The number of exceptional orbits of a pseudofree circle action on S 5

Let M be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension 5 which admits a Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature. The aim of this short paper is to show that under certain lower bound of the orders of isotropy subgroups, every pseudofree and isometric S ¹-action on M cannot have more than five exceptional circle orbits. As a consequence, we conclude that a pseudofree and isometric S ¹-action on a 5-sphere S ⁵ with a Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature cannot have more than five exceptional circle orbits. This gives a result related to the Montgomery–Yang problem. In addition, we also give some further related result about nonnegatively curved manifolds of dimension 5 with an isometric but not necessarily pseudofree circle action.     

Classification of manifolds with weakly 1/4-pinched curvatures

We show that a compact Riemannian manifold with weakly pointwise 1/4-pinched sectional curvatures is either locally symmetric or diffeomorphic to a space form. More generally, we classify all compact, locally irreducible Riemannian manifolds M with the property that M × R ² has non-negative isotropic curvature. The first author was partially supported by a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and by NSF grant DMS-0605223. The second author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0604960.     

Expansive dynamics and hyperbolic geometry

LetM be a compact Riemannian manifold with no conjugate points such that its geodesic flow is expansive. Then we show that the universal Riemannian covering ofM is a hyperbolic geodesic space according to the definition of M. Gromov. This allows us to extend a series of relevant geometric and topological properties of negatively curved manifolds toM and in particular, geometric group theory applies to the fundamental group ofM.     

Topological rigidity theorems for open Riemannian manifolds

In this article, we study topology of complete non‐compact Riemannian manifolds. We show that a complete open manifold with quadratic curvature decay is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean n ‐space ?ⁿ if it contains enough rays starting from the base point. We also show that a complete non‐compact n ‐dimensional Riemannian manifold M with nonnegative Ricci curvature and quadratic curvature decay is diffeomorphic to ?ⁿ if the volumes of geodesic balls in M grow properly. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Complete involutive algebras of functions on cotangent bundles of homogeneous spaces

Homogeneous spaces of all compact Lie groups admit Riemannian metrics with completely integrable geodesic flows by means of C –smooth integrals [9, 10]. The purpose of this paper is to give some constructions of complete involutive algebras of analytic functions, polynomial in velocities, on the (co)tangent bundles of homogeneous spaces of compact Lie groups. This allows us to obtain new integrable Riemannian and sub-Riemannian geodesic flows on various homogeneous spaces, such as Stiefel manifolds, flag manifolds and orbits of the adjoint actions of compact Lie groups. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 70H06, 37J35, 53D17, 53D25     

Weak Density of Smooth Maps in W 1, 1(M,N) for Non-Abelian π1(N)

We prove that smooth maps are dense in the sense of biting convergence in W ^{1, 1}(M, N) when M and Nare compact Riemannian manifolds and N is closed.     

Random Čech complexes on Riemannian manifolds

In this paper we study the homology of a random ?ech complex generated by a homogeneous Poisson process in a compact Riemannian manifold M. In particular, we focus on the phase transition for “homological connectivity” where the homology of the complex becomes isomorphic to that of M. The results presented in this paper are an important generalization of 7 , from the flat torus to general compact Riemannian manifolds. In addition to proving the statements related to homological connectivity, the methods we develop in this paper can be used as a framework for translating results for random geometric graphs and complexes from the Euclidean setting into the more general Riemannian one.     

Conformally Einstein products and nearly Kähler manifolds

In the first part of this note we study compact Riemannian manifolds (M, g) whose Riemannian product with is conformally Einstein. We then consider 6-dimensional almost Hermitian manifolds of type W ₁ + W ₄ in the Gray–Hervella classification admitting a parallel vector field and show that (under some mild assumption) they are obtained as Riemannian cylinders over compact Sasaki–Einstein 5-dimensional manifolds.      

Homogeneous spaces of curvature bounded below

We prove that every locally connected quotient G/H of a locally compact, connected, first countable topological group G by a compact subgroup H admits a G-invariant inner metric with curvature bounded below. Every locally compact homogeneous space of curvature bounded below is isometric to such a space. These metric spaces generalize the notion of Riemannian homogeneous space to infinite dimensional groups and quotients which are never (even infinite dimensional) manifolds. We study the geometry of these spaces, in particular of non-negatively curved homogeneous spaces. Dedicated to the memory of A. D. Alexandrov     

Restricted chord projection and affine inequalities

In this note, we give two applications of the critical point theory of distance functions to Riemannian geometry. First, we present a new proof of the theorem: if a complete open nonnegatively curved n-manifold M has a volume growth of degree n, then M is diffeomorphic to R ⁿ. Second, we prove a sphere theorem about the mutually -critical points.Partially supported by a NSF grant.     

Closed geodesics and volume growth of open manifolds with sectional curvature bounded from below

In this paper, the relationship between the existence of closed geodesics and the volume growth of complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds is studied. First the authors prove a diffeomorphic result of such an n-m2nifold with nonnegative sectional curvature, which improves Marenich-Toponogov＇s theorem. As an application, a rigidity theorem is obtained for nonnegatively curved open manifold which contains a clesed geodesic. Next the authors prove a theorem about the nonexistence of closed geodesics for Riemannian manifolds with sectional curvature bounded from below by a negative constant.     

Homogeneous Metrics with Nonnegative Curvature

Given compact Lie groups H⊂G, we study the space of G-invariant metrics on G/H with nonnegative sectional curvature. For an intermediate subgroup K between H and G, we derive conditions under which enlarging the Lie algebra of K maintains nonnegative curvature on G/H. Such an enlarging is possible if (K,H) is a symmetric pair, which yields many new examples of nonnegatively curved homogeneous metrics. We provide other examples of spaces G/H with unexpectedly large families of nonnegatively curved homogeneous metrics.     

Homogeneous almost normal Riemannian manifolds

In this article, we introduce a newclass of compact homogeneous Riemannian manifolds (M = G/H, µ) almost normal with respect to a transitive Lie group G of isometries for which by definition there exists a G-left-invariant and an H-right-invariant inner product ν such that the canonical projection p: (G, ν) → (G/H, µ) is a Riemannian submersion and the norm | · | of the product ν is at least the bi-invariant Chebyshev normon G defined by the space (M,µ).We prove the following results: Every homogeneous Riemannian manifold is almost normal homogeneous. Every homogeneous almost normal Riemannian manifold is naturally reductive and generalized normal homogeneous. For a homogeneous G-normal Riemannian manifold with simple Lie group G, the unit ball of the norm | · | is a Löwner-John ellipsoid with respect to the unit ball of the Chebyshev norm; an analogous assertion holds for the restrictions of these norms to a Cartan subgroup of the Lie group G. Some unsolved problems are posed.     

Point leaf maximal singular Riemannian foliations in positive curvature

We generalize the notion of fixed point homogeneous isometric group actions to the context of singular Riemannian foliations. We find that in some cases, positively curved manifolds admitting these so-called point leaf maximal SRF's are diffeo/homeomorphic to compact rank one symmetric spaces. In all cases, manifolds admitting such foliations are cohomology CROSSes or finite quotients of them. Among non-simply connected manifolds, we find examples of such foliations which are non-homogeneous.     

Complete Riemannian manifolds with pointwise pinched curvature

An analogous Bonnet-Myers theorem is obtained for a complete and positively curved n-dimensional (n≥3) Riemannian manifold M ⁿ . We prove that if n≥4 and the curvature operator of M ⁿ is pointwise pinched, or if n=3 and the Ricci curvature of M ³ is pointwise pinched, then M ⁿ is compact. Oblatum 4-II-1999 & 10-XI-1999?Published online: 21 February 2000     

New examples of Riemannian g.o. manifolds in dimension 7

A Riemannian g.o. manifold is a homogeneous Riemannian manifold (M,g) on which every geodesic is an orbit of a one-parameter group of isometries. It is known that every simply connected Riemannian g.o. manifold of dimension ?5 is naturally reductive. In dimension 6 there are simply connected Riemannian g.o. manifolds which are in no way naturally reductive, and their full classification is known (including compact examples). In dimension 7, just one new example has been known up to now (namely, a Riemannian nilmanifold constructed by C. Gordon). In the present paper we describe compact irreducible 7-dimensional Riemannian g.o. manifolds (together with their “noncompact duals”) which are in no way naturally reductive.     

Differential Harnack inequalities on Riemannian manifolds I: Linear heat equation

In the first part of this paper, we get new Li–Yau type gradient estimates for positive solutions of heat equation on Riemannian manifolds with Ricci(M)?−k, k∈R. As applications, several parabolic Harnack inequalities are obtained and they lead to new estimates on heat kernels of manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below. In the second part, we establish a Perelman type Li–Yau–Hamilton differential Harnack inequality for heat kernels on manifolds with Ricci(M)?−k, which generalizes a result of L. Ni (2004, 2006) [20] and [21]. As applications, we obtain new Harnack inequalities and heat kernel estimates on general manifolds. We also obtain various entropy monotonicity formulas for all compact Riemannian manifolds.     

Dolbeault cohomology of compact complex homogeneous manifolds

We show that ifM is the total space of a holomorphic bundle with base space a simply connected homogeneous projective variety and fibre and structure group a compact complex torus, then the identity component of the automorphism group ofM acts trivially on the Dolbeault cohomology ofM. We consider a class of compact complex homogeneous spacesW, which we call generalized Hopf manifolds, which are diffeomorphic to S¹ ×K/L whereK is a compact connected simple Lie group andL is the semisimple part of the centralizer of a one dimensional torus inK. We compute the Dolbeault cohomology ofW. We compute the Picard group of any generalized Hopf manifold and show that every line bundle over a generalized Hopf manifold arises from a representation of its fundamental group.     

Topological obstructions to nonnegative curvature

We find new obstructions to the existence of complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature on manifolds with infinite fundamental groups. In particular, we construct many examples of vector bundles whose total spaces admit no nonnegatively curved metrics. Received February 11, 2000 / Published online February 5, 2001