Weakly Convex Biharmonic Hypersurfaces in Nonpositive Curvature Space Forms are Minimal

A submanifold M ^m of a Euclidean space R ^m+p is said to have harmonic mean curvature vector field if ${\Delta \vec{H}=0}$ , where ${\vec{H}}$ is the mean curvature vector field of ${M\hookrightarrow R^{m+p}}$ and Δ is the rough Laplacian on M. There is a famous conjecture named after Bangyen Chen which states that submanifolds of Euclidean spaces with harmonic mean curvature vector fields are minimal. In this paper we prove that weakly convex hypersurfaces (i.e. hypersurfaces whose principle curvatures are nonnegative) with harmonic mean curvature vector fields in Euclidean spaces are minimal. Furthermore we prove that weakly convex biharmonic hypersurfaces in nonpositively curved space forms are minimal.     

Interpolation between Brezis–Vázquez and Poincaré inequalities on nonnegatively curved spaces: sharpness and rigidities

This paper is devoted to investigate an interpolation inequality between the Brezis–Vázquez and Poincaré inequalities (shortly, BPV inequality) on nonnegatively curved spaces. As a model case, we first prove that the BPV inequality holds on any Minkowski space, by fully characterizing the existence and shape of its extremals. We then prove that if a complete Finsler manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature supports the BPV inequality, then its flag curvature is identically zero. In particular, we deduce that a Berwald space of nonnegative Ricci curvature supports the BPV inequality if and only if it is isometric to a Minkowski space. Our arguments explore fine properties of Bessel functions, comparison principles, and anisotropic symmetrization on Minkowski spaces. As an application, we characterize the existence of nonzero solutions for a quasilinear PDE involving the Finsler–Laplace operator and a Hardy-type singularity on Minkowski spaces where the sharp BPV inequality plays a crucial role. The results are also new in the Riemannian/Euclidean setting.     

LIPSCHITZ CONTINUITY OF MINIMIZERS FOR THE GINZBURG-LANDAU FUNCTIONAL BETWEEN ALEXANDROV SPACES

In this paper, we shall prove that any minimizer of Ginzburg-Landau functional from an Alexandrov space with curvature bounded below into a nonpositively curved metric cone must be locally Lipschitz continuous.     

The convex hull property and topology of hypersurfaces with nonnegative curvature

We prove that, in Euclidean space, any nonnegatively curved, compact, smoothly immersed hypersurface lies outside the convex hull of its boundary, provided the boundary satisfies certain required conditions. This gives a convex hull property, dual to the classical one for surfaces with nonpositive curvature. A version of this result in the nonsmooth category is obtained as well. We show that our boundary conditions determine the topology of the surface up to at most two choices. The proof is based on uniform estimates for radii of convexity of these surfaces under a clipping procedure, a noncollapsing convergence theorem, and a gluing procedure.     

Convexities of metric spaces

We introduce two kinds of the notion of convexity of a metric space, called k-convexity and L-convexity, as generalizations of the CAT(0)-property and of the nonpositively curved property in the sense of Busemann, respectively. 2-uniformly convex Banach spaces as well as CAT(1)-spaces with small diameters satisfy both these convexities. Among several geometric and analytic results, we prove the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for maps into a wide class of metric spaces.      

Invariants and Bonnet-type theorem for surfaces in ℝ4

In the tangent plane at any point of a surface in the four-dimensional Euclidean space we consider an invariant linear map ofWeingarten-type and find a geometrically determined moving frame field. Writing derivative formulas of Frenet-type for this frame field, we obtain eight invariant functions. We prove a fundamental theorem of Bonnet-type, stating that these eight invariants under some natural conditions determine the surface up to a motion. We show that the basic geometric classes of surfaces in the four-dimensional Euclidean space, determined by conditions on their invariants, can be interpreted in terms of the properties of two geometric figures: the tangent indicatrix, which is a conic in the tangent plane, and the normal curvature ellipse. We construct a family of surfaces with flat normal connection.     

Coarse Baum-Connes conjecture

In this paper, we shall prove the coarse Baum-Connes conjecture for metric spaces with Lipschitz good covers. This class of metric spaces includes trees and simply connected nonpositively curved manifolds.Supported by DMS8505550 through a MSRI Postdoctoral Fellowship.     

Total excess on length surfaces

We study the space of directions on a length space and examine examples having particular spaces of directions. Then we generalize the notion of total excess on length spaces satisfying some suitable conditions, which we call good surfaces. For good surfaces we generalize the Euler characteristic, and prove the generalized Gauss-Bonnet Theorem and other relations between the total excess and the Euler characteristic. Furthermore, we see that the Gaussian curvature can be defined almost everywhere on a good surface with non-positive total excess. Received April 3, 1997 / Published online February 5, 2001     

Fundamental groups of compact manifolds and symmetric geometry of noncompact type

We introduce the notion of geometrical engagement for actions of semisimple Lie groups and their lattices as a concept closely related to Zimmer's topological engagement condition. Our notion is a geometrical criterion in the sense that it makes use of Riemannian distances. However, it can be used together with the foliated harmonic map techniques introduced in [8] to establish foliated geometric superrigidity results for both actions and geometric objects. In particular, we improve the applications of the main theorem in [9] to consider nonpositively curved compact manifolds (not necessarily with strictly negative curvature). We also establish topological restrictions for Riemannian manifolds whose universal cover have a suitable symmetric de Rham factor (Theorem B), as well as geometric obstructions for nonpositively curved compact manifolds to have fundamental groups isomorphic to certain groups build out of cocompact lattices in higher rank simple Lie groups (Corollary 4.5). Received: October 22, 1997     

Cylindrical estimates for mean curvature flow of hypersurfaces in CROSSes

We consider the mean curvature flow of a closed hypersurface in the complex or quaternionic projective space. Under a suitable pinching assumption on the initial data, we prove apriori estimates on the principal curvatures which imply that the asymptotic profile near a singularity is either strictly convex or cylindrical. This result generalizes to a large class of symmetric ambient spaces the estimates obtained in the previous works on the mean curvature flow of hypersurfaces in Euclidean space and in the sphere.     

A. D. Alexandrov's Problem for CAT(0)-Spaces

We solve the well-known problem by A. D. Alexandrov for nonpositively curved spaces. Let X be a geodesically complete locally compact space nonpositively curved in the sense of Alexandrov and connected at infinity. The main theorem reads as follows: Each bijection f : X → X such that f and the inverse f ^?1 of f preserve distance 1 is an isometry of X.     

On the volume functional of compact manifolds with boundary with constant scalar curvature

We study the volume functional on the space of constant scalar curvature metrics with a prescribed boundary metric. We derive a sufficient and necessary condition for a metric to be a critical point, and show that the only domains in space forms, on which the standard metrics are critical points, are geodesic balls. In the zero scalar curvature case, assuming the boundary can be isometrically embedded in the Euclidean space as a compact strictly convex hypersurface, we show that the volume of a critical point is always no less than the Euclidean volume bounded by the isometric embedding of the boundary, and the two volumes are equal if and only if the critical point is isometric to a standard Euclidean ball. We also derive a second variation formula and apply it to show that, on Euclidean balls and “small” hyperbolic and spherical balls in dimensions 3 ≤ n ≤ 5, the standard space form metrics are indeed saddle points for the volume functional.     

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).     

Hyperbolic mean curvature flow

In this paper we introduce the hyperbolic mean curvature flow and prove that the corresponding system of partial differential equations is strictly hyperbolic, and based on this, we show that this flow admits a unique short-time smooth solution and possesses the nonlinear stability defined on the Euclidean space with dimension larger than 4. We derive nonlinear wave equations satisfied by some geometric quantities related to the hyperbolic mean curvature flow. Moreover, we also discuss the relation between the equations for hyperbolic mean curvature flow and the equations for extremal surfaces in the Minkowski space-time.     

Surfaces of Rotation with Constant Extrinsic Curvature in a Conformally Flat 3-Space

In this work, we relate the extrinsic curvature of surfaces with respect to the Euclidean metric and any metrics that are conformal to the Euclidean metric. We introduce the space ${\mathbb{E}_3}$ ??the 3-dimensional real vector space equipped with a conformally flat metric that is a solution of the Einstein equation. We characterize the surfaces of rotation with constant extrinsic curvature in the space ${\mathbb{E}_3}$ . We obtain a one-parameter family of two-sheeted hyperboloids that are complete surfaces with zero extrinsic curvature in ${\mathbb{E}_3}$ . Moreover, we obtain a one-parameter family of cones and show that there exists another one-parameter family of complete surfaces of rotation with zero extrinsic curvature in ${\mathbb{E}_3}$ . Moreover, we show that there exist complete surfaces with constant negative extrinsic curvature in ${\mathbb{E}_3}$ . As an application we prove that there exist complete surfaces with Gaussian curvature K ?? ? ?? < 0, in contrast with Efimov??s Theorem for the Euclidean space, and Schlenker??s Theorem for the hyperbolic space.     

On the geometry of conformally stationary Lorentz spaces

We study several aspects of the geometry of conformally stationary Lorentz manifolds, and particularly of GRW spaces, due to the presence of a closed conformal vector field. More precisely, we begin by extending a result of J. Simons on the minimality of cones in Euclidean space to these spaces, and apply it to the construction of complete, noncompact minimal Lorentz submanifolds of both de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spaces. Then we state and prove very general Bernstein-type theorems for spacelike hypersurfaces in conformally stationary Lorentz manifolds, one of which not assuming the hypersurface to be of constant mean curvature. Finally, we study the strong r-stability of spacelike hypersurfaces of constant r-th mean curvature in a conformally stationary Lorentz manifold of constant sectional curvature, extending previous results in the current literature.     

Transience and capacity of minimal submanifolds

We prove explicit lower bounds for the capacity of annular domains of minimal submanifolds P ^m in ambient Riemannian spaces N ⁿ with sectional curvatures bounded from above. We characterize the situations in which the lower bounds for the capacity are actually attained. Furthermore we apply these bounds to prove that Brownian motion defined on a complete minimal submanifold is transient when the ambient space is a negatively curved Hadamard-Cartan manifold. The proof stems directly from the capacity bounds and also covers the case of minimal submanifolds of dimension m > 2 in Euclidean spaces.     

-principles for hypersurfaces with prescribed principle curvatures and directions

We prove that any compact orientable hypersurface with boundary immersed (resp. embedded) in Euclidean space is regularly homotopic (resp. isotopic) to a hypersurface with principal directions which may have any prescribed homotopy type, and principal curvatures each of which may be prescribed to within an arbitrary small error of any constant. Further we construct regular homotopies (resp. isotopies) which control the principal curvatures and directions of hypersurfaces in a variety of ways. These results, which we prove by holonomic approximation, establish some h-principles in the sense of Gromov, and generalize theorems of Gluck and Pan on embedding and knotting of positively curved surfaces in 3-space.

     

Metric tangent spaces to Euclidean spaces

We prove that the metric spaces pretangent to a finite-dimensional Euclidean or unitary space E are isometric to E. As a consequence of this result, we describe the metric pretangent spaces at the nonsingular points of smooth surfaces. It is also proved that there exist the spaces pretangent to the Hilbert space l ₂ , which are not isometric to it.