Singer-Thorpe bases for special Einstein curvature tensors in dimension 4

Let (M, g) be a 4-dimensional Einstein Riemannian manifold. At each point p of M, the tangent space admits a so-called Singer-Thorpe basis (ST basis) with respect to the curvature tensor R at p. In this basis, up to standard symmetries and antisymmetries, just 5 components of the curvature tensor R are nonzero. For the space of constant curvature, the group O(4) acts as a transformation group between ST bases at T _p M and for the so-called 2-stein curvature tensors, the group Sp(1) ? SO(4) acts as a transformation group between ST bases. In the present work, the complete list of Lie subgroups of SO(4) which act as transformation groups between ST bases for certain classes of Einstein curvature tensors is presented. Special representations of groups SO(2), T ², Sp(1) or U(2) are obtained and the classes of curvature tensors whose transformation group into new ST bases is one of the mentioned groups are determined.     

Comparison and vanishing theorems for Kähler manifolds

In this paper, we consider orthogonal Ricci curvature \(Ric^{\perp }\) for Kähler manifolds, which is a curvature condition closely related to Ricci curvature and holomorphic sectional curvature. We prove comparison theorems and a vanishing theorem related to these curvature conditions, and construct various examples to illustrate subtle relationship among them. As a consequence of the vanishing theorem, we show that any compact Kähler manifold with positive orthogonal Ricci curvature must be projective. This result complements a recent result of Yang (RC-positivity, rational connectedness, and Yau’s conjecture. arXiv:1708.06713) on the projectivity under the positivity of holomorphic sectional curvature. The simply-connectedness is shown when the complex dimension is smaller than five. Further study of compact Kähler manifolds with \(Ric^{\perp }>0\) is carried in Ni et al. (Manifolds with positive orthogonal Ricci curvature. arXiv:1806.10233).     

Gradient shrinking Ricci solitons of half harmonic Weyl curvature

Gradient Ricci solitons and metrics with half harmonic Weyl curvature are two natural generalizations of Einstein metrics on four-manifolds. In this paper we prove that if a metric has structures of both gradient shrinking Ricci soliton and half harmonic Weyl curvature, then except for three examples, it has to be an Einstein metric with positive scalar curvature. Precisely, we prove that a four-dimensional gradient shrinking Ricci soliton with \(\delta W^{\pm }=0\) is either Einstein, or a finite quotient of \(S^3\times \mathbb {R}\), \(S^2\times \mathbb {R}^2\) or \(\mathbb {R}^4\). We also prove that a four-dimensional gradient Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is either Kähler–Einstein, or a finite quotient of \(M\times \mathbb {C}\), where M is a Riemann surface. The method of our proof is to construct a weighted subharmonic function using curvature decompositions and the Weitzenböck formula for half Weyl curvature, and the method was motivated by previous work (Gursky and LeBrun in Ann Glob Anal Geom 17:315–328, 1999; Wu in Einstein four-manifolds of three-nonnegative curvature operator 2013; Trans Am Math Soc 369:1079–1096, 2017; Yang in Invent Math 142:435–450, 2000) on the rigidity of Einstein four-manifolds with positive sectional curvature, and previous work (Cao and Chen in Trans Am Math Soc 364:2377–2391, 2012; Duke Math J 162:1003–1204, 2013; Catino in Math Ann 35:629–635, 2013) on the rigidity of gradient Ricci solitons.     

Rigidity of closed submanifolds in a locally symmetric Riemannian manifold

Let M~n(n ≥ 4) be an oriented closed submanifold with parallel mean curvature in an(n + p)-dimensional locally symmetric Riemannian manifold N~(n+p). We prove that if the sectional curvature of N is positively pinched in [δ, 1], and the Ricci curvature of M satisfies a pinching condition, then M is either a totally umbilical submanifold, or δ = 1, and N is of constant curvature. This result generalizes the geometric rigidity theorem due to Xu and Gu[15].     

Prescribed scalar curvature plus mean curvature flows in compact manifolds with boundary of negative conformal invariant

Using a geometric flow, we study the following prescribed scalar curvature plus mean curvature problem: Let \((M,g_0)\) be a smooth compact manifold of dimension \(n\ge 3\) with boundary. Given any smooth functions f in M and h on \(\partial M\), does there exist a conformal metric of \(g_0\) such that its scalar curvature equals f and boundary mean curvature equals h? Assume that f and h are negative and the conformal invariant \(Q(M,\partial M)\) is a negative real number, we prove the global existence and convergence of the so-called prescribed scalar curvature plus mean curvature flows. Via a family of such flows together with some additional variational arguments, we prove the existence and uniqueness of positive minimizers of the associated energy functional and give a confirmative answer to the above problem. The same result also can be obtained by sub–super-solution method and subcritical approximations.     

On Wilking’s criterion for the Ricci flow

Wilking has recently shown that one can associate a Ricci flow invariant cone of curvature operators $C(S)$ , which are nonnegative in a suitable sense, to every $Ad_{SO(n,\mathbb{C })}$ invariant subset $S \subset \mathbf{so}(n,\mathbb{C })$ . In this article we show that if $S$ is an $Ad_{SO(n,\mathbb{C })}$ invariant subset of $\mathbf{so}(n,\mathbb{C })$ such that $S\cup \{0\}$ is closed and $C_+(S)\subset C(S)$ denotes the cone of curvature operators which are positive in the appropriate sense then one of the two possibilities holds: (a) The connected sum of any two Riemannian manifolds with curvature operators in $C_+(S)$ also admits a metric with curvature operator in $C_+(S)$ (b) The normalized Ricci flow on any compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with curvature operator in $C_+(S)$ converges to a metric of constant positive sectional curvature. We also point out that if $S$ is an arbitrary $Ad_{SO(n,\mathbb{C })}$ subset, then $C(S)$ is contained in the cone of curvature operators with nonnegative isotropic curvature.     

Constant Mean Curvature Surfaces in $${\mathbb {M}}^2(c)\times \mathbb {R}$$ and Finite Total Curvature

We consider surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector field and finite total curvature in product spaces of type \({\mathbb {M}}^n(c)\times {\mathbb {R}}\), where \({\mathbb {M}}^n(c)\) is a space form and characterize certain of these surfaces. When \(n=2\), our results are similar to those obtained in Bérard et al. (Ann Glob Anal Geom 16(3):273–290, 1998) for surfaces with constant mean curvature in space forms.     

The classification of (m, \rho)-quasi-Einstein manifolds

If there exist a smooth function f on $(M^n, g)$ and three real constants $m,\rho ,\lambda $ ( $0<m\le \infty $ ) such that $$\begin{aligned} R_{ij}+f_{ij}-\frac{1}{m}f_if_j=(\rho R+\lambda ) g_{ij}, \end{aligned}$$ we call $(M^n,g)$ a $(m,\rho )$ -quasi-Einstein manifold. Here $R_{ij}$ is the Ricci curvature and R is the scalar curvature of the metric g, respectively. This is a special case of the so-called generalized quasi-Einstein manifold which was a natural generalization of gradient Ricci solitons associated with the Hamilton’s Ricci flow. In this paper, we first obtain some rigidity results for compact $(m,\rho )$ -quasi-Einstein manifolds. Then, we give some classifications under the assumption that the Bach tensor of $(M^n,g)$ is flat.     

Uniqueness of grim hyperplanes for mean curvature flows

In this paper we show that an immersed nontrivial translating soliton for a mean curvature flow in \(\mathbb {R}^{n+1}\)(\(n=2,3)\) is a grim hyperplane if and only if it is mean convex and has weighted total extrinsic curvature of at most quadratic growth. For an embedded translating soliton \(\varSigma \) with nonnegative scalar curvature, we prove that if the mean curvature of \(\varSigma \) does not change signs on each end, then \(\varSigma \) must have positive scalar curvature unless it is either a hyperplane or a grim hyperplane.     

Geometric interpretation of the Wagner curvature tensor in the case of a manifold with contact metric structure

Considering a manifold (φ, ξ, η, g, X, D) with contact metric structure, we introduce the concept of N-extended connection (connection on a vector bundle (D, π,X)), with N an endomorphism of the distribution D, and show that the curvature tensor of each N-extended connection for a suitably chosen endomorphism N coincides with the Wagner curvature tensor.     

Biharmonic PNMC submanifolds in spheres

We obtain several rigidity results for biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields. We classify biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields and with at most two distinct principal curvatures. In particular, we determine all biharmonic surfaces with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ . Then we investigate, for (not necessarily compact) proper-biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ , their type in the sense of B.-Y. Chen. We prove that (i) a proper-biharmonic submanifold in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ is of 1-type or 2-type if and only if it has constant mean curvature f=1 or f∈(0,1), respectively; and (ii) there are no proper-biharmonic 3-type submanifolds with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ .     

The Vectorial Ribaucour Transformation for Submanifolds of Constant Sectional Curvature

We obtain a reduction of the vectorial Ribaucour transformation that preserves the class of submanifolds of constant sectional curvature of space forms, which we call the L-transformation. It allows to construct a family of such submanifolds starting with a given one and a vector-valued solution of a system of linear partial differential equations. We prove a decomposition theorem for the L-transformation, which is a far-reaching generalization of the classical permutability formula for the Ribaucour transformation of surfaces of constant curvature in Euclidean three space. As a consequence, we derive a Bianchi-cube theorem, which allows to produce, from k initial scalar L-transforms of a given submanifold of constant curvature, a whole k-dimensional cube all of whose remaining \(2^k-(k+1)\) vertices are submanifolds with the same constant sectional curvature given by explicit algebraic formulae. We also obtain further reductions, as well as corresponding decomposition and Bianchi-cube theorems, for the classes of n-dimensional flat Lagrangian submanifolds of \({\mathbb {C}}^n\) and n-dimensional Lagrangian submanifolds with constant curvature c of the complex projective space \({\mathbb {C}}{\mathbb {P}}^n(4c)\) or the complex hyperbolic space \({\mathbb {C}}{\mathbb {H}}^n(4c)\) of complex dimension n and constant holomorphic curvature 4c.     

On scalar curvature rigidity of vacuum static spaces

In this paper we extend the local scalar curvature rigidity result in Brendle and Marques (J Differ Geom 88:379–394, 2011) to a small domain on general vacuum static spaces, which confirms the interesting dichotomy of local surjectivity and local rigidity about the scalar curvature in general in the light of the paper (Corvino, Commun Math Phys 214:137–189, 2000). We obtain the local scalar curvature rigidity of bounded domains in hyperbolic spaces. We also obtain the global scalar curvature rigidity for conformal deformations of metrics in the domains, where the lapse functions are positive, on vacuum static spaces with positive scalar curvature, and show such domains are maximal, which generalizes the work in Hang and Wang (Commun Anal Geom 14:91–106, 2006).     

Volume preserving curvature flows in Lorentzian manifolds

Let N be a (n + 1)-dimensional globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold with a compact Cauchy hypersurface ${\mathcal{S}_{0}}$ and F a curvature function, either the mean curvature H, the root of the second symmetric polynomial ${{\sigma}_{2}=\sqrt{H_{2}}}$ or a curvature function of class (K*), a class of curvature functions which includes the nth root of the Gaussian curvature ${{\sigma}_{n}= K^{\frac{1}{n}}}$ . We consider curvature flows with curvature function F and a volume preserving term and prove long time existence of the flow and exponential convergence of the corresponding graphs in the C ^∞-topology to a hypersurface of constant F-curvature, provided there are barriers. Furthermore we examine stability properties and foliations of constant F-curvature hypersurfaces.     

Three-Dimensional Alexandrov Spaces with Positive or Nonnegative Ricci Curvature

We study closed three-dimensional Alexandrov spaces with a lower Ricci curvature bound in the CD ^?(K,N) sense, focusing our attention on those with positive or nonnegative Ricci curvature. First, we show that a closed three-dimensional CD ^?(2,3)-Alexandrov space must be homeomorphic to a spherical space form or to the suspension of \(\mathbb {R}P^{2}\). We then classify closed three-dimensional CD ^?(0,3)-Alexandrov spaces.     

Classification of Lagrangian Surfaces of Curvature e in Non-flat Lorentzian Complex Space Form M12（4ε）

It is well known that a totally geodesic Lagrangian surface in a Lorentzian complex space form M12（4ε） of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 4s is of constant curvature 6. A natural question is ＂Besides totally geodesic ones how many Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature εin M12（46） are there？＂ In an earlier paper an answer to this question was obtained for the case e = 0 by Chen and Fastenakels. In this paper we provide the answer to this question for the case ε≠0. Our main result states that there exist thirty-five families of Lagrangian surfaces of curvature ε in M12（4ε） with ε ≠ 0. Conversely, every Lagrangian surface of curvature ε≠0 in M12（4ε） is locally congruent to one of the Lagrangian surfaces given by the thirty-five families.     

Properties of a scalar curvature invariant depending on two planes

Based on Schouten’s interpretation of the Riemann–Christoffel curvature tensor R, a geometrical meaning for the tensor R·R is presented. It follows that the condition of semi-symmetry, i.e. R·R = 0, can be interpreted as the invariance of the sectional curvature of every plane after parallel transport around an infinitesimal parallelogram. Using the tensor R· R, and in analogy with the definition of the sectional curvature K(p,π) of a plane π, a scalar curvature invariant L(p,π, \({\overline{\pi}}\)) is constructed which in general depends on two planes π and \({\overline{\pi}}\) at the same point p. This invariant can be geometrically interpreted in terms of the parallelogramoïds of Levi–Civita and it is shown that it completely determines the tensor R· R. Further it is demonstrated that the isotropy of this new scalar curvature invariant L(p,π, \({\overline{\pi}}\)) with respect to both the planes π and \({\overline{\pi}}\) amounts to the Riemannian manifold to be pseudo-symmetric in the sense of Deszcz.     

Gauss maps of the Ricci-mean curvature flow

In this paper, we investigate the Gauss maps of a Ricci-mean curvature flow. A Ricci-mean curvature flow is a coupled equation of a mean curvature flow and a Ricci flow on the ambient manifold. Ruh and Vilms (Trans Am Math Soc 149: 569–573, 1970) proved that the Gauss map of a minimal submanifold in a Euclidean space is a harmonic map, and Wang (Math Res Lett 10(2–3):287–299, 2003) extended this result to a mean curvature flow in a Euclidean space by proving its Gauss maps satisfy the harmonic map heat flow equation. In this paper, we deduce the evolution equation for the Gauss maps of a Ricci-mean curvature flow, and as a direct corollary we prove that the Gauss maps of a Ricci-mean curvature flow satisfy the vertically harmonic map heat flow equation when the codimension of submanifolds is 1.     

On the extension of the mean curvature flow

Consider a family of smooth immersions ${F(\cdot,t): M^n\to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}}$ of closed hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb{R}^{n+1}}$ moving by the mean curvature flow ${\frac{\partial F(p,t)}{\partial t} = -H(p,t)\cdot \nu(p,t)}$ , for ${t\in [0,T)}$ . Cooper (Mean curvature blow up in mean curvature flow, arxiv.org/abs/0902.4282) has recently proved that the mean curvature blows up at the singular time T. We show that if the second fundamental form stays bounded from below all the way to T, then the scaling invariant mean curvature integral bound is enough to extend the flow past time T, and this integral bound is optimal in some sense explained below.