In this paper we introduce a new approach to variational problems on the space Riem(M^n) of Riemannian structures (i.e. isometry classes of Riemannan metrics) on any fixed compact manifold M^n of dimension n >= 5. This approach often enables one to replace the considered variational problem on Riem(M^n) (or on some subset of Riem(M^n)) by the same problem but on spaces Riem(N^n) for every manifold N^n from a class of compact manifolds of the same dimension and with the same homology as M^n but with the following two useful properties: (1) If νis any Riemannian structure on any manifold N^n from this class such that Ric_(N^n,ν) >= -(n-1), then the volume of (N^n,ν) is greater than one; and (2) Manifolds from this class do not admit Riemannian metrics of non-negative scalar curvature.
As a first application we prove a theorem which can be informally explained as follows: Let M be any compact connected smooth manifold of dimension greater than four, M et(M) be the space of isometry classes of compact metric spaces homeomorphic to M endowed with the Gromov-Hausdorff topology, Riem_1(M) in M et(M ) be the space of Riemannian structures on M such that the absolute values of sectional curvature do not exceed one, and R_1(M) denote the closure of Riem_1(M) in M et(M ). Then diameter regarded as a functional on R_1(M) has infinitely many "very deep" local minima.
Conformally variational Riemannian invariants (CVIs), such as the scalar curvature, are homogeneous scalar invariants which arise as the gradient of a Riemannian functional. We establish a wide range of stability and rigidity results involving CVIs, generalizing many such results for the scalar curvature.
The objet of this paper is the study of variations of a functional whose integrant is the $σ_u$-curvature of closed submanifolds of arbitrary codimension in Riemannian manifolds.
The objet of this paper is the study of the variations of a functional whose integrant is the r-th weighted curvature on the hypersurface of a closed Riemannian manifold. Some applications to hypersurfaces of the Euclidean space and the unit round sphère are given.
We present a method for proving the existence of solutions to a class of one dimensional variational problems. The method is demonstrated by two examples of optimal interpolation problems which are motivated by engineering applications. In each case we prove that the variational problem satisfies the Palais-Smale condition and the existence of a minimal solution and lower bounds for the number of stationary curves then follow.
We study variational problems for integral invariants, which are defined as integrations of invariant functions of the second fundamental form, of a smooth map between pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. We derive the first variational formulae for integral invariants defined from invariant homogeneous polynomials of degree two. Among these integral invariants, we show that the Euler-Lagrange equation of the Chern-Federer energy functional is reduced to a second order PDE. Then we give some examples of Chern-Federer submanifolds in Riemannian space forms.
This is the first in a series on papers developing an arithmetic PDE analogue of Riemannian geometry. The role of partial derivatives is played by Fermat quotient operations with respect to several Frobenius elements in the absolute Galois group of a $p$-adic field. Existence and uniqueness of geodesics and of Levi-Civita and Chern connections are proved in this context. In a sequel to this paper a theory of arithmetic Riemannian curvature and characteristic classes will be developed.
A "hidden symmetry" of a Riemannian manifold M is an isometry of a d-sheeted, 1<d<\infty, Riemannian cover of M which is not the lift of any isometry. In this paper we characterize the locally symmetric metric(s) on a closed, arithmetic manifold as the unique metric with infinitely many hidden symmetries.
We establish a second order smooth variational principle valid for functions defined on (possibly infinite-dimensional) Riemannian manifolds which are uniformly locally convex and have a strictly positive injectivity radius and bounded sectional curvature.
Singular Riemannian Foliations, variational problems and Principles of Symmetric Criticalities
Instituto de Matemática e Estatística da Universidade de São Paulo (IME-USP)（圣保罗大学数学与统计学院）；Universidade Estadual de Campinas（坎皮纳斯州立大学）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）
In this paper, we investigate a class of quadratic Riemannian curvature functionals on closed smooth manifold $M$ of dimension $n\ge 3$ on the space of Riemannian metrics on $M$ with unit volume. We study the stability of these functionals at the metric with constant sectional curvature as its critical point.
R. Zimmer proved that, on a compact manifold, a foliation with a dense leaf, a suitable leafwise Riemannian symmetric metric and a transverse Lie structure has arithmetic holonomy group. In this work we improve such result for totally geodesic foliations by showing that the manifold itself is arithmetic. This also gives a positive answer, for some special cases, to a conjecture of E. Ghys.
This paper studies a variational obstacle avoidance problem on complete Riemannian manifolds. That is, we minimize an action functional, among a set of admissible curves, which depends on an artificial potential function used to avoid obstacles. In particular, we generalize the theory of bi-Jacobi fields and biconjugate points and present necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality. Local minimizers of the action functional are divided into two categories and subsequently classified, with local uniqueness results obtained in both cases.
In this article, we investigate when the set of primitive geodesic lengths on a Riemannian manifold have arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. We prove that in the space of negatively curved metrics, a metric having such arithmetic progressions is quite rare. We introduce almost arithmetic progressions, a coarsification of arithmetic progressions, and prove that every negatively curved, closed Riemannian manifold has arbitrarily long almost arithmetic progressions in its primitive length spectrum. Concerning genuine arithmetic progressions, we prove that every non-compact, locally symmetri…
We study the local geometry of the space of horizontal curves with endpoints freely varying in two given submanifolds $\mathcal P$ and $\mathcal Q$ of a manifold $\mathcal M$ endowed with a distribution $\mathcal D\subset T\M$. We give a different proof, that holds in a more general context, of a result by Bismut (Large Deviations and the Malliavin Calculus, Birkhauser, 1984) stating that the normal extremizers that are not abnormal are critical points of the sub-Riemannian action functional. We use the Lagrangian multipliers method in a Hilbert manifold setting, which leads to a characterizat…
J.Eells and L. Lemaire introduced $k$-harmonic maps, and Wang Shaobo showed the first variation formula. In this paper, we give the second variation formula of $k$-energy, and give a notion of index, nullity and weakly stable. We also study $k$-harmonic maps into the product Riemannian manifold, and $k$-harmonic curves into a Riemannian manifold with constant sectional curvature, and show their non-trivial solutions.
Given two Jordan curves in a Riemannian manifold, a minimal surface of annulus type bounded by these curves is described as the harmonic extension of a critical point of some functional (the Dirichlet integral) in a certain space of boundary parametrizations. The $H^{2,2}$-regularity of the minimal surface of annulus type will be proved by applying the critical points theory and Morrey's growth condition.
This is the second paper in a series devoted to developing an arithmetic PDE analogue of Riemannian geometry. In Part 1 arithmetic PDE analogues of Levi-Civita and Chern connections were introduced and studied. In this paper arithmetic analogues of curvature and characteristic classes are developed.
We study the existence and properties of metrics maximising the first Laplace eigenvalue among conformal metrics of unit volume on Riemannian surfaces. We describe a general approach to this problem and its higher eigenvalue versions via the direct method of calculus of variations. The principal results include the general regularity properties of $λ_k$-extremal metrics and the existence of a partially regular $λ_1$-maximiser.
Geodesics become an essential element of the geometry of a semi-Riemannian manifold. In fact, their differences and similarities with the (positive definite) Riemannian case, constitute the first step to understand semi-Riemannian Geometry. The progress in the last two decades has become impressive, being especially relevant the systematic introduction of (infinite-dimensional) variational methods. Our purpose is to give an overview, from refinements of classical results to updated variational settings. First, several properties (and especially completeness) of geodesics in some ambient spaces…
J.Eells and L. Lemaire introduced k-harmonic maps, and T. Ichiyama, J. Inoguchi and H.Urakawa showed the first variation formula. In this paper, we give the second variation formula of k-harmonic maps, and show non-existence theorem of proper k-harmonic maps into a Riemannian manifold of non-positive curvature (k >= 2). We also study k-harmonic maps into the product Riemannian manifold, and describe the ordinary differential equations of 3-harmonic curves and 4-harmonic curves into a sphere, and show their non-trivial solutions.
We establish new existence and non-existence results for positive solutions of the Einstein-scalar field Lichnerowicz equation on compact manifolds. This equation arises from the Hamiltonian constraint equation for the Einstein-scalar field system in general relativity. Our analysis introduces variational techniques, in the form of the mountain pass lemma, to the analysis of the Hamiltonian constraint equation, which has been previously studied by other methods.
We prove that an isometric action of a Lie group on a Riemannian manifold admits a resolution preserving the transverse geometry if and only if the action is infinitesimally polar. We provide applications concerning topological simplicity of several classes of isometric actions, including polar and variationally complete ones. All results are proven in the more general case of singular Riemannian foliations.
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 …
We define a new formal Riemannian metric on a conformal class in the context of the $v_{\frac{n}{2}}$-Yamabe problem. Our construction leads to a new variational characterization and a new parabolic flow approach to this problem. Moreover, this variational framework suggests that solutions to this problem are unique in a given conformal class.
The variational theory of higher-power energy is developed for mappings between Riemannian manifolds, and more generally sections of submersions of Riemannian manifolds, and applied to sections of Riemannian vector bundles and their sphere subbundles. A complete classification is then given for left-invariant vector fields on 3-dimensional unimodular Lie groups equipped with an arbitrary left-invariant Riemannian metric.
Capacities-to-masses for Laplace-Beltrami operators on complete Riemannian manifolds
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学数学与统计学院）；Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Memorial University（纪念大学数学与统计系）
We prove that the quotient space of a variationally complete group action is a good Riemannian orbifold. The result is generalized to singular Riemannian foliations without horizontal conjugate points.
We prove a generalized version of the Morse index theorem for geodesics endowed with a non positive definite metric tensor (semi-Riemannian manifolds). We apply the result to obtain lower estimates on the number of geodesics joining two fixed non conjugate points in certain classes of manifolds. More specifically, we consider semi-Riemannian manifolds $(M,\mathfrak g)$ admitting a smooth distribution spanned by commuting Killing vector fields and containing a maximal negative distribution for $\mathfrak$. In particular we obtain Morse relations for stationary semi-Riemannian manifolds and for …
We derive a class of variational functionals which arise naturally in conformal geometry. In the special case when the Riemannian manifold is locally conformal flat, the functional coincides with the well studied functional which is the integration over the manifold of the k-symmetric function of the Schouten tensor of the metric on the manifold.
Manifold-valued data naturally arises in medical imaging. In cognitive neuroscience, for instance, brain connectomes base the analysis of coactivation patterns between different brain regions on the analysis of the correlations of their functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) time series - an object thus constrained by construction to belong to the manifold of symmetric positive definite matrices. One of the challenges that naturally arises consists of finding a lower-dimensional subspace for representing such manifold-valued data. Traditional techniques, like principal component analysis…
We summarize recent results initiating spectral analysis on pseudo-Riemannian locally symmetric spaces $Γ\backslash G/H$, beyond the classical setting where $H$ is compact (e.g. theory of automorphic forms for arithmetic $Γ$) or $Γ$ is trivial (e.g. Plancherel-type formula for semisimple symmetric spaces).
The curvature discussed in this paper is a rather far going generalization of the Riemannian sectional curvature. We define it for a wide class of optimal control problems: a unified framework including geometric structures such as Riemannian, sub-Riemannian, Finsler and sub-Finsler structures; a special attention is paid to the sub-Riemannian (or Carnot-Caratheodory) metric spaces. Our construction of the curvature is direct and naive, and it is similar to the original approach of Riemann. Surprisingly, it works in a very general setting and, in particular, for all sub-Riemannian spaces.
Let $M$ be a weighted manifold with boundary $\partial M$, i.e., a Riemannian manifold where a density function is used to weight the Riemannian Hausdorff measures. In this paper we compute the first and the second variational formulas of the interior weighted area for deformations by hypersurfaces with boundary in $\partial M$. As a consequence, we obtain variational characterizations of critical points and second order minima of the weighted area with or without a volume constraint. Moreover, in the compact case, we obtain topological estimates and rigidity properties for free boundary stabl…
There are many equivalent definitions of Riemannian geodesics. They are naturally generalised to sub-Riemannian manifold, but become non-equivalent. We give a review of different definitions of geodesics of a sub-Riemannian manifold and interrelation between them. We recall three variational definitions of geodesics as (locally) shortest curves (Euler-Lagrange, Pontyagin and Hamilton) and three definitions of geodesics as straightest curves (d'Alembert , Levi-Civita-Schouten and Cartan-Tanaka ), used in nonholonomic mechanics and discuss their interrelations. We consider a big class of sub-Rie…
Given two Riemannian manifolds $(B,g_B)$ and $(F,g_F)$, we give harmonicity conditions for vector fields on the Riemannian warped product $B\times_fF$, with $f:B \longrightarrow ]0,+\infty[$, using a characteristic variational condition. Then, we apply this to the case $B=\mathbb{R}$ and $F$ is a three-dimensional connected Riemannian Lie group $G$ equipped with a left-invariant metric, to determine harmonic vector fields on $\mathbb{R}\times_fG$. We give examples of harmonic vector fields on $G$ which are not left-invariant and determine harmonic vector fields on $\mathbb{R}\times_fG$. We con…
A magnetic field is defined by the property that its divergence is zero in a three dimensional oriented Riemannian manifold. Each magnetic field generates a magnetic flow whose trajectories are curves called as magnetic curves. In this paper, we give a new variational approach to studies the magnetic flow asociated with the Killing magnetic field in a three dimensional oriented Riemann manifold, And then, we investigate the trajectories of the magnetic fields called as N-magnetic and B-magnetic curves.
We formulate stochastic partial differential equations on Riemannian manifolds, moving surfaces, general evolving Riemannian manifolds (with appropriate assumptions) and Riemannian manifolds with random metrics, in the variational setting of the analysis to stochastic partial differential equations. Considering mainly linear stochastic partial differential equations, we establish various existence and uniqueness theorems.
We give an asymptotic expansion of the relative entropy between the heat kernel $q_Z(t,z,w)$ of a compact Riemannian manifold $Z$ and the normalized Riemannian volume for small values of $t$ and for a fixed element $z\in Z$. We prove that coefficients in the expansion can be expressed as universal polynomials in the components of the curvature tensor and its covariant derivatives at $z$, when they are expressed in terms of normal coordinates. We describe a method to compute the coefficients, and we use the method to compute the first three coefficients. The asymptotic expansion is necessary fo…
J. Eells and L. Lemaire introduced k-harmonic maps, and Wang Shaobo showed the first variational formula. When, k=2, it is called biharmonic maps (2-harmonic maps). There have been extensive studies in the area. In this paper, we consider the relationship between biharmonic maps and k-harmonic maps, and show non-existence theorem of 3-harmonic maps. We also give the definition of k-harmonic submanifolds of Euclidean spaces, and study k-harmonic curve in Euclidean spaces. Futhermore, we give a conjecture for k-harmonic submanifolds of Euclidean spaces.
We show that, the solutions of the isoperimetric problem for small volumes are $C^{2,α}$-close to small spheres. On the way, we define a class of submanifolds called pseudo balls, defined by an equation weaker than constancy of mean curvature. We show that in a neighborhood of each point of a compact riemannian manifold, there is a unique family concentric pseudo balls which contains all the pseudo balls $C^{2,α}$-close to small spheres. This allows us to reduce the isoperimetric problem for small volumes to a variational problem in finite dimension.
We define a new formal Riemannian metric on a conformal classes of four-manifolds in the context of the $σ_2$-Yamabe problem. Exploiting this new variational structure we show that solutions are unique unless the manifold is conformally equivalent to the round sphere.
We prove an implicit function theorem for functions on infinite-dimensional Banach manifolds, invariant under the (local) action of a finite dimensional Lie group. Motivated by some geometric variational problems, we consider group actions that are not necessarily differentiable everywhere, but only on some dense subset. Applications are discussed in the context of harmonic maps, closed (pseudo-)Riemannian geodesics, and constant mean curvature hypersurfaces.
The systole of a closed Riemannian manifold is the minimal length of a non-contractible closed loop. We give a uniform lower bound for the systole for large classes of simple arithmetic locally symmetric orbifolds. We establish new bounds for the translation length of a semisimple element x in SL_n(R) in terms of its associated Mahler measure. We use these geometric methods to prove the existence of extensions of number fields in which fixed sets of primes have certain prescribed splitting behavior.
In this paper, we establish the first variational formula and its Euler-Lagrange equation for the total $2p$-th mean curvature functional $\mathcal {M}_{2p}$ of a submanifold $M^n$ in a general Riemannian manifold $N^{n+m}$ for $p=0,1,...,[\frac{n}{2}]$. As an example, we prove that closed complex submanifolds in complex projective spaces are critical points of the functional $\mathcal {M}_{2p}$, called relatively $2p$-minimal submanifolds, for all $p$. At last, we discuss the relations between relatively $2p$-minimal submanifolds and austere submanifolds in real space forms, as well as a spec…
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…
The paper studies the harmonic maps on a direction between a Riemannian space and a generalized Lagrange space. Also, it is proved there that the solutions of C^2 class of certain ODEs or PDEs are harmonic maps, in the sense of this paper.
We formulate a conjecture that arithmetic locally symmetric manifolds have simple homotopy type, and prove it for the non-compact case. More precisely, we show that, for any symmetric space S of non-compact type without Euclidean de Rham factors, there are constants a=a(S) and d=d(S) such that any non-compact arithmetic manifold, locally isometric to S, is homotopically equivalent to a simplicial complex whose vertices degrees are bounded by d, and its number of vertices is bounded by a times the Riemannian volume. It is very likely that such a result holds also for compact arithmetic manifold…
We consider in this paper an area functional defined on submanifolds of fixed degree immersed into a graded manifold equipped with a Riemannian metric. Since the expression of this area depends on the degree, not all variations are admissible. It turns out that the associated variational vector fields must satisfy a system of partial differential equations of first order on the submanifold. Moreover, given a vector field solution of this system, we provide a sufficient condition that guarantees the possibility of deforming the original submanifold by variations preserving its degree. As in the…
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.
The geodesics for a sub-Riemannian metric on a three-dimensional contact manifold $M$ form a 1-parameter family of curves along each contact direction. However, a collection of such contact curves on $M$, locally equivalent to the solutions of a fourth-order ODE, are the geodesics of a sub-Riemannian metric only if a sequence of invariants vanish. The first of these, which was earlier identified by Fels, determines if the differential equation is variational. The next two determine if there is a well-defined metric on $M$ and if the given paths are its geodesics.
We show that for every Lipschitz function $f$ defined on a separable Riemannian manifold $M$ (possibly of infinite dimension), for every continuous $ε:M\to (0,+\infty)$, and for every positive number $r>0$, there exists a $C^\infty$ smooth Lipschitz function $g:M\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $|f(p)-g(p)|\leqε(p)$ for every $p\in M$ and $\textrm{Lip}(g)\leq\textrm{Lip}(f)+r$. Consequently, every separable Riemannian manifold is uniformly bumpable. We also present some applications of this result, such as a general version for separable Riemannian manifolds of Deville-Godefroy-Zizler's smooth variati…
Let $Ω$ be an open subset of a Stein manifold $Σ$ and let $M$ be its boundary. It is well known that $M$ inherits a natural contact structure. In this paper we consider a family of variational functionals $F_\varepsilon$ defined by the sum of two terms: a Dirichlet-type energy associated with a sub-Riemannian structure in $Ω$ and a potential term on the boundary $M$. We prove that the functionals $F_\varepsilon$ $Γ$-converge to the intrinsic perimeter in $M$ associated with its contact structure. Similar results have been obtained in the Euclidean space by Alberti, Bouchitté, Seppecher. We str…
