The singularities of the wave trace of the basic Laplacian of a Riemannian foliation

We apply techniques of microlocal analysis to the study of the transverse geometry of Riemannian foliations in order to analyze spectral invariants of the basic Laplacian acting on functions on a Riemannian foliation with a bundle-like metric. In particular, we consider the trace of the basic wave operator when the mean curvature form is basic. We extend the concept of basic functions to distributions and demonstrate the existence of the basic wave kernel. The singularities of the trace of this basic wave kernel occur at the lengths of certain geodesic arcs which are orthogonal to the closures of the leaves of the foliation. In cases when the foliation has regular closure, a complete representation of the trace of the basic wave kernel can be computed for t≠0. Otherwise, a partial trace formula over a certain set of lengths of well-behaved geodesic arcs is obtained.     

Smoothing Riemannian metrics with bounded Ricci curvatures in dimension four

We obtain a local smoothing result for Riemannian manifolds with bounded Ricci curvatures in dimension four. More precisely, given a Riemannian metric with bounded Ricci curvature and small L²-norm of curvature on a metric ball, we can find a smooth metric with bounded curvature which is C1,α-close to the original metric on a smaller ball but still of definite size.     

Spectral geometry for Riemannian foliations

Let F be a Riemannian foliation on a Riemannian manifold (M, g), with bundle-like metric g. Aside from the Laplacian △_g associated to the metric g, there is another differential operator, the Jacobi operator J▽, which is a second order elliptic operator acting on sections of the normal bundle. Its spectrum is discrete as a consequence of the compactness of M. Hence one has two spectra, spec (M, g) = spectrum of △_g (acting on functions), and spec (F, J▽) = spectrum of J▽. We discuss the following problem: Which geometric properties of a Riemannian foliation F on a Riemannian manifold (M, g) are determined by the two types of spectral invariants?     

On tori without conjugate points

Summary In this paper we consider Riemannian metrics without conjugate points on an n-torus. Recent work of J. Heber established that the gradient vector fields of Busemann functions on the universal cover of such a manifold induce a natural foliation (akin to the weak stable foliation for a Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curvature) on the unit tangent bundle. The main result in the paper is that the metric is flat if this foliation is Lipschitz. We also prove that this foliation is Lipschitz if and only if the metric has bounded asymptotes. This confirms a conjecture of E. Hopf in this case.Oblatum 22-IX-1993 & 25-IV-1994Supported in part by NSF grant #DMS90-01707 and #DMS85-05550 while at MSRISupported by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship     

Ricci Deformation of the Metric on Riemannian Orbifolds

In this note we generalize the Huisken’s (J Diff Geom 21:47–62, 1985) result to Riemannian orbifolds. We show that on any n-dimensional (n ≥ 4) orbifold of positive scalar curvature the metric can be deformed into a metric of constant positive curvature, provided the norm of the Weyl conformal curvature tensor and the norm of the traceless Ricci tensor are not large compared to the scalar curvature at each point, and therefore generalize 3-orbifolds result proved by Hamilton [Three- orbifolds with positive Ricci curvature. In: Cao HD, Chow B, Chu SC, Yau ST (eds) Collected Papers on Ricci Flow, Internat. Press, Somerville, 2003] to n-orbifolds (n ≥ 4).     

Extrinsic Geometric Flows on Codimension-One Foliations

We study the geometry of a codimension-one foliation with a time-dependent Riemannian metric. The work begins with formulae for deformations of geometric quantities as the Riemannian metric varies along the leaves of a foliation. Then the Extrinsic Geometric Flow depending on the second fundamental form of the foliation is introduced. Under suitable assumptions, this evolution yields the second-order parabolic PDEs, for which the existence/uniqueness and in some cases convergence of a solution are shown. Applications to the problem of prescribing the mean curvature function of a codimension-one foliation, and examples with harmonic and umbilical foliations (e.g., foliated surfaces) and with twisted product metrics are given.     

A class of metrics and foliations on tangent bundle of Finsler manifolds

Let (M,F) be a Finsler manifold, and let TM ₀ be the slit tangent bundle of M with a generalized Riemannian metric G, which is induced by F. In this paper, we extract many natural foliations of (TM ₀,G) and study their geometric properties. Next, we use this approach to obtain new characterizations of Finsler manifolds with positive constant flag curvature. We also investigate the relations between Levi-Civita connection, Cartan connection, Vaisman connection, vertical foliation, and Reinhart spaces.     

Cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds of non-positive curvature

We study a G-manifold M which admits a G-invariant Riemannian metric g of non-positive curvature. We describe all such Riemannian G-manifolds (M,g) of non-positive curvature with a semisimple Lie group G which acts on M regularly and classify cohomogeneity one G-manifolds M of a semisimple Lie group G which admit an invariant metric of non-positive curvature. Some results on non-existence of invariant metric of negative curvature on cohomogeneity one G-manifolds of a semisimple Lie group G are given.     

On the four-dimensional T<Superscript>2</Superscript>-manifolds of positive Ricci curvature

We prove that there is a T ²-invariant Riemannian metric of positive Ricci curvature on every four-dimensional simply connected T ²-manifold.     

CMC Foliations of Closed Manifolds

We prove that every closed, smooth \(n\)-manifold \(X\) admits a Riemannian metric together with a constant mean curvature (CMC) foliation if and only if its Euler characteristic is zero, where by a CMC foliation we mean a smooth, codimension-one, transversely oriented foliation with leaves of CMC and where the value of the CMC can vary from leaf to leaf. Furthermore, we prove that this CMC foliation of \(X\) can be chosen so that when \(n\ge 2\), the constant values of the mean curvatures of its leaves change sign. We also prove a general structure theorem for any such non-minimal CMC foliation of \(X\) that describes relationships between the geometry and topology of the leaves, including the property that there exist compact leaves for every attained value of the mean curvature.     

Admissible subrings revisited

In this paper we consider a harmonic Riemannian foliation , and study the transversal infinitesimal automorphisms of with certain additional properties like being transversal conformal or Killing (= metric). Such automorphisms (modulo Killing automorphisms) are related to the stability of . A special study is made for the case of a foliation with constant transversal scalar curvature, and more particularly with transversal Ricci curvature proportional to the transversal metric (Einstein foliation).Work supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.     

Characterizing the round sphere by mean distance

We discuss the measure theoretic metric invariants extent, rendezvous number and mean distance of a general compact metric space X and relate these to classical metric invariants such as diameter and radius. In the final section we focus attention to the category of Riemannian manifolds. The main result of this paper is Theorem 4 stating that the round sphere of constant curvature 1 has maximal mean distance among Riemannian n-manifolds with Ricci curvature Ric?n−1, and that such a manifold is diffeomorphic to a sphere if the mean distance is close to .     

Vrănceanu connections and foliations with bundle-like metrics

We show that the Vrănceanu connection which was initially introduced on non-holonomic manifolds can be used to study the geometry of foliated manifolds. We prove that a foliation is totally geodesic with bundle-like metric if and only if this connection is a metric one. We introduce the notion of a foliated Riemannian manifold of constant transversal Vrănceanu curvature and the notion of a transversal Einstein foliated Riemannian manifold. The geometry of these two classes of manifolds is studied and the relationship between them is determined.     

On the geometry of generalized Gaussian distributions

In this paper we consider the space of those probability distributions which maximize the q-Rényi entropy. These distributions have the same parameter space for every q, and in the q=1 case these are the normal distributions. Some methods to endow this parameter space with a Riemannian metric is presented: the second derivative of the q-Rényi entropy, the Tsallis entropy, and the relative entropy give rise to a Riemannian metric, the Fisher information matrix is a natural Riemannian metric, and there are some geometrically motivated metrics which were studied by Siegel, Calvo and Oller, Lovri?, Min-Oo and Ruh. These metrics are different; therefore, our differential geometrical calculations are based on a new metric with parameters, which covers all the above-mentioned metrics for special values of the parameters, among others. We also compute the geometrical properties of this metric, the equation of the geodesic line with some special solutions, the Riemann and Ricci curvature tensors, and the scalar curvature. Using the correspondence between the volume of the geodesic ball and the scalar curvature we show how the parameter q modulates the statistical distinguishability of close points. We show that some frequently used metrics in quantum information geometry can be easily recovered from classical metrics.     

A vanishing result for the Spin c Dirac operator defined along the leaves of a foliation

In the setting of a closed Riemannian manifold endowed with a smooth, non-necessarily integrable distribution, we extend a Lichnerowicz type formula which is known to work in the particular case of a transverse bundle associated to a Riemannian foliation. Interesting settings in which non-integrable distributions appear naturally are emphasized. As an application, we consider the distribution as being even dimensional and integrable; we consider also a hermitian line bundle, with a hermitian connection, such that the induced curvature tensor is non-degenerate, and an arbitrary hermitian bundle endowed also with a hermitian connection. Taking the k power of the line bundle and canonically constructing a Spin ^c Dirac operator defined along the leaves of the foliation generated by the distribution, we prove a vanishing result for the half kernel of this operator.     

Harmonic forms and near-minimal singular foliations

For a closed 1-form with Morse singularities, Calabi discovered a simple global criterion for the existence of a Riemannian metric in which is harmonic. For a codimension 1 foliation , Sullivan gave a condition for the existence of a Riemannian metric in which all the leaves of are minimal hypersurfaces. The conditions of Calabi and Sullivan are strikingly similar. If a closed form has no singularities, then both criteria are satisfied and, for an appropriate choice of metric, is harmonic and the associated foliation is comprised of minimal leaves. However, when has singularities, the foliation is not necessarily minimal.? We show that the Calabi condition enables one to find a metric in which is harmonic and the leaves of the foliation are minimal outside a neighborhood U of the -singular set. In fact, we prove the best possible result of this type: we construct families of metrics in which, as U shrinks to the singular set, the taut geometry of the foliation outside U remains stable. Furthermore, all compact leaves missing U are volume minimizing cycles in their homology classes. Their volumes are controlled explicitly. Received: January 24, 2000     

Minimal singular Riemannian foliations

We prove that a singular foliation on a compact manifold admitting an adapted Riemannian metric for which all leaves are minimal must be regular. To cite this article: V. Miquel, R.A. Wolak, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).     

Courbure scalaire prescrite sur une variété C∞ compacte de dimension 2

Let (V₂, g) be a C^∞ compact Riemannian manifold of negative scalar curvature of dimension 2, and let f be a C^∞ function defined on V₂. We intend to find a condition on f in order that f be the scalar curvature of a metric conformal to the initial metric g.     

Existence of codimension one foliations with minimal leaves

Every smooth closed manifold of dimension 4 or greater that has a smooth codimension one foliation, has such aC ¹ foliation whose leaves are minimal hypersurfaces for someC ¹ Riemannian metric.     

Tightness in contact metric 3-manifolds

This paper begins the study of relations between Riemannian geometry and global properties of contact structures on 3-manifolds. In particular we prove an analog of the sphere theorem from Riemannian geometry in the setting of contact geometry. Specifically, if a given three dimensional contact manifold (M,ξ) admits a complete compatible Riemannian metric of positive 4/9-pinched curvature then the underlying contact structure ξ is tight; in particular, the contact structure pulled back to the universal cover is the standard contact structure on S ³. We also describe geometric conditions in dimension three for ξ to be universally tight in the nonpositive curvature setting.