Certain 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature

In this paper, we study certain compact 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature K. If s is the scalar curvature and W. is the self-dual part of Weyl tensor, then it will be shown that there is no metric g on S ^• × S ^• with both (i) K > 0 and (ii) ÷ s − W _• ⩾ 0. We also investigate other aspects of 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature. One of our results implies a theorem of Hamilton: “If a simply-connected, closed 4-manifold M^• admits a metric g of non-negative curvature operator, then M^• is one of S^•, ℂP^• and S^•×S^•”. Our method is different from Hamilton’s and is much simpler. A new version of the second variational formula for minimal surfaces in 4-manifolds is proved.      

Total Curvature for <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis><Superscript>∞</Superscript>-Singular Surfaces with Limiting Tangent Bundle

The total curvature of a compact C^∞-immersed surface in Euclidean 3-space ³ can be interpreted as the average number of critical points for a linear ‘height’ function. The Morse inequalities provide an intrinsic topological lower bound for the total curvature and ‘tight’ surfaces, which realize equality, have been an active topic of research. The objective of this paper is to describe the natural notion of total curvature for C^∞-singular surfaces which fail to immerse on C^∞-embedded closed curves, but which have a C^∞-globally defined unit normal (e.g. caustics, or critical images for mappings of 3-manifolds into Euclidean 3-space). For such surfaces total curvature consists of a sum of two-dimensional and one-dimensional integrals, which have various lower bounds. Large sets of LT-surfaces which realize equality are then constructed. As an application, the orthogonal projection of an immersed tight hypersurface in Euclidean 4-space is shown to have LT-tight critical image, and several related inequalities are given. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000): 57N65, 14P99, 53C21, 53B25, 53B20.     

Conformal geometry of foliations

In this article, we begin a systematic study of conformal properties of codimension-1 foliations. We first define and study local conformal invariants. A case of particular interest is that of harmonic foliations of the plane. Then we study existence of totally umbilical and “Dupin” foliations on compact 3-manifolds of constant curvature.      

Nonnegative curvature and cobordism type

We show that in each dimension n = 4k, k≥ 2, there exist infinite sequences of closed simply connected Riemannian n-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature and mutually distinct oriented cobordism type. W. Tuschmann’s research was supported in part by a DFG Heisenberg Fellowship.     

Almost hermitian manifolds and Osserman condition

Let(M, g, J) be an almost Hermitian manifold. In this paper we study holomorphically nonnegatively(δ,Δ)-pinched almost Hermitian manifolds. In [3] it was shown that for such Kahler manifolds a plane with maximal sectional curvature has to be a holomorphic plane(J-invariant). Here we generalize this result to arbitrary almost Hermitian manifolds with respect to the holomorphic curvature tensorH R and toRK-manifolds of a constant type λ(p). In the proof some estimates of the sectional curvature are established. The results obtained are used to characterize almost Hermitian manifolds of constant holomorphic sectional curvature (with respect to holomorphic and Riemannian curvature tensor) in terms of the eigenvalues of the Jacobi-type operators, i.e. to establish partial cases of the Osserman conjecture. Some examples are studied. The first author is partially supported by SFS, Project #04M03.     

The affine complete hypersurfaces of constant Gauss-Kronecker curvature

Given a bounded convex domain Ω with C∞ boundary and a function ψ∈C∞（δΩ）, Li-Simon-Chen can construct an Euclidean complete and W-complete convex hypersurface M with constant affine Gauss-Kronecker curvature, and they guess the M is also affine complete. In this paper, we give a confirmation answer.     

A Maximum Principle at Infinity for Surfaces with Constant Mean Curvature in Euclidean Space

Maximum principles at infinity generalize Hopf's maximum principle for hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature in R ⁿ . We establish such a maximum principle for parabolic surfaces in R³ with nonzero constant mean curvature and bounded Gaussian curvature.     

Rigidity of Einstein 4-manifolds with positive curvature

An Einstein metric with positive scalar curvature on a 4-manifold is said to be normalized if Ric=1. A basic problem in Riemannian geometry is to classify Einstein 4-manifolds with positive sectional curvature in the category of either topology, diffeomorphism, or isometry. It is shown in this paper that if the sectional curvature K of a normalized Einstein 4-manifold M satisfies the lower bound K≥ε₀, ε₀≡(-23)/120≈0.102843, or condition (b) of Theorem 1.1, then it is isometric to either S ⁴, RP ⁴ with constant sectional curvature K=1/3, or CP ² with the normalized Fubini-Study metric. As a consequence, both the normalized moduli spaces of Einstein metrics which satisfy either one of the above two conditions on S ⁴ and CP ² contain only a single point. In particular, if M is a smooth 4-manifold which is homeomorphic to either S ⁴, RP ⁴, or CP ² but not diffeomorphic to any of the three manifolds, then it can not support any normalized Einstein metric which satisfies either one of the conditions. Oblatum 4-II-1999 & 4-V-2000?Published online: 16 August 2000     

Harmonic mean curvature lines on surfaces immersed in $ \mathbb{R}^{3} $ \mathbb{R}^{3}

Consider oriented surfaces immersed in . Associated to them, here are studied pairs of transversal foliations with singularities, defined on the Elliptic region, where the Gaussian curvature , given by the product of the principal curvatures k ₁, k ₂ is positive. The leaves of the foliations are the lines of harmonic mean curvature, also called characteristic or diagonal lines, along which the normal curvature of the immersion is given by , where is the arithmetic mean curvature. That is, is the harmonic mean of the principal curvatures k ₁, k ₂ of the immersion. The singularities of the foliations are the umbilic points and parabolic curves, where k ₁ = k ₂ and , respectively.Here are determined the structurally stable patterns of harmonic mean curvature lines near the umbilic points, parabolic curves and harmonic mean curvature cycles, the periodic leaves of the foliations. The genericity of these patterns is established.This provides the three essential local ingredients to establish sufficient conditions, likely to be also necessary, for Harmonic Mean Curvature Structural Stability of immersed surfaces. This study, outlined towards the end of the paper, is a natural analog and complement for that carried out previously by the authors for the Arithmetic Mean Curvature and the Asymptotic Structural Stability of immersed surfaces, [13, 14, 17], and also extended recently to the case of the Geometric Mean Curvature Configuration [15].The first author was partially supported by FUNAPE/UFG. Both authors are fellows of CNPq. This work was done under the project PRONEX/FINEP/MCT - Conv. 76.97.1080.00 - Teoria Qualitativa das Equações Diferenciais Ordinárias and CNPq - Grant 476886/2001-5.     

Strengthening theC t -closing lemma for dynamical systems and foliations on the torus

We prove a strengthenedC ^r -closing lemma (r≥1) for wandering chain recurrent trajectories of flows without equilibrium states on the two-dimensional torus and for wandering chain recurrent orbits of a diffeomorphism of the circle. The strengthenedC ^r -closing lemma (r≥1) is proved for a special class of infinitely smooth actions of the integer lattice ℤ ^k on the circle. The result is applied to foliations of codimension one with trivial holonomy group on the three-dimensional torus. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 323–331, March, 1997. Translated by S. K. Lando     

Approximation by Conic Splines

We show that the complexity of a parabolic or conic spline approximating a sufficiently smooth curve with non-vanishing curvature to within Hausdorff distance ɛ is c ₁ɛ^−1/4 + O(1), if the spline consists of parabolic arcs, and c ₂ɛ^−1/5 + O(1), if it is composed of general conic arcs of varying type. The constants c ₁ and c ₂ are expressed in the Euclidean and affine curvature of the curve. We also show that the Hausdorff distance between a curve and an optimal conic arc tangent at its endpoints is increasing with its arc length, provided the affine curvature along the arc is monotone. This property yields a simple bisection algorithm for the computation of an optimal parabolic or conic spline. The research of SG and GV was partially supported by grant 6413 of the European Commission to the IST-2002 FET-Open project Algorithms for Complex Shapes in the Sixth Framework Program.     

A Simple Proof of Perelman’s Collapsing Theorem for 3-manifolds

We will simplify earlier proofs of Perelman’s collapsing theorem for 3-manifolds given by Shioya–Yamaguchi (J. Differ. Geom. 56:1–66, 2000; Math. Ann. 333: 131–155, 2005) and Morgan–Tian ( [math.DG], 2008). A version of Perelman’s collapsing theorem states: “Let {M³_i}\{M^{3}_{i}\} be a sequence of compact Riemannian 3-manifolds with curvature bounded from below by (−1) and $\mathrm{diam}(M^{3}_{i})\ge c_{0}>0$\mathrm{diam}(M^{3}_{i})\ge c_{0}>0 . Suppose that all unit metric balls in M³_iM^{3}_{i} have very small volume, at most v _i →0 as i→∞, and suppose that either M³_iM^{3}_{i} is closed or has possibly convex incompressible toral boundary. Then M³_iM^{3}_{i} must be a graph manifold for sufficiently large i”. This result can be viewed as an extension of the implicit function theorem. Among other things, we apply Perelman’s critical point theory (i.e., multiple conic singularity theory and his fibration theory) to Alexandrov spaces to construct the desired local Seifert fibration structure on collapsed 3-manifolds.     

Real hypersurfaces with constant totally real bisectional curvature in complex space forms

In this paper we classify real hypersurfaces with constant totally real bisectional curvature in a non flat complex space form M _m (c), c ≠ 0 as those which have constant holomorphic sectional curvature given in [6] and [13] or constant totally real sectional curvature given in [11].     

Integration of differential forms on manifolds with locally-finite variations

It is well known that one can integrate any compactly supported, continuous, differential n-form over n-dimensional C¹-manifolds in ℝ^m (m ≥ n). For n = 1, the integral may be defined over any locally rectifiable curve. Another generalization is the theory of currents (linear functionals on the space of compactly supported C^∞-differential forms). The theme of the article is integration of measurable differential n-forms over n-dimensional n C⁰-manifolds in ℝ^m with locally-finite n-dimensional variations (a generalization of locally rectifiable curves to dimension n > 1). The main result states that any such manifold generates an n-dimensional current in ℝ^m (i.e., any compactly supported C^∞ n-form can be integrated over a manifold with the properties mentioned above). Bibliography: 8 titles. __________ Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 327, 2005, pp. 168–206.     

Rigidity for Nonnegatively Curved Metrics on S 2 × R3

We address the question: how large is the family of complete metricswith nonnegative sectional curvature on S ² × R³? We classify theconnection metrics, and give several examples of nonconnection metrics.We provide evidence that the family is small by proving some rigidityresults for metrics more general than connection metrics.

     

Index formulas for geometric Dirac operators in Riemannian foliations

With regards to certain Riemannian foliations we consider Kasparov pairings of leafwise and transverse Dirac operators. Relative to a pairing with a transversal class we commence by establishing an index formula for foliations with leaves of nonpositive sectional curvature. The underlying ideas are then developed in a more general setting leading to pairings of images under the Baum-Connes map in geometricK-theory with transversal classes. Several ideas implicit in the work of Connes and Hilsum-Skandalis are formulated in the context of Riemannian foliations. From these we establish the notion of a dual pairing inK-homology and a theorem of the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch type.R. G. D. was supported by The National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS-9304283.J. F. G. and F. W. K. were supported in part by The National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS-9208182.F. W. K. was also supported in part by an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award from the Research Board of the University of Illinois.     

Locally Conformal C 6-Manifolds and Generalized Sasakian-Space-Forms

An algebraic characterization of generalized Sasakian-space-forms is stated. Then, one studies the almost contact metric manifolds which are locally conformal to C ₆-manifolds, simply called l.c. C ₆-manifolds. In dimension 2n + 1 ≥ 5, any of these manifolds turns out to be locally conformal cosymplectic or globally conformal to a Sasakian manifold. Curvature properties of l.c. C ₆-manifolds are obtained, with particular attention to the k-nullity condition. This allows one to state a local classification theorem, in dimension 2n + 1 ≥ 5, under the hypothesis of constant sectional curvature. Moreover, one proves that an l.c. C ₆–manifold is a generalized Sasakian-space-form if and only if it satisfies the k-nullity condition and has pointwise constant j{\varphi}-sectional curvature. Finally, local classification theorems for the generalized Sasakian-space-forms in the considered class are obtained.     

On Positive Sasakian Geometry

A Sasakian structure =(\xi,\eta,\Phi,g) on a manifold Mis called positiveif its basic first Chern class c₁( ) can be represented by a positive (1,1)-form with respect to its transverse holomorphic CR-structure. We prove a theorem that says that every positive Sasakian structure can be deformed to a Sasakian structure whose metric has positive Ricci curvature. This provides us with a new technique for proving the existence of positive Ricci curvature metrics on certain odd dimensional manifolds. As an example we give a completely independent proof of a result of Sha and Yang that for every nonnegative integer kthe 5-manifolds k#(S ²×S ³) admits metrics of positive Ricci curvature.     

The regularity of the surface of the Gauss curvature 0≤K ∈ C 0 ∞

Under the mild conditions, it is proved that the convex surface is global C^1.1, with the given Gaussian curvature 0≤K ∈ C ₀ ^∞ and the given boundary curve. Examples are given to show that the regularity is optimal. Project supported by the Doctoral Funds of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 19771009).