Negative Sectional Curvature Research Articles

The Ricci flow in a class of solvmanifolds

In this paper, we study the Ricci flow of solvmanifolds whose Lie algebra has an abelian ideal of codimension one, by using the bracket flow. We prove that solutions to the Ricci flow are immortal, the ω-limit of bracket flow solutions is a single point, and that for any sequence of times there exists a subsequence in which the Ricci flow converges, in the pointed topology, to a manifold which is locally isometric to a flat manifold. We give a functional which is non-increasing along a normalized bracket flow that will allow us to prove that given a sequence of times, one can extract a subsequence converging to an algebraic soliton, and to determine which of these limits are flat. Finally, we use these results to prove that if a Lie group in this class admits a Riemannian metric of negative sectional curvature, then the curvature of any Ricci flow solution will become negative in finite time.

Cubics and negative curvature

Riemannian cubics are curves that generalise cubic polynomials to arbitrary Riemannian manifolds, in the same way that geodesics generalise straight lines. Considering that geodesics can be extended indefinitely in any complete manifold, we ask whether Riemannian cubics can also be extended indefinitely. We find that there are always exceptions in Riemannian manifolds with strictly negative sectional curvature. On the other hand, we show that Riemannian cubics can always be extended in complete locally symmetric Riemannian manifolds of non-negative curvature.

Index theorems on manifolds with straight ends

AbstractWe study Fredholm properties and index formulas for Dirac operators over complete Riemannian manifolds with straight ends. An important class of examples of such manifolds are complete Riemannian manifolds with pinched negative sectional curvature and finite volume.

On the generalized Chen's conjecture on biharmonic submanifolds

The generalized Chen's conjecture on biharmonic submanifolds asserts that any biharmonic submanifold of a non-positively curved manifold is minimal (see e.g., [CMO1], [MO], [BMO1], [BMO2], [BMO3], [Ba1], [Ba2], [Ou1], [Ou2], [IIU]). In this paper, we prove that this conjecture is false by constructing foliations of proper biharmonic hyperplanes in a 5-dimensional conformally flat space with negative sectional curvature. Many examples of proper biharmonic submanifolds of non-positively curved spaces are also given.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft: Quantum Ergodicity

Quantum Ergodicity aims at understanding the eigenstates of quantum mechanical systems admitting chaotic classical limiting dynamics. A paradigmatic system is the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a compact manifold of negative sectional curvature: its classical limit is the geodesic flow on the manifold, which is of Anosov type. Although no explicit expression is available for the eigenstates, one may use various tools from semiclassical analysis in order to gather some partial information on their structure. The central result (Quantum Ergodicity Theorem) states that almost all eigenstates are equidistributed over the energy shell, in the semiclassical limit, provided the classical system is ergodic. The lectures review the background techniques of semiclassical analysis and ergodic theory, give several versions of the QE theorem, and present several extensions of the result, which apply to specific systems, for instance chaotic systems enjoying arithmetic symmetries.

Classical and quantum ergodicity on orbifolds

We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to Shnirelman, Colin de Verdi\`ere and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive, first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional curvature.

Geodesic-length functions and the Weil-Petersson curvature tensor

An expansion is developed for the Weil-Petersson Riemann curvature tensor in the thin region of the Teichmüller and moduli spaces. The tensor is evaluated on the gradients of geodesic lengths for disjoint geodesics. A precise lower bound for sectional curvature in terms of the surface systole is presented. The curvature tensor expansion is applied to establish continuity properties at the frontier strata of the augmented Teichmüller space. The curvature tensor has the asymptotic product structure already observed for the metric and covariant derivative. The product structure is combined with the earlier negative sectional curvature results to establish a classification of asymptotic flats. Furthermore, tangent subspaces of more than half the dimension of Teichmüller space contain sections with a definite amount of negative curvature. Proofs combine estimates for uniformization group exponential-distance sums and potential theory bounds.

Special Lagrangian curvature

We define the notion of special Lagrangian curvature, showing how it may be interpreted as an alternative higher dimensional generalisation of two dimensional Gaussian curvature. We obtain first a local rigidity result for this curvature when the ambient manifold has negative sectional curvature. We then show how this curvature relates to the canonical special Legendrian structure of spherical subbundles of the tangent bundle of the ambient manifold. This allows us to establish a strong compactness result. In the case where the special Lagrangian angle equals (n − 1)π/2, we obtain compactness modulo a unique mode of degeneration, where a sequence of hypersurfaces wraps ever tighter round a geodesic.

Shrinking targets in fast mixing flows and the geodesic flow on negatively curved manifolds

We show that in a rapidly mixing flow with an invariant measure, the time which is needed to hit a given section is related to a sort of conditional dimension of the measure at the section. The result is applied to the geodesic flow of compact manifolds with variable negative sectional curvature, establishing a logarithm law for such kind of flow.

Blow-up of solutions to semilinear parabolic equations on Riemannian manifolds with negative sectional curvature

On Riemannian manifolds with negative sectional curvature, we study finite time blow-up and global existence of solutions to semilinear parabolic equations, where the power nonlinearity is multiplied by a time-dependent positive function h ( t ) . We show that depending on the behavior at infinity of h, either every solution blows up in finite time, or a global solution exists, if the initial datum is small enough. In particular, if h ≡ 1 we have global existence for small initial data, whereas for h ( t ) = e α t a Fujita-type phenomenon appears for certain values of α > 0 . A key role will be played by the infimum of the L 2 -spectrum of the operator −Δ on M.

Stable minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature

We give an estimate of the smallest spectral value of the Laplace operator on a complete noncompact stable minimal hypersurface M in a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature. In the same ambient space, we prove that if a complete minimal hypersurface M has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then M has only one end. We also obtain a vanishing theorem for L 2 harmonic 1-forms on minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded below by a negative constant. Moreover, we provide sufficient conditions for a minimal hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature to be stable.

Complex hyperbolic hyperplane complements

We study spaces obtained from a complete finite volume complex hyperbolic n-manifold M by removing a compact totally geodesic complex (n − 1)-submanifold S. The main result is that the fundamental group of $${M{\setminus} S}$$ is relatively hyperbolic, relative to fundamental groups of the ends of $${M{\setminus} S}$$ , and $${M{\setminus} S}$$ admits a complete finite volume A-regular Riemannian metric of negative sectional curvature. It follows that for n > 1 the fundamental group of $${M{\setminus} S}$$ satisfies Mostow-type Rigidity, has solvable word and conjugacy problems, has finite asymptotic dimension and rapid decay property, satisfies Borel and Baum-Connes conjectures, is co-Hopf and residually hyperbolic, has no nontrivial subgroups with property (T), and has finite outer automorphism group. Furthermore, if M is compact, then the fundamental group of $${M{\setminus} S}$$ is biautomatic and satisfies Strong Tits Alternative.

Conformal entropy rigidity through Yamabe flows

We introduce two versions of the Yamabe flow which preserve negative scalar-curvature bounds. First we show existence and smooth convergence of solutions to these flows. We then show that a metric with negative scalar curvature is controlled by the Yamabe metrics in the same conformal class with constant extremal scalar curvatures. This implies that the volume entropy of our original metric is controlled by the entropies of these Yamabe metrics. We eventually use these Yamabe flows to prove an entropy-rigidity result: when the Yamabe metric has negative sectional curvature, the entropy of a metric in the same conformal class is extremal if and only if the metric has constant extremal scalar curvature.

CLASSES OF GRADIENT RICCI SOLITONS

We introduce a study of Riemannian manifold M = ℝ2 endowed with a metric of diagonal type of the form [Formula: see text], where g is a positive function, of C∞-class, depending on the variable x2 only. We emphasize the role of metric [Formula: see text] in determining manifolds having negative, null or positive sectional curvature. Within this framework, we find a wide class of gradient Ricci solitons (see, Theorems 4 and 7) and specialize these results to discuss some 2D and 4D case studies. The present study can be thought as a natural continuation of those included in monograph [22] by Constantin Udrişte, and to those in the research article [12] by Richard S. Hamilton (the result in Proposition 8 is precisely the famous "Hamilton cigar" in polar coordinates).

Some existence results on the exterior Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation

It is proved the existence of solutions to the exterior Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation in complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds either with negative sectional curvature and simply connected or with nonnegative Ricci curvature under a growth condition on the sectional curvature.

A criterion for topological entropy to decrease under normalised Ricci flow

In 2004, Manning showed that the topological entropy of the geodesic flow for a surface of negative curvature decreases as the metric evolves under the normalised Ricci flow. It is an interesting open problem, also due to Manning, to determine to what extent such behaviour persists for higher dimensional manifolds. In this short note, we describe the problem and give a curvature criterion under which monotonicity of the topological entropy can be established for a short time. In particular, the criterion applies to metrics of negative sectional curvature which are in the same conformal class as a metric of constant negative sectional curvature.

A variation formula for the topological entropy of convex-cocompact manifolds

AbstractLet (M,gλ) be a 𝒞2-family of complete convex-cocompact metrics with pinched negative sectional curvatures on a fixed manifold. We show that the topological entropy htop(gλ) of the geodesic flow is a 𝒞1 function of λ and we give an explicit formula for its derivative. We apply this to show that if ρλ(Γ)⊂PSL2(ℂ) is an analytic family of convex-cocompact faithful representations of a Kleinian group Γ, then the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set Λρλ(Γ) is a 𝒞1 function of λ. Finally, we give a variation formula for Λρλ (Γ).

Solution of a Busemann problem

We give a solution to the problem posed by Busemann which is as follows: Determine the noncompact Busemann G-spaces such that for every two geodesics there exists a motion taking one to the other. We prove that each of these spaces is isometric to the Euclidean space or to one of the noncompact symmetric spaces of rank 1 (of negative sectional curvature).

Maslov class rigidity for Lagrangian submanifolds via Hofer’s geometry

In this work, we establish new rigidity results for the Maslov class of Lagrangian submanifolds in large classes of closed and convex symplectic manifolds. Our main result establishes upper bounds for the minimal Maslov number of displaceable Lagrangian submanifolds which are product manifolds whose factors each admit a metric of negative sectional curvature. Such Lagrangian submanifolds exist in every symplectic manifold of dimension greater than six or equal to four. The proof utilizes the relations between closed geodesics on the Lagrangian, the periodic orbits of geometric Hamiltonian flows supported near the Lagrangian, and the length minimizing properties of these flows with respect to the negative Hofer length functional.

Complete submanifolds of manifolds of negative curvature

In this article, we give sufficient conditions for a complete non-compact submanifold in a simply connected manifold of negative sectional curvature to have only one end. We also prove some Liouville theorems for harmonic maps from the same kind of submanifolds to manifolds of non-positive curvature.