Dynamically convex Finsler metrics and <Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis>-holomorphic embedding of asymptotic cylinders

We explore the relationship between contact forms on defined by Finsler metrics on and the theory developed by H. Hofer, K. Wysocki and E. Zehnder (Hofer etal. Ann. Math. 148, 197–289, 1998; Ann. Math. 157, 125–255, 2003). We show that a Finsler metric on with curvature K ≥ 1 and with all geodesic loops of length > π is dynamically convex and hence it has either two or infinitely many closed geodesics. We also explain how to explicitly construct J-holomorphic embeddings of cylinders asymptotic to Reeb orbits of contact structures arising from Finsler metrics on with K = 1, thus complementing the results obtained in Harris and Wysocki (Trans. Am. Math. Soc., to appear).      

A local rigidity theorem for minimal surfaces in Minkowski 3-space of Randers type

Let be a Minkowski 3-space of Randers type with , where is the Euclidean metric and . We consider minimal surfaces in and prove that if a connected surface M in is minimal with respect to both the Busemann–Hausdorff volume form and the Holmes–Thompson volume form, then up to a parallel translation of , M is either a piece of plane or a piece of helicoid which is generated by lines screwing about the x ³-axis.      

Obstruction classes of crossed modules of Lie algebroids and Lie groupoids linked to existence of principal bundles

Let K be a Lie group and P be a K-principal bundle on a manifold M. Suppose given furthermore a central extension of K. It is a classical question whether there exists a -principal bundle on M such that . Neeb (Commun. Algebra 34:991–1041, 2006) defines in this context a crossed module of topological Lie algebras whose cohomology class is an obstruction to the existence of . In the present article, we show that is up to torsion a full obstruction for this problem, and we clarify its relation to crossed modules of Lie algebroids and Lie groupoids, and finally to gerbes.      

Harmonic morphisms from the classical compact semisimple Lie groups

In this article, we introduce a new method for manufacturing harmonic morphisms from semi-Riemannian manifolds. This is employed to yield a variety of new examples from the compact Lie groups SO(n), SU(n) and Sp(n) equipped with their standard Riemannian metrics. We develop a duality principle and show how this can be used to construct the first known examples of harmonic morphisms from the non-compact Lie groups , SU ^*(2n), , SO ^*(2n), SO(p, q), SU(p, q) and Sp(p, q) equipped with their standard dual semi-Riemannian metrics.      

Smooth structures,normalized Ricci flows,and finite cyclic groups

A solution to the normalized Ricci flow is called non-singular if it exists for all time with uniformly bounded sectional curvature. By using the techniques developed by the present authors [Ishida, The normalized Ricci flow on four-manifolds and exotic smooth structures; Şuvaina, Einstein metrics and smooth structures on non-simply connected 4-manifolds] we prove that for any finite cyclic group , where d > 1, there exist infinitely many compact topological 4-manifolds, with fundamental group , which admit at least one smooth structure for which non-singular solutions of the normalized Ricci flow exist, but also admit infinitely many distinct smooth structures for which no non-singular solution of the normalized Ricci flow exists. We show that there are no non-singular -equivariant, d > 1, solutions to the normalized Ricci flow on appropriate connected sums of and .     

CR-Admissible $$\mathbb{{Z}}_{2}$$-gradations and CR-symmetries

Complementing the results of (Lotta and Nacinovich, Adv. Math. 191(1): 114–146, 2005), we show that the minimal orbit M of a real form G of a semisimple complex Lie group in a flag manifold is CR-symmetric (see (Kaup and Zaitsev Adv. Math. 149(2):145–181, 2000)) if and only if the corresponding CR algebra admits a gradation compatible with the CR structure.      

Surfaces in $${\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}}$$ with a canonical principal direction

We show a way to choose nice coordinates on a surface in and use this to study minimal surfaces. We show that only open parts of cylinders over a geodesic in are both minimal and flat. We also show that the condition that the projection of the direction tangent to onto the tangent space of the surface is a principal direction, is equivalent to the condition that the surface is normally flat in . We present classification theorems under the extra assumption of minimality or flatness. J. Fastenakels is a research assistant of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO). J. Van der Veken is a postdoctoral researcher supported by the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO). This work was partially supported by project G.0432.07 of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO).     

Anisotropic version of a theorem of H. Hopf

Given a positive function F on S ² which satisfies a convexity condition, we define a function for surfaces in which is a generalization of the usual mean curvature function. We prove that an immersed topological sphere in with = constant is the Wulff shape, up to translations and homotheties.      

Curvature homogeneous Lorentzian three-manifolds

We study three-dimensional curvature homogeneous Lorentzian manifolds. We prove that for all Segre types of the Ricci operator, there exist examples of nonhomogeneous curvature homogeneous Lorentzian metrics in .      

On the minimality of the p-harmonic ma p $$x/\|x\|$$ for weighted energy

In this paper, we study the minimality of the map for the weighted energy functional , where is a continuous function. We prove that for any integer and any non-negative, non-decreasing continuous function f, the map minimizes E _f,p among the maps in which coincide with on . The case p = 1 has been already studied in [Bourgoin J.-C. Calc. Var. (to appear)]. Then, we extend results of Hong (see Ann. Inst. Poincaré Anal. Non-linéaire 17: 35–46 (2000)). Indeed, under the same assumptions for the function f, we prove that in dimension n ≥  7 for any real with , the map minimizes E _f,p among the maps in which coincide with on .      

A regularity result for polyharmonic maps with higher integrability

We prove a regularity result for critical points of the polyharmonic energy in with and p > 1. Our proof is based on a Gagliardo–Nirenberg-type estimate and avoids the moving frame technique. In view of the monotonicity formulae for stationary harmonic and biharmonic maps, we infer partial regularity in theses cases.     

Canonical connections on paracontact manifolds

The canonical paracontact connection is defined and it is shown that its torsion is the obstruction the paracontact manifold to be paraSasakian. A -homothetic transformation is determined as a special gauge transformation. The η-Einstein manifold are defined, it is proved that their scalar curvature is a constant, and it is shown that in the paraSasakian case these spaces can be obtained from Einstein paraSasakian manifolds with -homothetic transformations. It is shown that an almost paracontact structure admits a connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion if and only if the Nijenhuis tensor of the paracontact structure is skew-symmetric and the defining vector field is Killing.      

Laguerre geometry of hypersurfaces in $$\mathbb{R}^{n}$$

Laguerre geometry of surfaces in is given in the book of Blaschke [Vorlesungen über Differentialgeometrie, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York (1929)], and has been studied by Musso and Nicolodi [Trans. Am. Math. soc. 348, 4321–4337 (1996); Abh. Math. Sem. Univ. Hamburg 69, 123–138 (1999); Int. J. Math. 11(7), 911–924 (2000)], Palmer [Remarks on a variation problem in Laguerre geometry. Rendiconti di Mathematica, Serie VII, Roma, vol. 19, pp. 281–293 (1999)] and other authors. In this paper we study Laguerre differential geometry of hypersurfaces in . For any umbilical free hypersurface with non-zero principal curvatures we define a Laguerre invariant metric g on M and a Laguerre invariant self-adjoint operator : TM → TM, and show that is a complete Laguerre invariant system for hypersurfaces in with n≥ 4. We calculate the Euler–Lagrange equation for the Laguerre volume functional of Laguerre metric by using Laguerre invariants. Using the Euclidean space , the semi-Euclidean space and the degenerate space we define three Laguerre space forms , and and define the Laguerre embeddings and , analogously to what happens in the Moebius geometry where we have Moebius space forms S ⁿ , and (spaces of constant curvature) and conformal embeddings and [cf. Liu et al. in Tohoku Math. J. 53, 553–569 (2001) and Wang in Manuscr. Math. 96, 517–534 (1998)]. Using these Laguerre embeddings we can unify the Laguerre geometry of hypersurfaces in , and . As an example we show that minimal surfaces in or are Laguerre minimal in .C. Wang Partially supported by RFDP and Chuang-Xin-Qun-Ti of NSFC.     

Edge-boundary problems with singular trace conditions

The ellipticity of boundary value problems on a smooth manifold with boundary relies on a two-component principal symbolic structure , consisting of interior and boundary symbols. In the case of a smooth edge on manifolds with boundary, we have a third symbolic component, namely, the edge symbol , referring to extra conditions on the edge, analogously as boundary conditions. Apart from such conditions ‘in integral form’ there may exist singular trace conditions, investigated in Kapanadze et al., Internal Equations and Operator Theory, 61, 241–279, 2008 on ‘closed’ manifolds with edge. Here, we concentrate on the phenomena in combination with boundary conditions and edge problem.     

Polar actions on compact Euclidean hypersurfaces

Given an isometric immersion of a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension n ≥ 3 into Euclidean space of dimension n + 1, we prove that the identity component Iso ⁰(M ⁿ ) of the isometry group Iso(M ⁿ ) of M ⁿ admits an orthogonal representation such that for every . If G is a closed connected subgroup of Iso(M ⁿ ) acting polarly on M ⁿ , we prove that Φ(G) acts polarly on , and we obtain that f(M ⁿ ) is given as Φ(G)(L), where L is a hypersurface of a section which is invariant under the Weyl group of the Φ(G)-action. We also find several sufficient conditions for such an f to be a rotation hypersurface. Finally, we show that compact Euclidean rotation hypersurfaces of dimension n ≥ 3 are characterized by their underlying warped product structure.      

Flat nearly Kähler manifolds

We classify flat strict nearly Kähler manifolds with (necessarily) indefinite metric. Any such manifold is locally the product of a flat pseudo-Kähler factor of maximal dimension and a strict flat nearly Kähler manifold of split signature (2m, 2m) with m ≥ 3. Moreover, the geometry of the second factor is encoded in a complex three-form $\zeta \in \Lambda^3 (\mathbb{C}^m)^*We classify flat strict nearly K?hler manifolds with (necessarily) indefinite metric. Any such manifold is locally the product of a flat pseudo-K?hler factor of maximal dimension and a strict flat nearly K?hler manifold of split signature (2m, 2m) with m ≥ 3. Moreover, the geometry of the second factor is encoded in a complex three-form . The first nontrivial example occurs in dimension 4m = 12.      

Dy namic of Abelia n Subgroups of GL( n, $$\mathbb{C}$$): A Structure Theorem

In this paper, we characterize the dynamic of every Abelian subgroups of , or . We show that there exists a -invariant, dense open set U in saturated by minimal orbits with a union of at most n -invariant vector subspaces of of dimension n−1 or n−2 over . As a consequence, has height at most n and in particular it admits a minimal set in . This work is supported by the research unit: systèmes dynamiques et combinatoire: 99UR15-15     

Conformally Einstein products and nearly Kähler manifolds

In the first part of this note we study compact Riemannian manifolds (M, g) whose Riemannian product with is conformally Einstein. We then consider 6-dimensional almost Hermitian manifolds of type W ₁ + W ₄ in the Gray–Hervella classification admitting a parallel vector field and show that (under some mild assumption) they are obtained as Riemannian cylinders over compact Sasaki–Einstein 5-dimensional manifolds.      

On balanced Hermitian structures on Lie groups

We present several methods for the construction of balanced Hermitian structures on Lie groups. In our methods a partial differential equation is involved so that the resulting structures are in general non homogeneous. In particular, we prove that for 3-step nilpotent Lie groups G of dimension 6, any left-invariant complex structure on G admits a balanced Hermitian metric. Starting from normal almost contact structures, we construct balanced metrics on 6-dimensional manifolds, generalizing warped products. Finally, explicit balanced Hermitian structures are also given on solvable Lie groups defined as semidirect products ${\mathbb{R}^k \ltimes \mathbb{R}^{2n-k}}$ .     

Minimal graphs in {M \times \mathbb{R}}

We study minimal graphs in . First, we establish some relations between the geometry of the domain and the existence of certain minimal graphs. We then discuss the problem of finding the maximal number of disjoint domains Ω ⊂ M that admit a minimal graph that vanishes on ∂Ω. When M is two-dimensional and has non-negative sectional curvature, we prove that this number is 3. This was proved by Tkachev in . Maria Fernanda Elbert was partially supported by CNPq and Faperj.