The Poisson equation on complete manifolds with positive spectrum and applications

In this paper we investigate the existence of a solution to the Poisson equation on complete manifolds with positive spectrum and Ricci curvature bounded from below. We show that if a function f has decay f=O(r−1−ε) for some ε>0, where r is the distance function to a fixed point, then the Poisson equation Δu=f has a solution u with at most exponential growth.We apply this result on the Poisson equation to study the existence of harmonic maps between complete manifolds and also existence of Hermitian-Einstein metrics on holomorphic vector bundles over complete manifolds, thus extending some results of Li-Tam and Ni.Assuming moreover that the manifold is simply connected and of Ricci curvature between two negative constants, we can prove that in fact the Poisson equation has a bounded solution and we apply this result to the Ricci flow on complete surfaces.     

Existence and Liouville theorems for V -harmonic maps from complete manifolds

We establish existence and uniqueness theorems for V-harmonic maps from complete noncompact manifolds. This class of maps includes Hermitian harmonic maps, Weyl harmonic maps, affine harmonic maps, and Finsler harmonic maps from a Finsler manifold into a Riemannian manifold. We also obtain a Liouville type theorem for V-harmonic maps. In addition, we prove a V-Laplacian comparison theorem under the Bakry-Emery Ricci condition.     

Almost contact metric manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic section

We investigate almost contact metric manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic unit vector field, equivalently a harmonic section. We first consider an arbitrary Riemannian manifold and characterize the harmonicity of a unit vector field ??, when ??? is symmetric, in terms of Ricci curvature. Then, we show that for the class of locally conformal almost cosymplectic manifolds whose Reeb vector field ?? is geodesic, ?? is a harmonic section if and only if it is an eigenvector of the Ricci operator. Moreover, we build a large class of locally conformal almost cosymplectic manifolds whose Reeb vector field is a harmonic section. Finally, we exhibit several classes of almost contact metric manifolds where the associated almost contact metric structures ?? are harmonic sections, in the sense of Vergara-Diaz and Wood?[25], and in some cases they are also harmonic maps.     

Ricci flatness of asymptotically locally Euclidean metrics

In this article we study the metric property and the function theory of asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) Kähler manifolds. In particular, we prove the Ricci flatness under the assumption that the Ricci curvature of such manifolds is either nonnegative or nonpositive. The result provides a generalization of previous gap type theorems established by Greene and Wu, Mok, Siu and Yau, etc. It can also be thought of as a general positive mass type result. The method also proves the Liouville properties of plurisubharmonic functions on such manifolds. We also give a characterization of Ricci flatness of an ALE Kähler manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature in terms of the structure of its cone at infinity.

     

Nielsen equalizer theory

We extend the Nielsen theory of coincidence sets to equalizer sets, the points where a given set of (more than 2) mappings agree. On manifolds, this theory is interesting only for maps between spaces of different dimension, and our results hold for sets of k maps on compact manifolds from dimension (k−1)n to dimension n. We define the Nielsen equalizer number, which is a lower bound for the minimal number of equalizer points when the maps are changed by homotopies, and is in fact equal to this minimal number when the domain manifold is not a surface.As an application we give some results in Nielsen coincidence theory with positive codimension. This includes a complete computation of the geometric Nielsen number for maps between tori.     

Displacement interpolations from a Hamiltonian point of view

One of the most well-known results in the theory of optimal transportation is the equivalence between the convexity of the entropy functional with respect to the Riemannian Wasserstein metric and the Ricci curvature lower bound of the underlying Riemannian manifold. There are also generalizations of this result to the Finsler manifolds and manifolds with a Ricci flow background. In this paper, we study displacement interpolations from the point of view of Hamiltonian systems and give a unifying approach to the above mentioned results.     

Liouville theorem and coupling on negatively curved Riemannian manifolds

By using probabilistic approaches, Liouville theorems are proved for a class of Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvatures bounded below by a negative function. Indeed, for these manifolds we prove that all harmonic functions (maps) with certain growth are constant. In particular, the well-known Liouville theorem due to Cheng for sublinear harmonic functions (maps) is generalized. Moreover, our results imply the Brownian coupling property for a class of negatively curved Riemannian manifolds. This leads to a negative answer to a question of Kendall concerning the Brownian coupling property.     

Global behavior of the Ricci flow on generalized flag manifolds with two isotropy summands

In this paper, we study the global behavior of the Ricci flow equation for two classes of homogeneous manifolds with two isotropy summands. Using methods of the qualitative theory of differential equations, we present the global phase portrait of such systems and derive some geometrical consequences on the structure of such manifolds under the action of the Ricci flow.     

Some compactness theorems via m-Bakry–Émery and m-modified Ricci curvatures with negative m

Stimulated by S. Ohta and W. Wylie, we establish some compactness theorems for complete Riemannian manifolds via m-Bakry–Émery and m-modified Ricci curvatures with negative m. Our results may be considered as generalizations of the classical compactness theorems via Ricci curvature due to S.B. Myers, W. Ambrose, G.J. Galloway, and J. Cheeger, M. Gromov, and M. Taylor, and relax some previous compactness criteria for complete Riemannian manifolds via m-Bakry–Émery and m-modified Ricci curvatures obtained when m is a positive constant or infinity.     

Generalized quasi-Einstein manifolds with harmonic Weyl tensor

In this paper we introduce the notion of generalized quasi-Einstein manifold that generalizes the concepts of Ricci soliton, Ricci almost soliton and quasi-Einstein manifolds. We prove that a complete generalized quasi-Einstein manifold with harmonic Weyl tensor and with zero radial Weyl curvature is locally a warped product with (n ? 1)-dimensional Einstein fibers. In particular, this implies a local characterization for locally conformally flat gradient Ricci almost solitons, similar to that proved for gradient Ricci solitons.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis>-entropy formulas on super Ricci flows and Langevin deformation on Wasserstein space over Riemannian manifolds

In this survey paper, we give an overview of our recent works on the study of the W-entropy for the heat equation associated with the Witten Laplacian on super-Ricci flows and the Langevin deformation on the Wasserstein space over Riemannian manifolds. Inspired by Perelman’s seminal work on the entropy formula for the Ricci flow, we prove the W-entropy formula for the heat equation associated with the Witten Laplacian on n-dimensional complete Riemannian manifolds with the CD(K,m)-condition, and the W-entropy formula for the heat equation associated with the time-dependent Witten Laplacian on n-dimensional compact manifolds equipped with a (K,m)-super Ricci flow, where K ∈ R and m ∈ [n,∞]. Furthermore, we prove an analogue of the W-entropy formula for the geodesic flow on the Wasserstein space over Riemannian manifolds. Our result improves an important result due to Lott and Villani (2009) on the displacement convexity of the Boltzmann-Shannon entropy on Riemannian manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvature. To better understand the similarity between above two W-entropy formulas, we introduce the Langevin deformation of geometric flows on the tangent bundle over the Wasserstein space and prove an extension of the W-entropy formula for the Langevin deformation. We also make a discussion on the W-entropy for the Ricci flow from the point of view of statistical mechanics and probability theory. Finally, to make this survey more helpful for the further development of the study of the W-entropy, we give a list of problems and comments on possible progresses for future study on the topic discussed in this survey.     

Analytic invariant manifolds for sequences of diffeomorphisms

We obtain real analytic invariant manifolds for trajectories of maps assuming only the existence of a nonuniform exponential behavior. We also consider the more general case of sequences of maps, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. We emphasize that the maps that we consider are defined in a real Euclidean space, and thus, one is not able to obtain the invariant manifolds from a corresponding procedure to that in the nonuniform hyperbolicity theory in the context of holomorphic dynamics. We establish the existence both of stable (and unstable) manifolds and of center manifolds. As a byproduct of our approach we obtain an exponential control not only for the trajectories on the invariant manifolds, but also for all their derivatives.     

On the extension of the Harmonic Ricci flow

In this short paper, we prove that if the Ricci curvature is uniformly bounded under the Harmonic Ricci flow on complete manifolds for time ${t\in [0,T)}$ , then the Harmonic Ricci flow can be extended past the time T.     

First eigenvalue monotonicity for the p-Laplace operator under the Ricci flow

In this note, we discuss the monotonicity of the first eigenvalue of the p-Laplace operator (p ?? 2) along the Ricci flow on closed Riemannian manifolds. We prove that the first eigenvalue of the p-Laplace operator is nondecreasing along the Ricci flow under some different curvature assumptions, and therefore extend some parts of Ma??s results [Ann. Glob. Anal. Geom., 29, 287?C292 (2006)].     

Ricci curvature,radial curvature and large volume growth

In this paper, we study complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below. When the Ricci curvature is nonnegative, we show that this kind of manifolds are diffeomorphic to a Euclidean space, by assuming an upper bound on the radial curvature and a volume growth condition of their geodesic balls. When the Ricci curvature only has a lower bound, we also prove that such a manifold is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean space if the radial curvature is bounded from below. Moreover, by assuming different conditions and applying different methods, we shall prove more results on Riemannian manifolds with large volume growth.     

The Stability Inequality for Ricci-Flat Cones

In this article, we thoroughly investigate the stability inequality for Ricci-flat cones. Perhaps most importantly, we prove that the Ricci-flat cone over ?P ² is stable, showing that the first stable non-flat Ricci-flat cone occurs in the smallest possible dimension. On the other hand, we prove that many other examples of Ricci-flat cones over 4-manifolds are unstable, and that Ricci-flat cones over products of Einstein manifolds and over Kähler–Einstein manifolds with h ^1,1>1 are unstable in dimension less than 10. As results of independent interest, our computations indicate that the Page metric and the Chen–LeBrun–Weber metric are unstable Ricci shrinkers. As a final bonus, we give plenty of motivations, and partly confirm a conjecture of Tom Ilmanen relating the λ-functional, the positive mass theorem, and the nonuniqueness of Ricci flow with conical initial data.     

Four-dimensional Einstein-like manifolds and curvature homogeneity

The aim of this paper is to classify 4-dimensional Einstein-like manifolds whose Ricci tensor has constant eigenvalues (this being a special kind of curvature homogeneity condition). We give a full classification when the Ricci tensor is of Codazzi type; when the Ricci tensor is cyclic parallel, we classify all such manifolds when not all Ricci curvatures are distinct. In this second case we find a one-parameter family of Riemannian metrics on a Lie groupG as the only possible ones which are irreducible and non-symmetric.     

Gradient estimates for positive smooth f-harmonic functions

For Riemannian manifolds with a measure, we study the gradient estimates for positive smooth f-harmonic functions when the ∞-Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor and Ricci tensor are bounded from below, generalizing the classical ones of Yau (i.e., when f is constant).     

The entropy formula for linear heat equation

We derive the entropy formula for the linear heat equation on general Riemannian manifolds and prove that it is monotone non-increasing on manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. As applications, we study the relation between the value of entropy and the volume of balls of various scales. The results are simpler version, without Ricci flow, of Perelman ’s recent results on volume non-collapsing for Ricci flow on compact manifolds. We also prove that if the entropy for the heat kernel achieves its maximum value zero at some positive time, on any complete Riamannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, if and only if the manifold is isometric to the Euclidean space.     

Assembly maps and realization of splitting obstructions

In 1987 Kharshiladze introduced the concept of type for an element in a Wall group, and proved that the elements of first and second type cannot be realized by normal maps of closed manifolds. This approach is sufficiently easy for computing the assembly maps and sometimes very effective. Here we give a geometrical interpretation of this approach by using the Browder–Quinn surgery obstruction groups for filtered manifolds. To understand the obtained relations we give algebraic definitions of the element types which are based on the algebraic surgery theory of Ranicki. Our approach describes a level of indeterminate for the algebraic passing to surgery on a codimension k submanifold of a given Browder–Livesay filtration. Then we study the realization of splitting obstructions by simple homotopy equivalences of closed manifolds, and compute the assembly maps for some classes of groups.