Flat Riemannian manifolds are boundaries

In this paper we prove that each compact flat Riemannian manifold is the boundary of a compact manifold. Our method of proof is to construct a smooth action of (₂) ^k on the flat manifold. We are independently preceded in this approach by Marc W. Gordon who proved the flat Riemannian manifolds, whose holonomy groups are of a certain class of groups, bound. By analyzing the fixed point data of this group action we get the complete result. As corollaries to the main theorem it follows that those compact flat Riemannian manifolds which are oriented bound oriented manifolds; and, if we have an involution on a homotopy flat manifold, then the manifold together with the involution bounds. We also give an example of a nonbounding manifold which is finitely covered byS ³ ×S ³ ×S ³.     

Strong solutions to stochastic wave equations with values in Riemannian manifolds

Let M be a d-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold. We prove existence of a unique global strong solution of the stochastic wave equation , where Y is a C¹-smooth transformation and W is a spatially homogeneous Wiener process on whose spectral measure has finite moments up to order 2.     

Double point self-transverse immersions of

A self-transverse immersion of a smooth manifold M^8k in has a double point self-intersection set which is the image of an immersion of a smooth four-dimensional manifold, cobordent to P⁴, P²×P², P⁴+P²×P² or a boundary. We will prove that for any value of k>1 the double point self-intersection set is a boundary. If k=1, then there exists an immersion of P²×P²×P²×P² in with double point manifold boundary and odd number of triple points. In particular any immersion of oriented manifold in this dimension has double point manifold cobordant to a boundary.     

Rigidity and gluing for Morse and Novikov complexes

We obtain rigidity and gluing results for the Morse complex of a real-valued Morse function as well as for the Novikov complex of a circle-valued Morse function. A rigidity result is also proved for the Floer complex of a hamiltonian defined on a closed symplectic manifold (M,) with c₁|_2(M)=[]|_2(M)=0. The rigidity results for these complexes show that the complex of a fixed generic function/hamiltonian is a retract of the Morse (respectively Novikov or Floer) complex of any other sufficiently C⁰ close generic function/hamiltonian. The gluing result is a type of Mayer-Vietoris formula for the Morse complex. It is used to express algebraically the Novikov complex up to isomorphism in terms of the Morse complex of a fundamental domain. Morse cobordisms are used to compare various Morse-type complexes without the need of bifurcation theory.     

A geometric Cauchy problem for timelike minimal surfaces

We investigate two-dimensional timelike surfaces in a Lorentz manifold (X,g). It is shown that orientable surfaces with two spacelike boundary components (homeomorphic toS ¹) are necessarily of topological type [0,1] x S¹. We treat the initial value problem of a string (known from physics) as a purely geometric problem: Find a minimal surface which is specified by an initial curve and by a distribution of timelike tangent planes along . We prove the local existence and uniqueness of and also obtain global existence for special types (X,g). Global existence does not generally hold; we give a counter-example, which can be interpreted as a string collapsing into a black hole.     

On the normal bundle of a complex submanifold of a locally conformal Kaehler manifold

We investigate the existence of parallel sections in the normal bundle of a complex submanifold of a locally conformal Kaehler manifold with positive holomorphic bisectional curvature. Also, ifM is a quasi-Einstein generalized Hopf manifold then we show that any complex submanifoldM with a flat normal connection ofM is quasi-Einstein, too, provided thatM is tangent to the Lee field ofM. As an application of our results we study the geometry of the second fundamental form of a complex submanifold in the locally conformal Kaehler sphereQ _m (of a complex Hopf manifoldS ^2m+1 ×S ¹).     

Obstructions to positive curvature and symmetry

We discuss new obstructions to positive sectional curvature and symmetry. The main result asserts that the index of the Dirac operator twisted with the tangent bundle vanishes on a 2-connected manifold of dimension ≠8 if the manifold admits a metric of positive sectional curvature and isometric effective S¹-action. The proof relies on the rigidity theorem for elliptic genera and properties of totally geodesic submanifolds.     

A Note on the Moment Map on Compact Kähler Manifolds

We consider compact Kähler manifolds acted on effectively by a connected compact Lie group K of isometries in a Hamiltonian fashion. We prove that the squared moment map ||||² is constant if and only if K is semisimple and the manifold is biholomorphically and K-equivariantly isometric to a product of a flag manifold and a compact Kähler manifold which is acted on trivially by K.     

Rigidity of planar tilings

Summary Aperturbation of a tiling of a region inR ⁿ is a set of isometries, one applied to each tile, so that the images of the tiles tile the same region.We show that a locally finite tiling of an open region inR ² with tiles which are closures of their interiors isrigid in the following sense: any sufficiently small perturbation of the tiling must have only earthquake-type discontinuities, that is, the discontinuity set consists of straight lines and arcs of circles, and the perturbation near such a curve shifts points along the direction of that curve.We give an example to show that this type of rigidity does not hold inR ⁿ , forn>2.Using rigidity in the plane we show that any tiling problem with a finite number of tile shapes (which are topological disks) is equivalent to a polygonal tiling problem, i.e. there is a set of polygonal shapes with equivalent tiling combinatorics.Oblatum 19-III-1991     

Time-Space Harmonic Polynomials for Continuous-Time Processes and an Extension

A time-space harmonic polynomial for a stochastic process M=(M _t) is a polynomial P in two variables such that P(t, M _t) is a martingale. In this paper, we investigate conditions for the existence of such polynomials of each degree in the second, space, argument. We also describe various properties a sequence of time-space harmonic polynomials may possess and the interaction of these properties with distributional properties of the underlying process. Thus, continuous-time conterparts to the results of Goswami and Sengupta,⁽²⁾ where the analoguous problem in discrete time was considered, are derived. A few additional properties are also considered. The resulting properties of the process include independent increments, stationary independent increments and semi-stability. Finally, a generalization to a measure proposed by Hochberg⁽³⁾ on path space is obtained.     

Heat Flow for the Yang–Mills–Higgs Field and the Hermitian Yang–Mills–Higgs Metric

For a parameter > 0, we study a type of vortex equations, which generalize the well-known Hermitian–Einstein equation, for a connection A and a section of a holomorphic vector bundle E over a Kähler manifold X. We establish a global existence of smooth solutions to heat flow for a self-dual Yang–Mills–Higgs field on E. Assuming the -stability of (E, ), we prove the existence of the Hermitian Yang–Mills–Higgs metric on the holomorphic bundle E by studying the limiting behaviour of the gauge flow.     

Functional inequalities on arbitrary Riemannian manifolds

For any connected (not necessarily complete) Riemannian manifold, we construct a probability measure of type , where dx is the Riemannian volume measure and V is a function C^∞-smooth outside a closed set of zero volume, satisfying Poincaré–Sobolev type functional inequalities. In particular, V is C^∞-smooth on the whole manifold when the Poincaré and the super-Poincaré inequalities are considered. The Sobolev inequality for infinite measures are also studied.     

A pinching theorem for extrinsically symmetric submanifolds of Euclidean space

We show that a compact connected manifold which can be immersed into ^m with almost parallel second fundamental form, admits an extrinsically symmetric immersion into ^m.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 53C20, 53C24, 53C30, 53C35, 53C40, 53C42Acknowledgement I am most grateful to J.–H. Eschenburg, P. Ghanaat and E. A. Ruh for valuable discussions and helpful remarks. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Grants 20-67619.02 and PBFR-106367.     

On almost hyperHermitian structures on Riemannian manifolds and tangent bundles

Some results concerning almost hyperHermitian structures are considered, using the notions of the canonical connection and the second fundamental tensor field h of a structure on a Riemannian manifold which were introduced by the second author. With the help of any metric connection on an almost Hermitian manifold M an almost hyperHermitian structure can be constructed in the defined way on the tangent bundle TM. A similar construction was considered in [6], [7]. This structure includes two basic anticommutative almost Hermitian structures for which the second fundamental tensor fields h ¹ and h ² are computed. It allows us to consider various classes of almost hyperHermitian structures on TM. In particular, there exists an infinite-dimensional set of almost hyperHermitian structures on TTM where M is any Riemannian manifold.     

Collapsed Riemannian manifolds with bounded diameter and bounded covering geometry

We study the class ofn-Riemannian manifolds in the title such that the torsion elements in the fundamental group have a definite bound on their orders. Our main result asserts the existence of a kind of generalized Seifert fiber structure onM ⁿ , for which the fundamental group of fibers injects into that ofM ⁿ . This provides a necessary and sufficient topological condition for a manifold to admit a sufficiently collapsed metric in our class. Among other consequences we obtain a strengthened version of the gap conjecture in this context.The work of the first author is partially supported by NSF Grant DMS 9303999. The work of the second author is supported by MSRI through NSF grant DMS 9022140 and partially supported by NSF Grant DMS 9204095.     

Some ergodic and rigidity properties of discrete Heisenberg group actions

The goal of this paper is to study ergodic and rigidity properties of smooth actions of the discrete Heisenberg group \(\mathcal{H}\). We establish the decomposition of the tangent space of any C^∞ compact Riemannian manifold M for Lyapunov exponents, and show that all Lyapunov exponents for the central elements are zero. We obtain that if an \(\mathcal{H}\) action contains an Anosov element, then under certain conditions on the eigenvalues of this element, the action of each central element is of finite order. In particular, there is no faithful codimension one Anosov Heisenberg group action on any compact manifold, and there is no faithful codimension two Anosov Heisenberg group action on tori. In addition, we show smooth local rigidity for higher rank ergodic \(\mathcal{H}\) actions by toral automorphisms, using a generalization of the KAM (Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser) iterative scheme.     

Itô correction terms for the radial parts of semimartingales on manifolds

Summary We consider functions,F, of a semimartingale,X, on a complete manifold which fail to beC ² only on, and are sufficiently well-behaved near, a codimension 1 subset . We obtain an extension of the Itô formula which is valid for all time by adding a continuous predictable process given explicitly in terms of two geometric local times ofX on and the Gâteaux derivative ofF. We then examine the cut locus of a point of the manifold in sufficient detail to show that this result applies to give a corresponding expression for the radial part of the semimartingale.     

Heat kernel estimates and Riesz transforms on some Riemannian covering manifolds

Consider a Riemannian manifold M which is a Galois covering of a compact manifold, with nilpotent deck transformation group G. For the Laplace operator on M, we prove a precise estimate for the gradient of the heat kernel, and show that the Riesz transforms are bounded in L^p(M), 1 < p < . We also obtain estimates for discrete oscillations of the heat kernel, and boundedness of discrete Riesz transform operators, which are defined using the action of G on M.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 58J35, 35B65, 42B20in final form: 8 August 2003     

Closed Geodesics in Homology Classes for Convex Co-Compact Hyperbolic Manifolds

Let be a convex co-compact, torsion-free, discrete group of isometries of real hyperbolic space H ⁿ⁺¹. We compute the asymptotics of the counting function for closed geodesics in homology classes for the quotient manifold X = \H ⁿ⁺¹, under the assumption that H ¹(X, Z) is infinite. Our results imply asymptotic equipartition of geodesics in distinct homology classes.