Simple root flows for Hitchin representations

On a Kähler manifold there is a clear connection between the complex geometry and underlying Riemannian geometry. In some ways, this can be used to characterize the Kähler condition. While such a link is not so obvious in the non-Kähler setting, one can seek to understand extensions of these characterizations to general Hermitian manifolds. This idea has been the subject of much study from the cohomological side, however, the focus here is to address such a question from the perspective of curvature relationships. In particular, on compact manifolds the Kähler condition is characterized by the relationship that the Chern scalar curvature is equal to half the Riemannian scalar curvature. What we study here is the existence, or lack thereof, of non-Kähler Hermitian metrics for which a more general proportionality relationship between these scalar curvatures holds.     

Compact complex surfaces and constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics

In this article, I prove the following statement: Every compact complex surface with even first Betti number is deformation equivalent to one which admits an extremal Kähler metric. In fact, this extremal Kähler metric can even be taken to have constant scalar curvature in all but two cases: the deformation equivalence classes of the blow-up of \({\mathbb {P}_2}\) at one or two points. The explicit construction of compact complex surfaces with constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics in different deformation equivalence classes is given. The main tool repeatedly applied here is the gluing theorem of C. Arezzo and F. Pacard which states that the blow-up/resolution of a compact manifold/orbifold of discrete type, which admits cscK metrics, still admits cscK metrics.     

Some examples of Hermitian surfaces

The Riemannian version of the Goldberg-Sachs theorem says that a compact Einstein Hermitian surface is locally conformal Kähler. In contrast to the compact case, we show that there exists an Einstein Hermitian surface which is not locally conformal Kähler. On the other hand, it is known that on a compact Hermitian surface M ⁴, the zero scalar curvature defect implies that M ⁴ is Kähler. Contrary to the compact case, we show that there exists a non-Kähler Hermitian surface with zero scalar curvature defect.     

Asymptotic Curvature of Moduli Spaces for Calabi–Yau Threefolds

Motivated by the classical statements of Mirror Symmetry, we study certain Kähler metrics on the complexified Kähler cone of a Calabi–Yau threefold, conjecturally corresponding to approximations to the Weil–Petersson metric near large complex structure limit for the mirror. In particular, the naturally defined Riemannian metric (defined via cup-product) on a level set of the Kähler cone is seen to be analogous to a slice of the Weil–Petersson metric near large complex structure limit. This enables us to give counterexamples to a conjecture of Ooguri and Vafa that the Weil–Petersson metric has non-positive scalar curvature in some neighborhood of the large complex structure limit point.     

Coupled vortex equations and moduli: deformation theoretic approach and Kähler geometry

We investigate differential geometric aspects of moduli spaces parametrizing solutions of coupled vortex equations over a compact Kähler manifold X. These solutions are known to be related to polystable triples via a Kobayashi–Hitchin type correspondence. Using a characterization of infinitesimal deformations in terms of the cohomology of a certain elliptic double complex, we construct a Hermitian structure on these moduli spaces. This Hermitian structure is proved to be Kähler. The proof involves establishing a fiber integral formula for the Hermitian form. We compute the curvature tensor of this Kähler form. When X is a Riemann surface, the holomorphic bisectional curvature turns out to be semi-positive. It is shown that in the case where X is a smooth complex projective variety, the Kähler form is the Chern form of a Quillen metric on a certain determinant line bundle.     

Conformal Riemannian P-manifolds with connections whose curvature tensors are Riemannian P-tensors

The largest class of Riemannian almost product manifolds, which is closed with respect to the group of the conformal transformations of the Riemannian metric, is the class of the conformal Riemannian P-manifolds. This class is an analogue of the class of the conformal Kähler manifolds in almost Hermitian geometry. The main aim of this work is to obtain properties of manifolds of this class with connections, whose curvature tensors have similar properties as the Kähler tensors in Hermitian geometry.     

Ricci flow on Kähler manifolds

In this Note, we announce the result that if M is a Kähler–Einstein manifold with positive scalar curvature, if the initial metric has nonnegative bisectional curvature, and the curvature is positive somewhere, then the Kähler–Ricci flow converges to a Kähler–Einstein metric with constant bisectional curvature.     

An Almost Complex Chern–Ricci Flow

We consider the evolution of an almost Hermitian metric by the (1, 1) part of its Chern–Ricci form on almost complex manifolds. This is an evolution equation first studied by Chu and coincides with the Chern–Ricci flow if the complex structure is integrable and with the Kähler–Ricci flow if moreover the initial metric is Kähler. We find the maximal existence time for the flow in term of the initial data and also give some convergence results. As an example, we study this flow on the (locally) homogeneous manifolds in more detail.     

Unstable products of smooth curves

We give examples of smooth manifolds with negative first Chern class which are slope unstable with respect to certain polarisations, and so have Kähler classes that do not admit any constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics. These manifolds also have unstable Hilbert and Chow points. We compare this to the work of Song-Weinkove on the J-flow.     

Almost Kähler metrics of negative scalar curvature on symplectic manifolds

We show that every symplectic manifold of dimension ≥ 4 admits a complete compatible almost Kähler metric of negative scalar curvature. And we discuss the C ⁰-closure of the set of almost Kähler metrics of negative scalar curvature. Some local versions are also proved.     

The Calabi flow on Kähler Surfaces with bounded Sobolev constant (I)

We consider the formation of singularities along the Calabi flow by assuming the uniformly bounded Sobolev constants. On Kähler surfaces we prove that if curvature tensor is not uniformly bounded, then one can form a singular model called deepest bubble; such deepest bubble has to be a scalar flat ALE Kähler metric. In certain Kähler classes on toric Fano surfaces, the Sobolev constants are a priori bounded along the Calabi flow with small Calabi energy. We can also show in certain cases no deepest bubble can form along the flow. It follows that the curvature tensor is uniformly bounded and the flow exists for all time and converges to an extremal metric subsequently. To illustrate our results more clearly, we focus on an example on \({\mathbb{CP}^2}\) blown up three points at generic position. Our result also implies existence of constant scalar curvature metrics on \({\mathbb{CP}^2}\) blown up three points at generic position in the Kähler classes where the exceptional divisors have the same area.     

The energy of a Kähler class on admissible manifolds

On a compact complex manifold of Kähler type, the energy E(Ω) of a Kähler class Ω is given by the squared L ²-norm of the projection onto the space of holomorphic potentials of the scalar curvature of any Kähler metric representing the said class, and any one such metric whose scalar curvature has squared L ²-norm equal to E(Ω) must be an extremal representative of Ω. A strongly extremal metric is an extremal metric representing a critical point of E(Ω) when restricted to the set of Kähler classes of fixed positive top cup product. We study the existence of strongly extremal metrics and critical points of E(Ω) on certain admissible manifolds, producing a number of nontrivial examples of manifolds that carry this type of metrics, and where in many of the cases, the class that they represent is one other than the first Chern class, and some examples of manifolds where these special metrics and classes do not exist. We also provide a detailed analysis of the gradient flow of E(Ω) on admissible ruled surfaces, show that this dynamical system can be extended to one beyond the Kähler cone, and analyze the convergence of solution paths at infinity in terms of conditions on the initial data, in particular proving that for any initial data in the Kähler cone, the corresponding path is defined for all t, and converges to a unique critical class of E(Ω) as time approaches infinity.     

Blowing up and desingularizing constant scalar curvature Kähler manifolds

This paper is concerned with the existence of constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics on blow-ups at finitely many points of compact manifolds which already carry constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics. We also consider the desingularization of isolated quotient singularities of compact orbifolds which carry constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics.     

Quantization in Geometric Pluripotential Theory

The space of Kähler metrics, on the one hand, can be approximated by subspaces of algebraic metrics, while, on the other hand, it can also be enlarged to finite-energy spaces arising in pluripotential theory. The latter spaces are realized as metric completions of Finsler structures on the space of Kähler metrics. The former spaces are the finite-dimensional spaces of Fubini-Study metrics of Kähler quantization. The goal of this article is to draw a connection between the two. We show that the Finsler structures on the space of Kähler potentials can be quantized. More precisely, given a Kähler manifold polarized by an ample line bundle we endow the space of Hermitian metrics on powers of that line bundle with Finsler structures and show that the resulting path length metric spaces recover the corresponding metric completions of the Finsler structures on the space of Kähler potentials. This has a number of applications, among them a new Lidskii-type inequality on the space of Kähler metrics, a new approach to the rooftop envelopes and Pythagorean formulas of Kähler geometry, and approximation of finite-energy potentials, as well as geodesic segments by the corresponding smooth algebraic objects. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Constructions of Kähler–Einstein metrics with negative scalar curvature

We show that on Kähler manifolds with negative first Chern class, the sequence of algebraic metrics introduced by Tsuji converges uniformly to the Kähler–Einstein metric. For algebraic surfaces of general type and orbifolds with isolated singularities, we prove a convergence result for a modified version of Tsuji’s iterative construction.     

The Sasaki–Ricci Flow and Compact Sasaki Manifolds of Positive Transverse Holomorphic Bisectional Curvature

We show that Perelman’s ${\mathcal{W}}$ functional on Kähler manifolds has a natural counterpart on Sasaki manifolds. We prove, using this functional, that Perelman’s results on Kähler–Ricci flow (the first Chern class is positive) can be generalized to Sasaki–Ricci flow, including the uniform bound on the diameter and the scalar curvature along the flow. We also show that positivity of transverse bisectional curvature is preserved along Sasaki–Ricci flow, using Bando and Mok’s methods and results in Kähler–Ricci flow. In particular, we show that the Sasaki–Ricci flow converges to a Sasaki–Ricci soliton when the initial metric has nonnegative transverse bisectional curvature.     

The Kähler Ricci flow on Fano surfaces (I)

Suppose {(M, g(t)), 0 ≤ t < ∞} is a Kähler Ricci flow solution on a Fano surface. If |Rm| is not uniformly bounded along this flow, we can blowup at the maximal curvature points to obtain a limit complete Riemannian manifold X. We show that X must have certain topological and geometric properties. Using these properties, we are able to prove that |Rm| is uniformly bounded along every Kähler Ricci flow on toric Fano surface, whose initial metric has toric symmetry. In particular, such a Kähler Ricci flow must converge to a Kähler Ricci soliton metric. Therefore we give a new Ricci flow proof of the existence of Kähler Ricci soliton metrics on toric Fano surfaces.     

On the geometry of the space of oriented lines of Euclidean space

We prove that the space of all oriented lines of the n-dimensional Euclidean space admits a pseudo-Riemannian metric which is invariant by the induced transitive action of a connected closed subgroup of the group of Euclidean motions, exactly when n=3 or n=7 (as usual, we consider Riemannian metrics as a particular case of pseudo-Riemannian ones). Up to equivalence, there are two such metrics for each dimension, and they are of split type and complete. Besides, we prove that the given metrics are Kähler or nearly Kähler if n=3 or n=7, respectively.     

Central Kähler metrics with non-constant central curvature

The central curvature of a Riemannian metric is the determinant of its Ricci endomorphism, while the scalar curvature is its trace. A Kähler metric is called central if the gradient of its central curvature is a holomorphic vector field. Such metrics may be viewed as analogs of the extremal Kähler metrics defined by Calabi. In this work, central metrics of non-constant central curvature are constructed on various ruled surfaces, most notably the first Hirzebruch surface. This is achieved via the momentum construction of Hwang and Singer, a variant of an ansatz employed by Calabi (1979) and by Koiso and Sakane (1986). Non-existence, real-analyticity and positivity properties of central metrics arising in this ansatz are also established.     

Minimal Complex Surfaces with Levi–Civita Ricci-flat Metrics

This is a continuation of our previous paper [14]. In [14], we introduced the first Aeppli–Chern class on compact complex manifolds, and proved that the(1, 1) curvature form of the Levi–Civita connection represents the first Aeppli–Chern class which is a natural link between Riemannian geometry and complex geometry. In this paper, we study the geometry of compact complex manifolds with Levi–Civita Ricci-flat metrics and classify minimal complex surfaces with Levi–Civita Ricci-flat metrics.More precisely, we show that minimal complex surfaces admitting Levi–Civita Ricci-flat metrics are K¨ahler Calabi–Yau surfaces and Hopf surfaces.