Totally Geodesic Orbits of Isometries

We study cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds and we establish some simple criterium to test when a singular orbit is totally geodesic. As an application, we classify compact, positively curved Riemannian manifolds which are acted on isometrically by a non-semisimple Lie group with an hypersurface orbit.     

Almost isometric actions,property (<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>), and local rigidity

Let Γ be a discrete group with property (T) of Kazhdan. We prove that any Riemannian isometric action of Γ on a compact manifold X is locally rigid. We also prove a more general foliated version of this result. The foliated result is used in our proof of local rigidity for standard actions of higher rank semisimple Lie groups and their lattices in [FM2].One definition of property (T) is that a group Γ has property (T) if every isometric Γ action on a Hilbert space has a fixed point. We prove a variety of strengthenings of this fixed point properties for groups with property (T). Some of these are used in the proofs of our local rigidity theorems. To Yakov G. Sinai on his 70th birthday     

Complete involutive algebras of functions on cotangent bundles of homogeneous spaces

Homogeneous spaces of all compact Lie groups admit Riemannian metrics with completely integrable geodesic flows by means of C –smooth integrals [9, 10]. The purpose of this paper is to give some constructions of complete involutive algebras of analytic functions, polynomial in velocities, on the (co)tangent bundles of homogeneous spaces of compact Lie groups. This allows us to obtain new integrable Riemannian and sub-Riemannian geodesic flows on various homogeneous spaces, such as Stiefel manifolds, flag manifolds and orbits of the adjoint actions of compact Lie groups. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 70H06, 37J35, 53D17, 53D25     

Homogeneous spaces of curvature bounded below

We prove that every locally connected quotient G/H of a locally compact, connected, first countable topological group G by a compact subgroup H admits a G-invariant inner metric with curvature bounded below. Every locally compact homogeneous space of curvature bounded below is isometric to such a space. These metric spaces generalize the notion of Riemannian homogeneous space to infinite dimensional groups and quotients which are never (even infinite dimensional) manifolds. We study the geometry of these spaces, in particular of non-negatively curved homogeneous spaces. Dedicated to the memory of A. D. Alexandrov     

The first nonzero eigenvalue of Neumann problem on Riemannian manifolds

In this article, the author obtained some comparison theorems of the first nonzero Neumann eigenvalue on domains in nonpositively curved Riemannian manifolds. The author first gives a generalized Szegö-Weinberger theorem (Theorem 1). Then the first nonzero Neumann eigenvalues for geodesic balls on nonpositively curved Riemannian manifolds are compared (Theorem 2). Based on these results, a “monotonicity principle” for the Neumann eigenvalues is derived. Then the author proves a stability theorem of maximality of the first nonzero Neumann eigenvalue of a geodesic ball among those of all domains with the same volume.     

Point leaf maximal singular Riemannian foliations in positive curvature

We generalize the notion of fixed point homogeneous isometric group actions to the context of singular Riemannian foliations. We find that in some cases, positively curved manifolds admitting these so-called point leaf maximal SRF's are diffeo/homeomorphic to compact rank one symmetric spaces. In all cases, manifolds admitting such foliations are cohomology CROSSes or finite quotients of them. Among non-simply connected manifolds, we find examples of such foliations which are non-homogeneous.     

Vrănceanu connections and foliations with bundle-like metrics

We show that the Vrănceanu connection which was initially introduced on non-holonomic manifolds can be used to study the geometry of foliated manifolds. We prove that a foliation is totally geodesic with bundle-like metric if and only if this connection is a metric one. We introduce the notion of a foliated Riemannian manifold of constant transversal Vrănceanu curvature and the notion of a transversal Einstein foliated Riemannian manifold. The geometry of these two classes of manifolds is studied and the relationship between them is determined.     

The stretch of a foliation and geometric superrigidity

We consider compact smooth foliated manifolds with leaves isometrically covered by a fixed symmetric space of noncompact type. Such objects can be considered as compact models for the geometry of the symmetric space. Based on this we formulate and solve a geometric superrigidity problem for foliations that seeks the existence of suitable isometric totally geodesic immersions. To achieve this we consider the heat flow equation along the leaves of a foliation, a Bochner formula on foliations and a geometric invariant for foliations with leafwise Riemannian metrics called the stretch. We obtain as applications a metric rigidity theorem for foliations and a rigidity type result for Riemannian manifolds whose geometry is only partially symmetric.

     

Vanishing structure set of Haken 3-manifolds

In this article we prove that the surgery groups of the fundamental group of a certain class of Haken 3-manifolds can be computed in terms of a generalized homology theory even if the manifolds do not support any nonpositively curved Riemannian metric. A consequence of this result is that the integral Novikov conjecture is true for the fundamental group of this class of manifolds. Received October 2, 1998 / in revised form February 10, 2000 / Published online July 20, 2000     

Affine actions of higher rank lattices

We consider actions of lattices in certain higher rank simple Lie groups by affine (i.e. connection-preserving) transformations of a compact Riemannian manifold. When the dimension of the manifold is not too large, such actions are partially described here in terms of affine actions on the flat torus and isometric actions. The main tools are Marguils' and Zimmer's rigidity theorems.     

Expansive dynamics and hyperbolic geometry

LetM be a compact Riemannian manifold with no conjugate points such that its geodesic flow is expansive. Then we show that the universal Riemannian covering ofM is a hyperbolic geodesic space according to the definition of M. Gromov. This allows us to extend a series of relevant geometric and topological properties of negatively curved manifolds toM and in particular, geometric group theory applies to the fundamental group ofM.     

On Lorentz dynamics: From group actions to warped products via homogeneous spaces

We show a geometric rigidity of isometric actions of non-compact (semisimple) Lie groups on Lorentz manifolds. Namely, we show that the manifold has a warped product structure of a Lorentz manifold with constant curvature by a Riemannian manifold.

     

The classification of two step nilpotent complex Lie algebras of dimension 8

A Lie algebra g is called two step nilpotent if g is not abelian and [g, g] lies in the center of g. Two step nilpotent Lie algebras are useful in the study of some geometric problems, such as commutative Riemannian manifolds, weakly symmetric Riemannian manifolds, homogeneous Einstein manifolds, etc. Moreover, the classification of two-step nilpotent Lie algebras has been an important problem in Lie theory. In this paper, we study two step nilpotent indecomposable Lie algebras of dimension 8 over the field of complex numbers. Based on the study of minimal systems of generators, we choose an appropriate basis and give a complete classification of two step nilpotent Lie algebras of dimension 8.     

Immersions of cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds

This work deals with positively curved compact Riemannian manifolds which are acted on by a closed Lie group of isometries whose principal orbits have codimension one and are isotropy irreducible homogeneous spaces. For such manifolds we can show that their universal covering manifold may be isometrically immersed as a hypersurface of revolution in an euclidean space.     

Positivity of direct images of positively curved volume forms

We discuss Kiselman–Berndtsson’s minimum principle for plurisubharmonic functions in terms of the positivity of direct images of certain positively curved volume forms, and generalize it to holomorphically convex manifolds with compact group actions. With this generalization and other techniques, we establish a minimum principle for positively curved volume forms from the point of view of geometric invariant theory on Stein manifolds. Minimum principle with some noncompact group actions is also considered.     

Homogeneity Rank and Atoms of Actions

We introduce two related concepts for smooth actions of compact Lie groups:The homogeneity rank is a simple numerical invariant of the action.As one of our results we determine the precise range of this invariantfor isometric actions on compact Riemannian manifolds with positivesectional curvature and exhibit special properties of the actionswith maximal homogeneity rank.Atoms are special components of fixed point sets. They inherit actionswith the same cohomogenity and homogeneity rank as the original action,but with trivial principal isotropy group. Other properties of the originalaction like polarity are reflected in the atoms.We determine the atoms in some interesting concrete cases.Not only for this purpose we give a detailed treatise on the structureof fixed point sets, in particular in cohomogeneity one manifolds.     

Compactification of moduli space of harmonic mappings

We introduce the notion of harmonic nodal maps from the stratified Riemann surfaces into any compact Riemannian manifolds and prove that the space of the energy minimizing nodal maps is sequentially compact. We also give an existence result for the energy minimizing nodal maps. As an application, we obtain a general existence theorem for minimal surfaces with arbitrary genus in any compact Riemannian manifolds. Received: 1 April 1997; revised: 15 April 1998.     

The laplace operator on normal homogeneous Riemannian manifolds

The article presents an information about the Laplace operator defined on the real-valued mappings of compact Riemannian manifolds, and its spectrum; some properties of the latter are studied. The relationship between the spectra of two Riemannian manifolds connected by a Riemannian submersion with totally geodesic fibers is established. We specify a method of calculating the spectrum of the Laplacian for simply connected simple compact Lie groups with biinvariant Riemannian metrics, by representations of their Lie algebras. As an illustration, the spectrum of the Laplacian on the group SU(2) is found.     

Orbifold fibrations of Eschenburg spaces

Most of the few known examples of compact Riemannian manifolds with positive sectional curvature are the total space of a Riemannian submersion. In this article we show that this is true for all known examples, if we enlarge the category to orbifold fibrations. For this purpose we study all almost free isometric circle actions on positively curved Eschenburg spaces, which give rise to principle orbifold bundle structures, and we examine in detail their geometric properties. In particular, we obtain a new family of 6-dimensional orbifolds with positive sectional curvature whose singular locus consists of just two points.