fact that in general $λ$-radial contraction of a geodesic is not necessarily a geodesic. We have also deduced some relations between geodesic convex sets and $p^λ$-convex sets and showed that under certain conditions they are equivalent.
In this paper a compact Riemannian manifold with strictly convex boundary is reconstructed from its partial travel time data. This data assumes that an open measurement region on the boundary is given, and that for every point in the manifold, the respective distance function to the points on the measurement region is known. This geometric inverse problem has many connections to seismology, in particular to micro seismicity. The reconstruction is based on embedding the manifold in a function space. This requires the differentiation of the distance functions. Therefore this paper also studies s…
The ratio of convexity radius over injectivity radius may be made arbitrarily small within the class of compact Riemannian manifolds of any fixed dimension at least two. This is proved using Gulliver's method of constructing manifolds with focal points but no conjugate points. The approach is suggested by a characterization of the convexity radius that resembles a classical result of Klingenberg about the injectivity radius.
A detailed study of the notions of convexity for a hypersurface in a Finsler manifold is carried out. In particular, the infinitesimal and local notions of convexity are shown to be equivalent. Our approach differs from Bishop's one in his classical result (Bishop, Indiana Univ Math J 24:169-172, 1974) for the Riemannian case. Ours not only can be extended to the Finsler setting but it also reduces the typical requirements of differentiability for the metric and it yields consequences on the multiplicity of connecting geodesics in the convex domain defined by the hypersurface.
In this paper, we consider a dilation type inequality on a weighted Riemannian manifold, which is classically known as Borell's lemma in high-dimensional convex geometry. We investigate the dilation type inequality as an isoperimetric type inequality by introducing the dilation profile and estimate it by the one for the corresponding model space under lower weighted Ricci curvature bounds. We also explore functional inequalities derived from the comparison of the dilation profiles under the nonnegative weighted Ricci curvature. In particular, we show several functional inequalities related to …
Having in mind the well known model of Euclidean convex hypersurfaces [4], [5], and the ideas in [1] many authors defined and investigate convex hypersurfaces of a Riemannian manifold. As it was proved by the first author in [7], there follows the interdependence between convexity and Gauss curvature of the hypersurface. In this paper we define $H$-convexity of a Riemannian submanifold of arbitrary codimension, replacing the normal versor of a hypersurface with the mean curvature vector $H$. A characterization, used by B.Y. Chen [2], [3] as the definition of strictly $H$-convexity, it is obtai…
We show how an operation of inf-convolution can be used to approximate convex functions with $C^{1}$ smooth convex functions on Riemannian manifolds with nonpositive curvature (in a manner that not only is explicit but also preserves some other properties of the original functions, such as ordering, symmetries, infima and sets of minimizers), and we give some applications.
In this paper we prove the following pointwise and curvature-free estimates on convexity radius, injectivity radius and local behavior of geodesics in a complete Riemannian manifold $M$: 1) the convexity radius of $p$, $\operatorname{conv}(p)\ge \min\{\frac{1}{2}\operatorname{inj}(p),\operatorname{foc}(B_{\operatorname{inj}(p)}(p))\}$, where $\operatorname{inj}(p)$ is the injectivity radius of $p$ and $\operatorname{foc}(B_r(p))$ is the focal radius of open ball centered at $p$ with radius $r$; 2) for any two points $p,q$ in $M$, $\operatorname{inj}(q)\ge \min\{\operatorname{inj}(p), \operator…
On any proper convex domain in real projective space there exists a natural Riemannian metric, the Blaschke metric. On the other hand, distances between points can be measured in the Hilbert metric. Using techniques of optimal control, we provide inequalities lower bounding the Riemannian length of the line segment joining two points of the domain by the Hilbert distance between these points, thus strengthening a result of Tholozan. Our estimates are valid for a whole class of Riemannian metrics on convex projective domains, namely those induced by convex non-degenerate centro-affine hypersurf…
In this paper we analyze the problem of the geodesic connectedness of subsets of Riemannian manifolds. By using variational methods, the geodesic connectedness of open domains (whose boundaries can be not differentiable and not convex) of a smooth Riemannian manifold is proved. In some cases also the convexity of the domain is obtained. Moreover we present examples of the applicability and of the independence of the assumptions. Finally we give an application to the existence of trajectories with fixed energy of dynamical systems.
We prove that the isoperimetric profile of a convex domain $Ω$ with compact closure in a Riemannian manifold $(M^{n+1},g)$ satisfies a second order differential inequality which only depends on the dimension of the manifold and on a lower bound on the Ricci curvature of $Ω$. Regularity properties of the profile and topological consequences on isoperimetric regions arise naturally from this differential point of view. Moreover, by integrating the differential inequality we obtain sharp comparison theorems: not only can we derive an inequality which should be compared with Lévy-Gromov Inequality…
We state that any constant curvature Riemannian metric with conical singularities of constant sign curvature on a compact (orientable) surface $S$ can be realized as a convex polyhedron in a Riemannian or Lorentzian) space-form. Moreover such a polyhedron is unique, up to global isometries, among convex polyhedra invariant under isometries acting on a totally umbilical surface. This general statement falls apart into 10 different cases. The cases when $S$ is the sphere are classical.
In this paper, we study Zermelo navigation on Riemannian manifolds and use that to solve a long standing problem in Finsler geometry. Namely, the complete classification of strongly convex Randers metrics of constant flag curvature.
Let $M^n$ be a closed convex hypersurface lying in a convex ball $B(p,R)$ of the ambient $(n+1)$-manifold $N^{n+1}$. We prove that, by pinching Heintze-Reilly's inequality via sectional curvature upper bound of $B(p,R)$, 1st eigenvalue and mean curvature of $M$, not only $M$ is Hausdorff close and almost isometric to a geodesic sphere $S(p_0,R_0)$ in $N$, but also its enclosed domain is $C^{1,α}$-close to a geodesic ball of constant curvature.
In this paper we study the existence of periodic orbits with prescribed energy levels of convex Lagrangian systems on complete Riemannian manifolds. We extend the existence results of Contreras by developing a modified minimax principal to a class of Lagrangian systems on noncompact Riemannian manifolds, namely the so called $\lsh$ Lagrangian systems. In particular, we prove that for almost every $k\in(0,c_u(L))$ the exact magnetic flow associated to a $\lsh$ Lagrangian has a contractible periodic orbit with energy $k$. We also discuss the existence and non-existence of closed geodesics on the…
On R^n endowed with a riemannian metric of bounded nonpositive curvature, the weakly convex closed subsets are topologically trivial. The stability of such subsets under intersection characterizes the euclidean spaces.
We study topological obstructions to the existence of a Riemannian metric on manifolds with boundary such that the scalar curvature is non-negative and the boundary is mean convex. We construct many compact manifolds with boundary which admit no Riemannian metric with non-negative scalar curvature and mean convex boundary. For example, we show that the manifold $(T^{n-2}\times Σ)\# N$, where $Σ$ is a compact, connected and orientable surface which is not a disk or a cylinder and $N$ is a closed $n$-dimensional manifold, does not admit a metric of non-negative scalar curvature and mean convex b…
We prove the validity of an inequality involving a mean of the area and the length of the boundary of immersed disks whose boundaries are homotopically non-trivial curves in an oriented compact manifold which possesses convex mean curvature boundary, positive escalar curvature and admits a map to $\mathbb{D}^2\times T^{n}$ with nonzero degree, where $\mathbb{D}^2$ is a disk and $T^n$ is an $n$-dimensional torus. We also prove a rigidity result for the equality case when the boundary is totally geodesic. This can be viewed as a partial generalization of a result due to Lucas Ambrózio in \cite{A…
In this paper, we investigate a holonomy invariant elliptic anisotropic surface energy for hypersurfaces in a complete Riemannian manifold, where "holonomy invariant" means that the elliptic parametric Lagrangian (i.e., a Finsler metric) of the Riemannian manifold used to define the anisotropic surface energy is constant along each holonomy subbundle of the tangent bundle of the Riemannian manifold. First we obtain the first variational formula for this anisotropic surface energy. Next we shall introduce the notions of an anisotropic convex hypersurface, an anisotropic equifocal hypersurface a…
Given a smooth nonfocal compact Riemannian manifold, we show that the so-called Ma--Trudinger--Wang condition implies the convexity of injectivity domains. This improves a previous result by Loeper and Villani.
We prove a local rigidity result for infinitesimally rigid capillary surfaces in some Riemannian $3$-manifolds with mean convex boundary. We also derive bounds on the genus, number of boundary components and area of any compact two-sided capillary minimal surface with low index under certain assumptions on the curvature of the ambient manifold and of its boundary.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology（挪威科技大学）；Heidelberg University（海德堡大学）；Institute for Mathematics Heidelberg University（海德堡大学数学研究所）；Simula Research Laboratory（西穆拉研究实验室）
We investigate the minimal and isoperimetric surface problems in a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds, the so-called Vertically Rigid spaces. We construct an adapted connection for such spaces and, using the variational tools of Bryant, Griffiths and Grossman, derive succinct forms of the Euler-Lagrange equations for critical points for the associated variational problems. Using the Euler-Lagrange equations, we show that minimal and isoperimetric surfaces satisfy a constant horizontal mean curvature conditions away from characteristic points. Moreover, we use the formalism to construct a …
In a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold X of pinched negative curvature, we give a sharp criterion for a subset C to be the epsilon-neighbourhood of some convex subset of X, in terms of the extrinsic curvatures of the boundary of C.
We prove curvature estimates for general curvature functions. As an application we show the existence of closed, strictly convex hypersurfaces with prescribed curvature $F$, where the defining cone of $F$ is $\C_+$. $F$ is only assumed to be monotone, symmetric, homogeneous of degree 1, concave and of class $C^{m,\al}$, $m\ge4$.
For compact Riemannian manifolds with convex boundary, B.White proved the following alternative: Either there is an isoperimetric inequality for minimal hypersurfaces or there exists a closed minimal hypersurface, possibly with a small singular set. There is the natural question if a similar result is true for submanifolds of higher codimension. Specifically, B.White asked if the non-existence of an isoperimetric inequality for k-varifolds implies the existence of a nonzero, stationary, integral k-varifold. We present examples showing that this is not true in codimension greater than two. The …
We prove the existence of classical solutions to the Dirichlet problem for a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations of curvature type on Riemannian manifolds. We also derive new second derivative boundary estimates which allows us to extend some of the existence theorems of Caffarelli, Nirenberg and Spruck [4] and Ivochkina, Trundinger and Lin [19] to more general curvature functions and less convex domains.
The main purpose of the paper is to prove that if a compact Riemannian manifold admits a gradient $ρ$-Einstein soliton such that the gradient Einstein potential is a non-trivial conformal vector field, then the manifold is isometric to the Euclidean sphere. We have showed that a Riemannian manifold satisfying gradient $ρ$-Einstein soliton with convex Einstein potential possesses non-negative scalar curvature. We have also deduced a sufficient condition for a Riemannian manifold to be compact which satisfies almost $η$-Ricci soliton (see Theorem 2).
We prove some sharp isoperimetric type inequalities for domains with smooth boundary on Riemannian manifolds. For example, using generalized convexity, we show that among all domains with a lower bound $l$ for the cut distance and Ricci curvature lower bound $(n-1)k$, the geodesic ball of radius $l$ in the space form of curvature $k$ has the largest area-to-volume ratio. A similar but reversed inequality holds if we replace a lower bound on the cut distance by a lower bound of the mean curvature. As an application we show that $C^2$ isoperimetric domains in standard space forms are balls. Gene…
We consider a family of embedded, mean convex hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold which evolve by the mean curvature flow. We show that, given any number $T>0$ and any $δ>0$, we can find a constant $C_0$ with the following property: if $t \in [0,T)$ and $p$ is a point on $M_t$ where the curvature is greater than $C_0$, then the inscribed radius is at least $\frac{1}{(1+δ) \, H}$ at the point $p$. The constant $C_0$ depends only on $δ$, $T$, and the initial data.
A method to generalize results from Riemannian Geometry to Finsler geometry is presented. We use the method to generalize several results that involve only metric conditions. Between them we show that the topology induced by the Finsler structure is equivalent to the manifold topology, we provide a new proof of the Hopf-Rinow theorem in Finsler geometry and we prove the existence of the center of mass of a convex body when the non-symmetric distance function comes from a non-reversible Finsler function.
Given a probability measure $μ$ supported on a convex subset $Ω$ of Euclidean space $(\mathbb{R}^d,g_0)$, we are interested in obtaining Poincaré and log-Sobolev type inequalities on $(Ω,g_0,μ)$. To this end, we change the metric $g_0$ to a more general Riemannian one $g$, adapted in a certain sense to $μ$, and perform our analysis on $(Ω,g,μ)$. The types of metrics we consider are Hessian metrics (intimately related to associated optimal-transport problems), product metrics (which are very useful when $μ$ is unconditional, i.e. invariant under reflection with respect to the principle hyperpla…
Strong geodesic convex function and strong monotone vector field of order $m$ on Riemannian manifolds have been established. A characterization of strong geodesic convex function of order $m$ for the continuously differentiable functions has been discussed. The relation between the solution of a new variational inequality problem and the strict minimizers of order $m$ for a multiobjective programming problem has also been established.
We study a Riemannian manifold equipped with a density which satisfies the Bakry--Émery Curvature-Dimension condition (combining a lower bound on its generalized Ricci curvature and an upper bound on its generalized dimension). We first obtain a Poincaré-type inequality on its boundary assuming that the latter is locally-convex; this generalizes a purely Euclidean inequality of Colesanti, originally derived as an infinitesimal form of the Brunn-Minkowski inequality, thereby precluding any extensions beyond the Euclidean setting. A dual version for generalized mean-convex boundaries is also obt…
In this paper we give a new proof of the (strong) displacement convexity of a class of integral functionals defined on a compact Riemannian manifold satisfying a lower Ricci curvature bound. Our approach does not rely on existence and regularity results for optimal transport maps on Riemannian manifolds, but it is based on the Eulerian point of view recently introduced by Otto-Westdickenberg and on the metric characterization of the gradient flows generated by the functionals in the Wasserstein space.
We show that a compact Riemannian $3$-manifold $M$ with strictly convex simply connected boundary and sectional curvature $K\leq a\leq 0$ is isometric to a convex domain in a complete simply connected space of constant curvature $a$, provided that $K\equiv a$ on planes tangent to the boundary of $M$. This yields a characterization of strictly convex surfaces with minimal total curvature in Cartan-Hadamard $3$-manifolds, and extends some rigidity results of Greene-Wu, Gromov, and Schroeder-Strake. Our proof is based on a recent comparison formula for total curvature of Riemannian hypersurfaces,…
We study the non-convex matrix factorization approach to matrix completion via Riemannian geometry. Based on an optimization formulation over a Grassmannian manifold, we characterize the landscape based on the notion of principal angles between subspaces. For the fully observed case, our results show that there is a region in which the cost is geodesically convex, and outside of which all critical points are strictly saddle. We empirically study the partially observed case based on our findings.
