The Ricci flow on the two ball with a rotationally symmetric metric

In this paper we study a boundary-value problem for the Ricci flow in the two-dimensional ball endowed with a rotationally symmetric metric of positive Gaussian curvature and prove short and long time existence results. We construct families of metrics for which the flow uniformizes the curvature along a sequence of times. Finally, we show that if the initial metric has positive Gaussian curvature and the boundary has positive geodesic curvature then the flow uniformizes the curvature along a sequence of times. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Ruled surfaces with vanishing second Gaussian curvature

For a surface free of points of vanishing Gaussian curvature in Euclidean space the second Gaussian curvature is defined formally. It is first pointed out that a minimal surface has vanishing second Gaussian curvature but that a surface with vanishing second Gaussian curvature need not be minimal. Ruled surfaces for which a linear combination of the second Gaussian curvature and the mean curvature is constant along the rulings are then studied. In particular the only ruled surface in Euclidean space with vanishing second Gaussian curvature is a piece of a helicoid.     

Ricci flow on a 3-manifold with positive scalar curvature

In this paper we consider Hamilton's Ricci flow on a 3-manifold with a metric of positive scalar curvature. We establish several a priori estimates for the Ricci flow which we believe are important in understanding possible singularities of the Ricci flow. For Ricci flow with initial metric of positive scalar curvature, we obtain a sharp estimate on the norm of the Ricci curvature in terms of the scalar curvature (which is not trivial even if the initial metric has non-negative Ricci curvature, a fact which is essential in Hamilton's estimates [R.S. Hamilton, Three-manifolds with positive Ricci curvature, J. Differential Geom. 17 (1982) 255-306]), some L²-estimates for the gradients of the Ricci curvature, and finally the Harnack type estimates for the Ricci curvature. These results are established through careful (and rather complicated and lengthy) computations, integration by parts and the maximum principles for parabolic equations.     

Curvatures of the tangent bundle with a special almost product metric

We study a class of Riemannian almost product metrics on the tangent bundle of a smooth manifold. This class includes the Sasaki and Cheeger-Gromoll metrics as special cases. For this class of metrics, we find the dependence of the scalar curvature of the tangent bundle on objects of the base manifold. For the case in which the base manifold is a space of constant sectional curvature, we obtain conditions on the metric and the dimension of the base under which the scalar curvature of the tangent bundle is constant. For special cases of metrics of the class considered, we find the intervals on which the scalar curvature of the tangent bundle treated as a function of the sectional curvature of the base has constant sign.     

Manifolds with 1/4-Pinched Flag Curvature

We say that a nonnegatively curved manifold (M, g) has quarter-pinched flag curvature if for any two planes which intersect in a line the ratio of their sectional curvature is bounded above by 4. We show that these manifolds have nonnegative complex sectional curvature. By combining with a theorem of Brendle and Schoen it follows that any positively curved manifold with strictly quarter-pinched flag curvature must be a space form. This in turn generalizes a result of Andrews and Nguyen in dimension 4. For odd-dimensional manifolds we obtain results for the case that the flag curvature is pinched with some constant below one quarter, one of which generalizes a recent work of Petersen and Tao.     

An optimal parabolic estimate and its applications in prescribing scalar curvature on some open manifolds with Ricci \ge 0

By establishing an optimal comparison result on the heat kernel of the conformal Laplacian on open manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature, (a) we show that many manifolds with positive scalar curvature do not possess conformal metrics with scalar curvature bounded below by a positive constant; (b) we identify a class of functions with the following property: If the manifold has a scalar curvature in this class, then there exists a complete conformal metric whose scalar curvature is any given function in this class. This class is optimal in some sense; (c) we have identified all manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature, which are “uniformly” conformal to manifolds with zero scalar curvature. Even in the Euclidean case, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition under which the main existence results in [Ni1] and [KN] on prescribing nonnegative scalar curvature will hold. This condition had been sought in several papers in the last two decades. Received: 11 November 1998 / Revised: 7 April 1999     

Ternary univariate curvature-preserving subdivision

We present an interpolating, univariate subdivision scheme which preserves the discrete curvature and tangent direction at each step of subdivision. Since the polygon have a geometric information of some original (in some sense) curve as a discrete curvature, we can expect that the limit curve has the same curvature at each vertex as the control polygon. We estimate the curvature bound of odd vertices and give an error estimate for restoring a curve from sampled vertices on curves.     

Some curvature properties of complex surfaces

Summary In this paper, we are investigating curvature properties of complex two-dimensional Hermitian manifolds, particularly in the compact case. To do this, we start with the remark that the fundamental form of such a manifold is integrable, and we use the analogy with the locally conformal KÄhler manifolds, which follows from this remark. Among the obtained results, we have the following: a compact Hermitian surface for which either the Riemannian curvature tensor satisfies the KÄhler symmetries or the Hermitian curvature tensor satisfies the Riemannian Bianchi identity is KÄhler; a compact Hermitian surface of constant sectional curvature is a flat KÄhler surface; a compact Hermitian surface M with nonnegative nonidentical zero holomorphie Hermitian bisectional curvature has vanishing plurigenera, c₁(M) 0, and no exceptional curves; a compact Hermitian surface with distinguished metric, and positive integral Riemannian scalar curvature has vanishing plurigenera, etc.     

Principal Normal Indicatrices of Closed Space Curves

A theorem due to J. Weiner, which is also proven by B. Solomon, implies that a principal normal indicatrix of a closed space curve with nonvanishing curvature has integrated geodesic curvature zero and contains no subarc with integrated geodesic curvature . We prove that the inverse problem always has solutions if one allows zero and negative curvature of space curves and explain why this not is true if nonvanishing curvature is required. This answers affirmatively an open question asked by W. Fenchel in 1950 under the above assumptions but in general this question is found to be answered to the negative.     

Sparsity of the average curvature information matrix

We present a theorem regarding the average curvature properties of partially separable functions which need not be differentiable or continuous. This has implications for derivative-free optimization methods which make use of average curvature information to select the set of search directions. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Partially hyperbolic geodesic flows

We construct a category of examples of partially hyperbolic geodesic flows which are not Anosov, deforming the metric of a compact locally symmetric space of nonconstant negative curvature. Candidates for such an example as the product metric and locally symmetric spaces of nonpositive curvature with rank bigger than one are not partially hyperbolic. We prove that if a metric of nonpositive curvature has a partially hyperbolic geodesic flow, then its rank is one. Other obstructions to partial hyperbolicity of a geodesic flow are also analyzed.     

On tangent cones of Alexandrov spaces with curvature bounded below

The tangent cones of an inner metric Alexandrov space with finite Hausdorff dimension and a lower curvature bound are always inner metric spaces with nonnegative curvature. In this paper we construct an infinite-dimensional inner metric Alexandrov space of nonnegative curvature which has in one point a tangent cone whose metric is not an inner metric. Received: 20 October 1999 / Revised version: 8 May 2000     

On Almost Hermitian 4-manifolds with J-invariant Ricci Tensor

We prove that every almost Hermitian 4-manifold with J-invariant Ricci tensor which is conformally flat or has harmonic curvature is either a space of constant curvature or a Kähler manifold. We also obtain analogous results on almost Kähler 4-manifolds.     

Islands at infinity on manifolds of asymptotically nonnegative curvature

We introduce an invariant which measures the R-eccentricity of a point in a complete Riemannian manifold M and show that it goes to zero when the point goes to infinity, if M has asymptotically nonnegative curvature. As a consequence we show that the isometry group is compact if M has asymptotically nonnegative curvature and a point with positive sectional curvature. Both authors were partially supported by CNPq of Brazil and the second author was also partially supported by FAPERJ of Brazil.     

Lattice Points in Planar Convex Domains

We investigate the number of lattice points in planar convex domains. We give estimates of the remainder in the asymptotic representation with numerical constants, which are astonishingly small. We consider convex planar domains whose boundary has nonvanishing curvature throughout. Here the curvature of the curve of boundary plays an important role. Further, we consider the number of lattice points in domains which are bounded by superellipses. These curves have isolated points with curvature zero.     

Conformal entropy rigidity through Yamabe flows

We introduce two versions of the Yamabe flow which preserve negative scalar-curvature bounds. First we show existence and smooth convergence of solutions to these flows. We then show that a metric with negative scalar curvature is controlled by the Yamabe metrics in the same conformal class with constant extremal scalar curvatures. This implies that the volume entropy of our original metric is controlled by the entropies of these Yamabe metrics. We eventually use these Yamabe flows to prove an entropy-rigidity result: when the Yamabe metric has negative sectional curvature, the entropy of a metric in the same conformal class is extremal if and only if the metric has constant extremal scalar curvature.     

Ricci flow on Kähler-Einstein surfaces

In this paper, we prove that if M is a K?hler-Einstein surface with positive scalar curvature, if the initial metric has nonnegative sectional curvature, and the curvature is positive somewhere, then the K?hler-Ricci flow converges to a K?hler-Einstein metric with constant bisectional curvature. In a subsequent paper [7], we prove the same result for general K?hler-Einstein manifolds in all dimension. This gives an affirmative answer to a long standing problem in K?hler Ricci flow: On a compact K?hler-Einstein manifold, does the K?hler-Ricci flow converge to a K?hler-Einstein metric if the initial metric has a positive bisectional curvature? Our main method is to find a set of new functionals which are essentially decreasing under the K?hler Ricci flow while they have uniform lower bounds. This property gives the crucial estimate we need to tackle this problem. Oblatum 8-IX-2000 & 30-VII-2001?Published online: 19 November 2001     

Remarks on scalar curvature of Yamabe solitons

In this article, we consider the scalar curvature of Yamabe solitons. In particular, we show that, with natural conditions and non-positive Ricci curvature, any complete Yamabe soliton has constant scalar curvature, namely, it is a Yamabe metric. We also show that a complete non-compact Yamabe soliton with the quadratic decay at infinity of its Ricci curvature has non-negative scalar curvature. A new proof of Kazdan?CWarner condition is also presented.     

Lie Superalgebras Associated with Constant Sectional Curvature

This note describes an observation connecting Riemannian manifolds of constant sectional curvature with a particular class of Lie superalgebras. Specifically, it is shown that the structural equations of a space M with constant sectional curvature, of one variety or another, nearly coincide with some identities satisfied by tensors which can be used to construct some specific families of Lie superalgebras. In particular, one obtains either osp(n,2), spl(n,2), or osp(4,2n) if the Riemannian manifold has constant curvature, constant holomorphic curvature or constant quaternion-holomorphic curvature, respectively.Mathematics Subject Classiffications (2000). 17A70, 53C29, 53C99, 57Rxx     

New Characterizations of Compact Totally Umbilical Spacelike Surfaces in 4-Dimensional Lorentz–Minkowski Spacetime Through a Lightcone

On each spacelike surface through the lightcone in 4-dimensional Lorentz–Minkowski spacetime, there exists an Artinian normal frame which contains the position vector field. In this way, a (globally defined) lightlike normal vector field, with nontrivial extrinsic meaning, is chosen on the surface. When the second fundamental form respect to that normal direction is non-degenerate, a new formula which relates the Gauss curvature of the induced metric and the Gauss curvature of this normal metric is obtained. Then, the totally umbilical round spheres are characterized as the only compact spacelike surfaces through the lightcone whose normal metric has constant Gauss curvature two. Such surfaces are also distinguished in terms of the Gauss–Kronecker curvature of that lightlike normal direction, of the area of the normal metric and of the first non-trivial eigenvalue of the Laplacian of the induced metric.