Rank two fundamental groups of positively curved manifolds

This paper deals with the construction of previously unknown fundamental groups for positively curved manifolds.     

Fundamental groups of positively curved manifolds with symmetry

We obtain a classification for the fundamental groups of closed $n$ -manifolds of positive sectional curvature which admit an isometric $T^k$ -action with $k \ge \frac{n}{6}+1 (n \ne 11, 15)$ .     

Homeomorphism classification of positively curved manifolds with almost maximal symmetry rank

We show that a closed simply connected 8-manifold (9-manifold) of positive sectional curvature on which a 3-torus (4-torus) acts isometrically is homeomorphic to a sphere, a complex projective space or a quaternionic projective plane (sphere). We show that a closed simply connected 2m-manifold (m5) of positive sectional curvature on which an (m–1)-torus acts isometrically is homeomorphic to a complex projective space if and only if its Euler characteristic is not 2. By [Wi], these results imply a homeomorphism classification for positively curved n-manifolds (n8) of almost maximal symmetry rank Supported by CNPq of Brazil, NSFC Grant 19741002, RFDP and Qiu-Shi Foundation of China.Supported partially by NSF Grant DMS 0203164 and a research grant from Capital normal university.     

Pinching estimates for negatively curved manifolds with nilpotent fundamental groups

Let M be a complete Riemannian metric of sectional curvature within [−a²,−1] whose fundamental group contains a k-step nilpotent subgroup of finite index. We prove that a ≥ k answering a question of M. Gromov. Furthermore, we show that for any the manifold M admits a complete Riemannian metric of sectional curvature within Received: May 2004 Revision: July 2004 Accepted: July 2004     

Topological properties of positively curved manifolds with symmetry

Manifolds admitting positive sectional curvature are conjectured to have rigid homotopical structure and, in particular, comparatively small Euler charateristics. In this article, we obtain upper bounds for the Euler characteristic of a positively curved Riemannian manifold that admits a large isometric torus action. We apply our results to prove obstructions to symmetric spaces, products of manifolds, and connected sums admitting positively curved metrics with symmetry.     

Nonpositively curved almost Hermitian metrics on product of compact almost complex manifolds

In this paper, we give a classification of almost Hermitian metrics with nonpositive holomorphic bisectional curvature on a product of compact almost complex manifolds. This generalizes previous results of Zheng [Ann. of Math.(2), 137(3), 671–673(1993)] and the author [Proc. Amer.Math. Soc., 139(4), 1469–1472(2011)].     

The closed embedded minimal surfaces in an almost positively curved three manifold

The compactness theorem of the closed embedded minimal surfaces of fixed genus in a 3-dimensional closed Riemannian manifoldN is proved, providedN is simply connected and the nonpositive value set of Ricci curvature is sufficiently concentrated within finite balls and the minimal surfaces are uniformly away from these balls.     

The Hopf conjecture for positively curved manifolds with discrete abelian group actions

Let M be a closed even n-manifold of positive sectional curvature. The main result asserts that the Euler characteristic of M is positive, if M admits an isometric -action with prime p?p(n) (a constant depending only on n) and k satisfies any one of the following conditions: (i) and n≠12, 18 or 20; (ii) , and n≡0 mod 4 with n≠12 or 20; (iii) , and n≡0,4 or 12 mod 20 with n≠20. This generalizes some results in [T. Püttmann, C. Searle, The Hopf conjecture for manifolds with low cohomogeneity or high symmetry rank, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 130 (2002) 163-166; X. Rong, Positively curved manifolds with almost maximal symmetry rank, Geom. Dedicata 59 (2002) 157-182; X. Rong, X. Su, The Hopf conjecture for positively curved manifolds with abelian group actions, Comm. Cont. Math. 7 (2005) 121-136].     

On fundamental groups of symplectically aspherical manifolds

A smooth manifold M is called symplectically aspherical if it admits a symplectic form with |₂(M) = 0. It is easy to see that, unlike in the case of closed symplectic manifolds, not every finitely presented group can be realized as the fundamental group of a closed symplectically aspherical manifold. The goal of the paper is to study the fundamental groups of closed symplectically aspherical manifolds. Motivated by some results of Gompf, we introduce two classes of fundamental groups ₁(M) of symplectically aspherical manifolds M. The first one consists of fundamental groups of such M with ₂(M)=0, while the second with ₂(M)0. Relations between these classes are discussed. We show that several important (classes of) groups can be realized in both classes, while some groups can be realized in the first class but not in the second one. Also, we notice that there are some interesting dimensional phenomena in the realization problem. The above results are framed by a general study of symplectically aspherical manifolds. For example, we find some conditions which imply that the Gompf sum of symplectically aspherical manifolds is symplectically aspherical, or that a total space of a bundle is symplectically aspherical.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 57R15, 53D05, 14F35     

Aspherical manifolds with relatively hyperbolic fundamental groups

We show that the aspherical manifolds produced via the relative strict hyperboli- zation of polyhedra enjoy many group-theoretic and topological properties of open finite volume negatively pinched manifolds, including relative hyperbolicity, nonvanishing of simplicial volume, co-Hopf property, finiteness of outer automorphism group, absence of splitting over elementary subgroups, and acylindricity. In fact, some of these properties hold for any compact aspherical manifold with incompressible aspherical boundary components, provided the fundamental group is hyperbolic relative to fundamental groups of boundary components. We also show that no manifold obtained via the relative strict hyperbolization can be embedded into a compact Kähler manifold of the same dimension, except when the dimension is two.     

On fundamental groups of symplectically aspherical manifolds II: Abelian groups

We describe all abelian groups which can appear as the fundamental groups of closed symplectically aspherical manifolds. The proofs use the theory of symplectic Lefschetz fibrations.