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.     

Absolute curvature measures,II

The absolute curvature measures for sets of positive reach in R ^d introduced in [7] satisfy the following kinematic relations: Their integrated values on the intersections with (or on the tangential projections onto) uniformly moved p-planes are constant multiples of the corresponding absolute curvature measures of the primary set. In the special case of convex bodies the first result is the so-called Crofton formula. An analogue for signed curvature measures is well known in the differential geometry of smooth manifolds, but the motion of absolute curvatures used there does not lead to this property. For the special case of smooth compact hypermanifolds our absolute curvature measures agree with those introduced by Santaló [4] with other methods.In the appendix, the section formula is applied to motion invariant random sets.     

Non-preserved curvature conditions under constrained mean curvature flows

We provide explicit examples which show that mean convexity (i.e. positivity of the mean curvature) and positivity of the scalar curvature are non-preserved curvature conditions for hypersurfaces of the Euclidean space evolving under either the volume- or the area preserving mean curvature flow. The relevance of our examples is that they disprove some statements of the previous literature, overshadow a widespread folklore conjecture about the behaviour of these flows and bring out the discouraging news that a traditional singularity analysis is not possible for constrained versions of the mean curvature flow.     

Sectional curvature,compact cores,and local quasiconvexity

We define a new notion of sectional curvature for 2-complexes, and describe a variety of examples with nonpositive or negative sectional curvature. The 2-complexes with nonpositive sectional curvature have coherent and locally indicable fundamental groups. The 2-complexes with negative sectional curvature have the compact core property for covers with finitely generated fundamental group. The fundamental groups of compact 2-complexes with metric negative sectional curvature have locally-quasiconvex fundamental groups.     

Strongly positive curvature

We begin a systematic study of a curvature condition (strongly positive curvature) which lies strictly between positive-definiteness of the curvature operator and positivity of sectional curvature, and stems from the work of Thorpe (J Differ Geom 5:113–125, 1971; Erratum. J Differ Geom 11:315, 1976). We prove that this condition is preserved under Riemannian submersions and Cheeger deformations and that most compact homogeneous spaces with positive sectional curvature satisfy it.     

Solitons of curvature

An intristic geometry of surfaces is discussed. In geodesic coordinates the Gauss equation is reduced to the Schrödinger equation where the Gaussian curvature plays the role of a potential. The use of this fact provides an infinite set of explicit expressions for the curvature and metric of a surface. A special case is governed by the KdV equation for the Gaussian curvature. We consider the integrable dynamics of curvature via the KdV equation, higher KdV equations and (2+1)-dimensional integrable equations with breaking solitons.     

Special Lagrangian curvature

We define the notion of special Lagrangian curvature, showing how it may be interpreted as an alternative higher dimensional generalisation of two dimensional Gaussian curvature. We obtain first a local rigidity result for this curvature when the ambient manifold has negative sectional curvature. We then show how this curvature relates to the canonical special Legendrian structure of spherical subbundles of the tangent bundle of the ambient manifold. This allows us to establish a strong compactness result. In the case where the special Lagrangian angle equals (n ? 1)π/2, we obtain compactness modulo a unique mode of degeneration, where a sequence of hypersurfaces wraps ever tighter round a geodesic.     

Geometric realizations of curvature models by manifolds with constant scalar curvature

We show any pseudo-Riemannian curvature model can be geometrically realized by a manifold with constant scalar curvature. We also show that any pseudo-Hermitian curvature model, para-Hermitian curvature model, hyper-pseudo-Hermitian curvature model, or hyper-para-Hermitian curvature model can be realized by a manifold with constant scalar and -scalar curvature.     

Ricci curvature, minimal volumes, and Seiberg-Witten theory

We derive new, sharp lower bounds for certain curvature functionals on the space of Riemannian metrics of a smooth compact 4-manifold with non-trivial Seiberg-Witten invariants. These allow one, for example, to exactly compute the infimum of the L ²-norm of Ricci curvature for any complex surface of general type. We are also able to show that the standard metric on any complex-hyperbolic 4-manifold minimizes volume among all metrics satisfying a point-wise lower bound on sectional curvature plus suitable multiples of the scalar curvature. These estimates also imply new non-existence results for Einstein metrics. Oblatum 14-III-2000 & 8-II-2001?Published online: 4 May 2001     

Properties of Berwald scalar curvature

We prove that a Finsler manifold with vanishing Berwald scalar curvature has zero E-curvature. As a consequence, Landsberg manifolds with vanishing Berwald scalar curvature are Berwald manifolds. For (α,β)-metrics on manifold of dimension greater than 2, if the mean Landsberg curvature and the Berwald scalar curvature both vanish, then the Berwald curvature also vanishes.     

Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature with special non-Riemannian curvature properties

In this paper, we study Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature. We find that a non-Riemannian quantity is closely related to the flag curvature. We show that the flag curvature is weakly isotropic if and only if this non-Riemannian quantity takes a special form. This will lead to a better understanding on Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature.      

Minimal surfaces in a unit sphere pinched by intrinsic curvature and normal curvature

We establish a nice orthonormal frame field on a closed surface minimally immersed in a unit sphere Sn, under which the shape operators take very simple forms. Using this frame field, we obtain an interesting property K + K~N= 1 for the Gauss curvature K and the normal curvature K~N if the Gauss curvature is positive. Moreover, using this property we obtain the pinching on the intrinsic curvature and normal curvature, the pinching on the normal curvature, respectively.     

On the scalar curvature of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in space forms

In this paper we study the behavior of the scalar curvature S of a complete hypersurface immersed with constant mean curvature into a Riemannian space form of constant curvature, deriving a sharp estimate for the infimum of S. Our results will be an application of a weak Omori-Yau maximum principle due to Pigola, Rigoli, Setti (2005) [17].     

Positive curvature,symmetry, and topology

We depict recent developments in the field of positive sectional curvature, mainly, but not exclusively, under the assumption of isometric torus actions. After an elaborate introduction to the field, we shall discuss various classification results, before we provide results on the computation of Euler characteristics. This will be the starting point for an examination of more involved invariants and further techniques. In particular, we shall discuss the Hopf conjectures, related decomposition results like the Wilhelm conjecture, results in differential topology and index theory as well as in rational homotopy theory, geometrically formal metrics in positive curvature and much more. The results we present will be discussed for arbitrary dimensions, but also specified to small dimensions. This survey article features mainly depictions of our own work interest in this area and cites results obtained in different collaborations; full statements and proofs can be found in the respective original research articles.     

Algebraic curvature tensors whose skew-symmetric curvature operator has constant rank 2

Let R be an algebraic curvature tensor for a non-degenerate inner product of signature (p,q) where q5. If is a spacelike 2 plane, let R() be the associated skew-symmetric curvature operator. We classify the algebraic curvature tensors so R() has constant rank 2 and show these are geometrically realizable by hypersurfaces in flat spaces. We also classify the Ivanov–Petrova algebraic curvature tensors of rank 2; these are the algebraic curvature tensors of constant rank 2 such that the complex Jordan normal form of R() is constant.     

An estimate for the scalar curvature of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in space forms

In this paper we derive a sharp estimate for the supremum of the scalar curvature (or, equivalently, the infimum of the squared norm of the second fundamental form) of a constant mean curvature hypersurface with two principal curvatures immersed into a Riemannian space form of constant curvature. Our results will be an application of the generalized Omori-Yau maximum principle, following the approach by Pigola et al. (Memoirs Am Math Soc 822, 2005).     

Hypersurfaces with constant scalar curvature and constant mean curvature

Non-spherical hypersurfaces inE ⁴ with non-zero constant mean curvature and constant scalar curvature are the only hypersurfaces possessing the following property: Its position vector can be written as a sum of two non-constant maps, which are eigenmaps of the Laplacian operator with corresponding eigenvalues the zero and a non-zero constant.     

Distributional radius of curvature

We show that any continuous plane path that turns to the left has a well‐defined distribution that corresponds to the radius of curvature of smooth paths. We show that the distributional radius of curvature determines the path uniquely except for a translation. We show that Dirac delta contributions in the radius of curvature correspond to facets, that is, flat sections of the path, and show how a path can be deformed into a facet by letting the radius of curvature approach a delta function. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Four-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature

We give a survey on 4-dimensional manifolds with positive isotropic curvature. We will introduce the work of B. L. Chen, S. H. Tang and X. P. Zhu on a complete classification theorem on compact four-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature (PIC). Then we review an application of the classification theorem, which is from Chen and Zhu’s work. Finally, we discuss our recent result on the path-connectedness of the moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with positive isotropic curvature.     

Symplectic curvature tensors

In the paper, one establishes the decomposition of the space of tensors which have the symmetries of the curvature of a torsionless symplectic connection into Sp (n)-irreducible components. This leads to three interesting classes of symplectic connections: flat, Ricci flat, and similar to the Levi-Civita connections of Kähler manifolds with constant holomorphic sectional curvature (we call them connections with reducible curvature). A symplectic manifold with two transversal polarizations has a canonical symplectic connection, and we study properties that are encountered if this canonical connection belongs to the classes mentioned above. For instance, in the reducible case we can compute the Pontrjagin classes, and these will be zero if the polarizations are real, etc. If the polarizations are real and there exist points where they are either singular or nontransversal, one has residues in the sense ofLehmann [L], which should be expected to play an interesting role in symplectic geometry.