Stability problems in a theorem of F. Schur

Schur's theorem states that an isotropic Riemannian manifold of dimension greater than two has constant curvature. It is natural to guess that compact almost isotropic Riemannian manifolds of dimension greater than two are close to spaces of almost constant curvature. We take the curvature anisotropy as the discrepancy of the sectional curvatures at a point. The main result of this paper is that Riemannian manifolds in Cheeger's class ℜ(n,d,V,A) withL ₁-small integral anisotropy haveL _p-small change of the sectional curvature over the manifold. We also estimate the deviation of the metric tensor from that of constant curvature in theW _p ² -norm, and prove that compact almost isotropic spaces inherit the differential structure of a space form. These stability results are based on the generalization of Schur' theorem to metric spaces.     

Integral pinching theorems

Using Hamilton's Ricci flow we shall prove several pinching results for integral curvature. In particular, we show that if p>n/2$ and the L ^p norm of the curvature tensor is small and the diameter is bounded, then the manifold is an infra-nilmanifold. We also obtain a result on deforming metrics to positive sectional curvature. Received: 17 February 1999     

Schouten curvature functions on locally conformally flat Riemannian manifolds

Consider a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) with metric g and dimension n ≥ 3. The Schouten tensor A _g associated with g is a symmetric (0, 2)-tensor field describing the non-conformally-invariant part of the curvature tensor of g. In this paper, we consider the elementary symmetric functions {σ _k (A _g ), 1 ≤ k ≤ n} of the eigenvalues of A _g with respect to g; we call σ _k (A _g ) the k-th Schouten curvature function. We give an isometric classification for compact locally conformally flat manifolds which satisfy the conditions: A _g is semi-positive definite and σ _k (A _g ) is a nonzero constant for some k ∈ {2, ... , n}. If k = 2, we obtain a classification result under the weaker conditions that σ₂(A _g ) is a non-negative constant and (M ⁿ , g) has nonnegative Ricci curvature. The corresponding result for the case k = 1 is well known. We also give an isometric classification for complete locally conformally flat manifolds with constant scalar curvature and non-negative Ricci curvature. Udo Simon: Partially supported by Chinese-German cooperation projects, DFG PI 158/4-4 and PI 158/4-5, and NSFC.     

The prescribed curvature problem in dimension four

Necessary and sufficient conditions for a g-valued differential 2-form on a 4-dimensional manifold to be, locally, a curvature form, are given. The dimension four is exceptional for the problem of prescribed curvature as, in this dimension, Bianchi's identities can be eliminated for a large class of Lie algebras, including semisimple algebras. Hence, the curvature forms are characterized as the solutions to a second-order partial differential system, which is proved to be formally integrable.     

Some results on (k, μ)′-almost Kenmotsu manifolds

In this paper, we study the Weyl conformal curvature tensor 𝒲 and the concircular curvature tensor 𝒞 on a (k, μ)′-almost Kenmotsu manifold M²ⁿ⁺¹ of dimension greater than 3. We obtain that if M²ⁿ⁺¹ satisfies either R · 𝒲 = 0 or 𝒞 · 𝒞 = 0, then it is locally isometric to either the hyperbolic space ?²ⁿ⁺¹ (?1) or the Riemannian product ?ⁿ⁺¹(?4) × ?ⁿ.     

Nonvanishing of Kronecker coefficients for rectangular shapes

We prove that for any partition (λ₁,…,λd²) of size ?d there exists k?1 such that the tensor square of the irreducible representation of the symmetric group Sk?d with respect to the rectangular partition (k?,…,k?) contains the irreducible representation corresponding to the stretched partition (kλ₁,…,kλd²). We also prove a related approximate version of this statement in which the stretching factor k is effectively bounded in terms of d. We further discuss the consequences for geometric complexity theory which provided the motivation for this work.     

Clifford structures on Riemannian manifolds

We introduce the notion of even Clifford structures on Riemannian manifolds, which for rank r=2 and r=3 reduce to almost Hermitian and quaternion-Hermitian structures respectively. We give the complete classification of manifolds carrying parallel rank r even Clifford structures: Kähler, quaternion-Kähler and Riemannian products of quaternion-Kähler manifolds for r=2,3 and 4 respectively, several classes of 8-dimensional manifolds (for 5?r?8), families of real, complex and quaternionic Grassmannians (for r=8,6 and 5 respectively), and Rosenfeld?s elliptic projective planes OP², (C⊗O)P², (H⊗O)P² and (O⊗O)P², which are symmetric spaces associated to the exceptional simple Lie groups F₄, E₆, E₇ and E₈ (for r=9,10,12 and 16 respectively). As an application, we classify all Riemannian manifolds whose metric is bundle-like along the curvature constancy distribution, generalizing well-known results in Sasakian and 3-Sasakian geometry.     

Integral Menger curvature for surfaces

We develop the concept of integral Menger curvature for a large class of nonsmooth surfaces. We prove uniform Ahlfors regularity and a C1,λ-a priori bound for surfaces for which this functional is finite. In fact, it turns out that there is an explicit length scale R>0 which depends only on an upper bound E for the integral Menger curvature Mp(Σ) and the integrability exponent p, and not on the surface Σ itself; below that scale, each surface with energy smaller than E looks like a nearly flat disc with the amount of bending controlled by the (local) Mp-energy. Moreover, integral Menger curvature can be defined a priori for surfaces with self-intersections or branch points; we prove that a posteriori all such singularities are excluded for surfaces with finite integral Menger curvature. By means of slicing and iterative arguments we bootstrap the Hölder exponent λ up to the optimal one, λ=1−(8/p), thus establishing a new geometric ‘Morrey–Sobolev’ imbedding theorem.As two of the various possible variational applications we prove the existence of surfaces in given isotopy classes minimizing integral Menger curvature with a uniform bound on area, and of area minimizing surfaces subjected to a uniform bound on integral Menger curvature.     

On the fundamental groups of manifolds with integral curvature bounds

In this paper, we give an upper bound on the growth of π₁(M) for a class of manifolds with integral Ricci curvature bounds. This generalizes the main theorem of [8] to the case where the negative part of Ricci curvature is small in an averaged L¹- sense.Received: 19 July 2004     

Almost Hermitian 4-manifolds of pointwise constant anti-holomorphic sectional curvature

We show that a 4-dimensional almost Hermitian manifold (M, J, g) is of pointwise constant anti-holomorphic sectional curvature if and only if (M, J, g) is self-dual with J-invariant Ricci tensor and K₁₂₁₂ = 0, where K is the complexification of the Riemannian curvature tensor.     

Properties of a scalar curvature invariant depending on two planes

Based on Schouten’s interpretation of the Riemann–Christoffel curvature tensor R, a geometrical meaning for the tensor R·R is presented. It follows that the condition of semi-symmetry, i.e. R·R = 0, can be interpreted as the invariance of the sectional curvature of every plane after parallel transport around an infinitesimal parallelogram. Using the tensor R· R, and in analogy with the definition of the sectional curvature K(p,π) of a plane π, a scalar curvature invariant L(p,π, \({\overline{\pi}}\)) is constructed which in general depends on two planes π and \({\overline{\pi}}\) at the same point p. This invariant can be geometrically interpreted in terms of the parallelogramoïds of Levi–Civita and it is shown that it completely determines the tensor R· R. Further it is demonstrated that the isotropy of this new scalar curvature invariant L(p,π, \({\overline{\pi}}\)) with respect to both the planes π and \({\overline{\pi}}\) amounts to the Riemannian manifold to be pseudo-symmetric in the sense of Deszcz.     

On spacelike hypersurfaces with constant scalar curvature in the anti-de Sitter space

In this paper, we classify complete spacelike hypersurfaces in the anti-de Sitter space (n?3) with constant scalar curvature and with two principal curvatures. Moreover, we prove that if Mn is a complete spacelike hypersurface with constant scalar curvature n(n−1)R and with two distinct principal curvatures such that the multiplicity of one of the principal curvatures is n−1, then R<(n−2)c/n. Additionally, we also obtain several rigidity theorems for such hypersurfaces.     

Characterizations of Some Product Manifolds by Their Spectrum

Let Sⁿ(c) denote the n-dimensional Euclidean sphere of constant sectional curvature c and denote by CPⁿ(c) the complex projective space of complex dimension n and of holomorphic sectional curvature c. In this paper, we obtain some characterizations of the manifolds S²(c) × S²(c′), S⁴(c) × S⁴(c′), CP²(c) × CP²(c′) by their spectrum.     

Curvature estimates for the Ricci flow I

In this paper we present several curvature estimates for solutions of the Ricci flow and the modified Ricci flow (including the volume normalized Ricci flow and the normalized Kähler-Ricci flow), which depend on the smallness of certain local \(L^{\frac{n}{2}}\) integrals of the norm of the Riemann curvature tensor |Rm|, where n denotes the dimension of themanifold. These local integrals are scaling invariant and very natural.     

Harnack inequalities for Yamabe type equations

We give some a priori estimates of type sup×inf on Riemannian manifolds for Yamabe and prescribed curvature type equations. An application of those results is the uniqueness result for Δu+?u=uN−1 with ? small enough.     

n-dimensional totally real minimal submanifolds of CP n

Let CP ⁿ be the n-dimensional complex projective space with the Study-Fubini metric of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 4 and let M be a compact, orientable, n-dimensional totally real minimal submanifold of CP ⁿ . In this paper we prove the following results.

Spacelike hypersurfaces with constant scalar curvature

In this paper, we shall give an integral equality by applying the operator □ introduced by S.Y. Cheng and S.T. Yau [7] to compact spacelike hypersurfaces which are immersed in de Sitter spaceS ₁ ⁿ⁺¹ (c) and have constant scalar curvature. By making use of this integral equality, we show that such a hypersurface with constant scalar curvaturen(n−1)r is isometric to a sphere ifr<c. Research partially Supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.     

Spacelike hypersurfaces with constant scalar curvature

In this paper, we shall give an integral equality by applying the operator □ introduced by S.Y. Cheng and S.T. Yau [7] to compact spacelike hypersurfaces which are immersed in de Sitter space S ^{n +1} ₁(c) and have constant scalar curvature. By making use of this integral equality, we show that such a hypersurface with constant scalar curvature n(n-1)r is isometric to a sphere if r << c. Received: 18 December 1996 / Revised version: 26 November 1997     

Pinching theorems of hypersurfaces in a unit sphere

Let Mn be a complete hypersurface in Sn+1(1) with constant mean curvature. Assume that Mn has n−1 principal curvatures with the same sign everywhere. We prove that if RicM≤C₋(H), either S?S₊(H) or RicM?0 or the fundamental group of Mn is infinite, then S is constant, S=S₊(H) and Mn is isometric to a Clifford torus with . These rigidity theorems are still valid for compact hypersurface without constancy condition on the mean curvature.     

Conformal fields and the stability of leaves with constant higher order mean curvature

In this paper, we study hypersurfaces with constant rth mean curvature Sr. We investigate the stability of such hypersurfaces in the case when they are leaves of a codimension one foliation. We also generalize recent results by Barros and Sousa, concerning conformal fields, to an arbitrary manifold. Using this we show that normal component of a Killing field is an rth Jacobi field of a hypersurface with Sr+1 constant. Finally, we study relations between rth Jacobi fields and vector fields preserving a foliation.