Finite Topological Type and Volume Growth

We show that a complete noncompact n-dimensional Riemannian manifold Mwith Ricci curvature Ric _M –(n – 1) and conjugateradius conj _M c > 0 has finite topological type, provided that the volume growth of geodesic balls in M is not very far from that of the balls in an n-dimensional hyperbolic space H ⁿ (–1)of sectional curvature –1. We also show that a complete open Riemannian manifold M with nonnegative intermediate Ricci curvature and quadratic curvature decay has finite topological typeif the volume of geodesic balls of M around the base point grows slowly.     

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     

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.     

Stable minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature

We give an estimate of the smallest spectral value of the Laplace operator on a complete noncompact stable minimal hypersurface M in a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature. In the same ambient space, we prove that if a complete minimal hypersurface M has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then M has only one end. We also obtain a vanishing theorem for L ² harmonic 1-forms on minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded below by a negative constant. Moreover, we provide sufficient conditions for a minimal hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature to be stable.     

Ricci curvature and the topology of open manifolds

In this paper, we prove that an open Riemannian n-manifold with Ricci curvature and for some is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean n-space if the volume growth of geodesic balls around p is not too far from that of the balls in . We also prove that a complete n-manifold M with is diffeomorphic to if , where is the volume of unit ball in . Received 5 May, 1997     

Manifolds with small Dirac eigenvalues are nilmanifolds

Consider the class of n-dimensional Riemannian spin manifolds with bounded sectional curvatures and bounded diameter, and almost non-negative scalar curvature. Let r = 1 if n = 2,3 and r = 2^[n/2]-1 + 1 if n ≥ 4. We show that if the square of the Dirac operator on such a manifold has r small eigenvalues, then the manifold is diffeomorphic to a nilmanifold and has trivial spin structure. Equivalently, if M is not a nilmanifold or if M is a nilmanifold with a non-trivial spin structure, then there exists a uniform lower bound on the r-th eigenvalue of the square of the Dirac operator. If a manifold with almost non-negative scalar curvature has one small Dirac eigenvalue, and if the volume is not too small, then we show that the metric is close to a Ricci-flat metric on M with a parallel spinor. In dimension 4 this implies that M is either a torus or a K3-surface.      

Open manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and large volume growth

In this paper, we study complete open n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and large volume growth. We prove among other things that such a manifold is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean n-space if its sectional curvature is bounded from below and the volume growth of geodesic balls around some point is not too far from that of the balls in . Received: August 17, 1998.     

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.     

Rigidity of the critical point equation

On a compact n ‐dimensional manifold M, it was shown that a critical point metric g of the total scalar curvature functional, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of volume 1, satisfies the critical point equation ([5], p. 3222). In 1987 Besse proposed a conjecture in his book [1], p. 128, that a solution of the critical point equation is Einstein (Conjecture A, hereafter). Since then, number of mathematicians have contributed for the proof of Conjecture A and obtained many geometric consequences as its partial proofs. However, none has given its complete proof yet. The purpose of the present paper is to prove Theorem 1, stating that a compact 3‐dimensional manifold M is isometric to the round 3‐sphere S³ if ker s^′*_g ≠ 0 and its second homology vanishes. Note that this theorem implies that M is Einstein and hence that Conjecture A holds on a 3‐dimensional compact manifold under certain topological conditions (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Total curvatures of model surfaces control topology of complete open manifolds with radial curvature bounded below: I

We investigate the finiteness structure of a complete non-compact n-dimensional Riemannian manifold M whose radial curvature at a base point of M is bounded from below by that of a non-compact von Mangoldt surface of revolution with its total curvature greater than π. We show, as our main theorem, that all Busemann functions on M are exhaustions, and that there exists a compact subset of M such that the compact set contains all critical points for any Busemann function on M. As corollaries by the main theorem, M has finite topological type, and the isometry group of M is compact.     

The Huber theorem for non-compact conformally flat manifolds

It was proved in 1957 by Huber that any complete surface with integrable Gauss curvature is conformally equivalent to a compact surface with a finite number of points removed. Counterexamples show that the curvature assumption must necessarily be strengthened in order to get an analogous conclusion in higher dimensions. We show in this paper that any non compact Riemannian manifold with finite -norm of the Ricci curvature satisfies Huber-type conclusions if either it is a conformal domain with volume growth controlled from above in a compact Riemannian manifold or if it is conformally flat of dimension 4 and a natural Sobolev inequality together with a mild scalar curvature decay assumption hold. We also get partial results in other dimensions. Received: April 14, 2000; revised version: March 20, 2001     

The Problem of Prescribed Critical Functions

Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold on dimension n ≥ 4 not conformally diffeomorphic to the sphere Sⁿ. We prove that a smooth function f on M is a critical function for a metric g conformal to g if and only if there exists x ∈ M such that f(x) > 0.Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000): 53C21, 46E35, 26D10.     

Complete noncompact manifolds with harmonic curvature

Let (M ⁿ , g) be an n-dimensional complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with harmonic curvature and positive Sobolev constant. In this paper, by employing an elliptic estimation method, we show that (M ⁿ , g) is a space form if it has sufficiently small L ^n/2-norms of trace-free curvature tensor and nonnegative scalar curvature. Moreover, we get a gap theorem for (M ⁿ , g) with positive scalar curvature.     

On the conditions to control curvature tensors of Ricci flow

An important problem in the study of Ricci flow is to find the weakest conditions that provide control of the norm of the full Riemannian curvature tensor. In this article, supposing (M ⁿ , g(t)) is a solution to the Ricci flow on a Riemmannian manifold on time interval [0, T), we show that L^\fracn+22{L^\frac{n+2}{2}} norm bound of scalar curvature and Weyl tensor can control the norm of the full Riemannian curvature tensor if M is closed and T < ∞. Next we prove, without condition T < ∞, that C ⁰ bound of scalar curvature and Weyl tensor can control the norm of the full Riemannian curvature tensor on complete manifolds. Finally, we show that to the Ricci flow on a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold with bounded curvature at t = 0 and with the uniformly bounded Ricci curvature tensor on M ⁿ  × [0, T), the curvature tensor stays uniformly bounded on M ⁿ  × [0, T). Hence we can extend the Ricci flow up to the time T. Some other results are also presented.     

The Yamabe Problem and Applications on Noncompact Complete Riemannian Manifolds

We let (M,g) be a noncompact complete Riemannian manifold of dimension n 3 whose scalar curvature S(x) is positive for all x in M. With an assumption on the Ricci curvature and scalar curvature at infinity, we study the behavior of solutions of the Yamabe equation on –u+[(n–2)/(4(n–1))]Su=qu ^{(n+2)/(n–2)} on (M,g). This study finds restrictions on the existence of an injective conformal immersion of (M,g) into any compact Riemannian n -manifold. We also show the existence of a complete conformal metric with constant positive scalar curvature on (M,g) with some conditions at infinity.     

Local Existence for Inhomogeneous Schrödinger Flow into Kähler Manifolds

In this paper we show that there exists a unique local smooth solution for the Cauchy problem of the inhomogeneous Schr?dinger flow for maps from a compact Riemannian manifold M with dim(M) ≤ 3 into a compact K?hler manifold (N, J) with nonpositive Riemannian sectional curvature Received November 1, 1999, Revised January 14, 2000, Accepted March 29, 2000     

Finsler manifolds with nonpositive flag curvature and constant S-curvature

The flag curvature is a natural extension of the sectional curvature in Riemannian geometry, and the S-curvature is a non-Riemannian quantity which vanishes for Riemannian metrics. There are (incomplete) non-Riemannian Finsler metrics on an open subset in Rⁿ with negative flag curvature and constant S-curvature. In this paper, we are going to show a global rigidity theorem that every Finsler metric with negative flag curvature and constant S-curvature must be Riemannian if the manifold is compact. We also study the nonpositive flag curvature case.supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10371138).     

Nonnegatively curved fixed point homogeneous manifolds in low dimensions

Let G be a compact Lie group acting isometrically on a compact Riemannian manifold M with nonempty fixed point set M ^G . We say that M is fixed-point homogeneous if G acts transitively on a normal sphere to some component of M ^G . Fixed-point homogeneous manifolds with positive sectional curvature have been completely classified. We classify nonnegatively curved fixed-point homogeneous Riemannian manifolds in dimensions 3 and 4 and determine which nonnegatively curved simply-connected 4-manifolds admit a smooth fixed-point homogeneous circle action with a given orbit space structure.     

A compactness theorem for scalar-flat metrics on manifolds with boundary

Let (M ⁿ , g) be a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary ?M. This paper is concerned with the set of scalar-flat metrics which are in the conformal class of g and have ?M as a constant mean curvature hypersurface. We prove that this set is compact for dimensions n ?? 7 under the generic condition that the trace-free 2nd fundamental form of ?M is nonzero everywhere.     

Minimal entropy and collapsing with curvature bounded from below

We show that if a closed manifold M admits an ℱ-structure (not necessarily polarized, possibly of rank zero) then its minimal entropy vanishes. In particular, this is the case if M admits a non-trivial S ¹-action. As a corollary we obtain that the simplicial volume of a manifold admitting an ℱ-structure is zero.?We also show that if M admits an ℱ-structure then it collapses with curvature bounded from below. This in turn implies that M collapses with bounded scalar curvature or, equivalently, its Yamabe invariant is non-negative.?We show that ℱ-structures of rank zero appear rather frequently: every compact complex elliptic surface admits one as well as any simply connected closed 5-manifold.?We use these results to study the minimal entropy problem. We show the following two theorems: suppose that M is a closed manifold obtained by taking connected sums of copies of S ⁴, ℂP ², ²,S ²×S ²and the K3 surface. Then M has zero minimal entropy. Moreover, M admits a smooth Riemannian metric with zero topological entropy if and only if M is diffeomorphic to S ⁴,ℂP ²,S ²×S ²,ℂP ²#  ² or ℂP ²# ℂP ². Finally, suppose that M is a closed simply connected 5-manifold. Then M has zero minimal entropy. Moreover, M admits a smooth Riemannian metric with zero topological entropy if and only if M is diffeomorphic to S ⁵,S ³×S ², then on trivial S ³-bundle over S ² or the Wu-manifold SU(3)/SO(3). Oblatum 13-III-2002 & 12-VIII-2002?Published online: 8 November 2002 G.P. Paternain was partially supported by CIMAT, Guanajuato, México.?J. Petean is supported by grant 37558-E of CONACYT.