Complete Riemannian Metric Research Articles

Index theory and deformations of open nonnegatively curved manifolds

We use an index-theoretic technique of Hitchin to show that the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on certain open spin manifolds has nontrivial homotopy groups in infinitely many degrees. A new ingredient of independent interest is homotopy density of the subspace of metrics with cylindrical ends.

A manifold of planar triangular meshes with complete Riemannian metric

Shape spaces are fundamental in a variety of applications including image registration, morphing, matching, interpolation, and shape optimization. In this work, we consider two-dimensional shapes represented by triangular meshes of a given connectivity. We show that the collection of admissible configurations representable by such meshes forms a smooth manifold. For this manifold of planar triangular meshes we propose a geodesically complete Riemannian metric. It is a distinguishing feature of this metric that it preserves the mesh connectivity and prevents the mesh from degrading along geodesic curves. We detail a symplectic numerical integrator for the geodesic equation in its Hamiltonian formulation. Numerical experiments show that the proposed metric keeps the cell aspect ratios bounded away from zero and thus avoids mesh degradation along arbitrarily long geodesic curves.

Sharp upper bounds on the length of the shortest closed geodesic on complete punctured spheres of finite area

We establish sharp universal upper bounds on the length of the shortest closed geodesic on a punctured sphere with three or four ends endowed with a complete Riemannian metric of finite area. These sharp curvature-free upper bounds are expressed in terms of the area of the punctured sphere. In both cases, we describe the extremal metrics, which are modeled on the Calabi–Croke sphere or the tetrahedral sphere. We also extend these optimal inequalities for reversible and non-necessarily reversible Finsler metrics. In this setting, we obtain optimal bounds for spheres with a larger number of punctures. Finally, we present a roughly asymptotically optimal upper bound on the length of the shortest closed geodesic for spheres/surfaces with a large number of punctures in terms of the area.

On Scalar and Ricci Curvatures

The purpose of this report is to acknowledge the influence of M. Gromov's vision of geometry on our own works. It is two-fold: in the first part we aim at describing some results, in dimension 3, around the question: which open 3-manifolds carry a complete Riemannian metric of positive or non negative scalar curvature? In the second part we look for weak forms of the notion of ''lower bounds of the Ricci curvature'' on non necessarily smooth metric measure spaces. We describe recent results some of which are already posted in [arXiv:1712.08386] where we proposed to use the volume entropy. We also attempt to give a new synthetic version of Ricci curvature bounded below using Bishop-Gromov's inequality.

Global solvability of the vacuum Einstein equation and the strong cosmic censorship in four dimensions

Let M be a connected, simply connected, oriented, closed, smooth four-manifold which is spin (or equivalently having even intersection form) and put M×≔M∖{point}. In this paper we prove that if X× is a smooth four-manifold homeomorphic but not necessarily diffeomorphic to M× (more precisely, it carries a smooth structure à la Gompf) then X× can be equipped with a complete Ricci-flat Riemannian metric. As a byproduct of the construction it follows that this metric is self-dual as well consequently X× with this metric is in fact a hyper-Kähler manifold. In particular we find that the largest member of the Gompf–Taubes radial family of large exotic R4’s admits a complete Ricci-flat metric (and in fact it is a hyper-Kähler manifold).These Riemannian solutions are then converted into Ricci-flat Lorentzian ones thereby exhibiting lot of new vacuum solutions which are not accessible by the initial value formulation. A natural physical interpretation of them in the context of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture and topology change is discussed.

Graph manifolds as ends of negatively curved Riemannian manifolds

Let $M$ be a graph manifold such that each piece of its JSJ decomposition has the $\Bbb H^2 \times \Bbb R$ geometry. Assume that the pieces are glued by isometries. Then, there exists a complete Riemannian metric on $\Bbb R \times M$ which is an "eventually warped cusp metric" with the sectional curvature $K$ satisfying $-1 \le K <0$. A theorem by Ontaneda then implies that $M$ appears as an end of a 4-dimensional, complete, non-compact Riemannian manifold of finite volume with sectional curvature $K$ satisfying $-1 \le K <0$.

Deforming 3-manifolds of bounded geometry and uniformly positive scalar 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 generalises 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.

Scattering theory without injectivity radius assumptions, and spectral stability for the Ricci flow

We prove a completely new integral criterion for the existence and completeness of the wave operators $W_{\pm}(-\Delta_h,-\Delta_g, I_{g,h})$ corresponding to the (unique self-adjoint realizations of) the Laplace-Beltrami operators $-\Delta_j$, $j=1,2$, that are induced by two quasi-isometric complete Riemannian metrics $g$ and $h$ on an open manifold $M$. In particular, this result provides a criterion for the absolutely continuous spectra of $-\Delta_g$ and $-\Delta_h$ to coincide. Our proof relies on estimates that are obtained using a probabilistic Bismut type formula for the gradient of a heat semigroup. Unlike all previous results, our integral criterion only requires some lower control on the Ricci curvatures and some upper control on the heat kernels, but no control at all on the injectivity radii. As a consequence, we obtain a stability result for the absolutely continuous spectrum under a Ricci flow.

On positive scalar curvature and moduli of curves

In this article we first show that any finite cover of the moduli space of closed Riemann surfaces of genus $g$ with $g\geq 2$ does not admit any Riemannian metric $ds^2$ of nonnegative scalar curvature such that $ds^2 \succ ds_{T}^2$ where $ds_{T}^2$ is the Teichm\"uller metric. Our second result is the proof that any cover $M$ of the moduli space $\mathbb{M}_{g}$ of a closed Riemann surface $S_{g}$ does not admit any complete Riemannian metric of uniformly positive scalar curvature in the quasi-isometry class of the Teichm\"uller metric, which implies a conjecture of Farb-Weinberger.

Callias-type operators in C∗-algebras and positive scalar curvature on noncompact manifolds

A Dirac-type operator on a complete Riemannian manifold is of Callias-type if its square is a Schrödinger-type operator with a potential uniformly positive outside of a compact set. We develop the theory of Callias-type operators twisted with Hilbert [Formula: see text]-module bundles and prove an index theorem for such operators. As an application, we derive an obstruction to the existence of complete Riemannian metrics of positive scalar curvature on noncompact spin manifolds in terms of closed submanifolds of codimension one. In particular, when [Formula: see text] is a closed spin manifold, we show that if the cylinder [Formula: see text] carries a complete metric of positive scalar curvature, then the (complex) Rosenberg index on [Formula: see text] must vanish.

Spaces of nonnegatively curved surfaces

We determine the homeomorphism type of the space of smooth complete nonnegatively curved metrics on $S^2$, $RP^2$, and $\mathbb{C}$ equipped with the topology of $C^\gamma$ uniform convergence on compact sets, when $\gamma$ is infinite or is not an integer. If $\gamma=\infty$, the space of metrics is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space. If $\gamma$ is finite and not an integer, the space of metrics is homeomorphic to the countable power of the linear span of the Hilbert cube. We also prove similar results for some other spaces of metrics including the space of complete smooth Riemannian metrics on an arbitrary manifold.

Evolution systems of measures and semigroup properties on evolving manifolds

An evolving Riemannian manifold $(M,g_t)_{t\in I}$ consists of a smooth $d$-dimensional manifold $M$, equipped with a geometric flow $g_t$ of complete Riemannian metrics, parametrized by $I=(-\infty,T)$. Given an additional $C^{1,1}$ family of vector fields $(Z_t)_{t\in I}$ on $M$. We study the family of operators $L_t=\Delta_t +Z_t $ where $\Delta_t$ denotes the Laplacian with respect to the metric $g_t$. We first give sufficient conditions, in terms of space-time Lyapunov functions, for non-explosion of the diffusion generated by $L_t$, and for existence of evolution systems of probability measures associated to it. Coupling methods are used to establish uniqueness of the evolution systems under suitable curvature conditions. Adopting such a unique system of probability measures as reference measures, we characterize supercontractivity, hypercontractivity and ultraboundedness of the corresponding time-inhomogeneous semigroup. To this end, gradient estimates and a family of (super-)logarithmic Sobolev inequalities are established.

Geodesics and nodal sets of Laplace eigenfunctions on hyperbolic manifolds

Let X be a manifold equipped with a complete Riemannian metric of constant negative curvature and finite volume. We demonstrate the finiteness of the collection of totally geodesic immersed hypersurfaces in X that lie in the zero-level set of some Laplace eigenfunction. For surfaces, we show that the number can be bounded just in terms of the area of the surface. We also provide constructions of geodesics in hyperbolic surfaces that lie in a nodal set but that do not lie in the fixed point set of a reflection symmetry.

Spaces and moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics

These notes present and survey results about spaces and moduli spaces of complete Riemannian metrics with curvature bounds on open and closed manifolds, here focussing mainly on connectedness and disconnectedness properties. They also discuss several open problems and questions in the field.

Positive scalar curvature and product formulas for secondary index invariants

We introduce partial secondary invariants associated to complete Riemannian metrics which have uniformly positive scalar curvature outside a prescribed subset on a spin manifold. These can be used to distinguish such Riemannian metrics up to concordance relative to the prescribed subset. We exhibit a general external product formula for partial secondary invariants, from which we deduce product formulas for the higher rho-invariant of a metric with uniformly positive scalar curvature as well as for the higher relative index of two metrics with uniformly positive scalar curvature. Our methods yield a new conceptual proof of the secondary partitioned manifold index theorem and a refined version of the delocalized APS-index theorem of Piazza-Schick for the spinor Dirac operator in all dimensions. We establish a partitioned manifold index theorem for the higher relative index. We also show that secondary invariants are stable with respect to direct products with aspherical manifolds that have fundamental groups of finite asymptotic dimension. Moreover, we construct examples of complete metrics with uniformly positive scalar curvature on non-compact spin manifolds which can be distinguished up to concordance relative to subsets which are coarsely negligible in a certain sense. A technical novelty in this paper is that we use Yu's localization algebras in combination with the description of K-theory for graded C*-algebras due to Trout. This formalism allows direct definitions of all the invariants we consider in terms of the functional calculus of the Dirac operator and enables us to give concise proofs of the product formulas.

Non-aspherical ends and non-positive curvature

We obtain restrictions on the boundary of a compact manifold whose interior admits a complete Riemannian metric of non-positive sectional curvature.

A note on Riemannian metrics on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces

In this note we show that the moduli space M(Sg,n) of surface Sg,n of genus g with n punctures, satisfying 3g + n ≥ 5, admits no complete Riemannian metric of nonpositive sectional curvature such that the Teichmuler space T(Sg,n) is a mapping class group Mod(Sg,n)-invariant visibility manifold.

Connectedness properties of the space of complete nonnegatively curved planes

We study the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative curvature on the plane equipped with the \(C^k\) topology. If \(k\) is infinite, we show that the space is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space. For any \(k\) we prove that the space cannot be made disconnected by removing a finite dimensional subset. A similar result holds for the associated moduli space. The proof combines properties of subharmonic functions with results of infinite dimensional topology and dimension theory. A key step is a characterization of the conformal factors that make the standard Euclidean metric on the plane into a complete metric of nonnegative sectional curvature.

Obstructions to nonpositive curvature for open manifolds

We study algebraic conditions on a group G under which every properly discontinuous, isometric G-action on a Hadamard manifold has a G-invariant Busemann function. For such G we prove the following structure theorem: every open complete nonpositively curved Riemannian K(G,1) manifold that is homotopy equivalent to a finite complex of codimension >2 is an open regular neighborhood of a subcomplex of the same codimension. In this setting we show that each tangential homotopy type contains infinitely many open K(G,1) manifolds that admit no complete nonpositively curved metric even though their universal cover is the Euclidean space. A sample application is that an open contractible manifold W is homeomorphic to a Euclidean space if and only if the product of W and a circle admits a complete Riemannian metric of nonpositive curvature.

The Radial Part of Brownian Motion with Respect to $$\mathcal L $$ L -Distance Under Ricci Flow

Let \(\{g_t\}_{t\in [0,T)}\) be a family of complete time-depending Riemannian metrics on a manifold, which evolves under backwards Ricci flow. The Ito formula is established for the \(\mathcal L \)-distance of the \(g_t\)-Brownian motion to a fixed reference point (\(\mathcal L \)-base). Furthermore, as an application, we construct a coupling by parallel displacement, which yields a new proof of some results of Topping.