A characterization of spaces of constant curvature by minimum covering radius of triangles

In this paper, we prove that if in a Riemannian manifold, the minimum covering radius of a point triple of small diameter depends only on the geodesic distances between the points, then the manifold must be of constant curvature. This implies that if in a complete connected Riemannian manifold, the volume of the intersection of three small geodesic balls of equal radii depends only on the distances between the centers and the radius, then it is one of the simply connected spaces of constant curvature. This generalizes an earlier result of the first author and D. Kunszenti-Kovács (2010).     

Singular Riemannian foliations on simply connected spaces

A singular foliation on a complete Riemannian manifold is said to be Riemannian if each geodesic that is perpendicular at one point to a leaf remains perpendicular to every leaf it meets. The singular foliation is said to admit sections if each regular point is contained in a totally geodesic complete immersed submanifold that meets every leaf orthogonally and whose dimension is the codimension of the regular leaves. A typical example of such a singular foliation is the partition by orbits of a polar action, e.g. the orbits of the adjoint action of a compact Lie group on itself.We prove that a singular Riemannian foliation with compact leaves that admits sections on a simply connected space has no exceptional leaves, i.e., each regular leaf has trivial normal holonomy. We also prove that there exists a convex fundamental domain in each section of the foliation and in particular that the space of leaves is a convex Coxeter orbifold.     

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.     

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     

Sufficient conditions for open manifolds to be diffeomorphic to Euclidean spaces

Let M be a complete non-compact connected Riemannian n-dimensional manifold. We first prove that, for any fixed point p∈M, the radial Ricci curvature of M at p is bounded from below by the radial curvature function of some non-compact n-dimensional model. Moreover, we then prove, without the pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence theory, that, if model volume growth is sufficiently close to 1, then M is diffeomorphic to Euclidean n-dimensional space. Hence, our main theorem has various advantages of the Cheeger-Colding diffeomorphism theorem via the Euclidean volume growth. Our main theorem also contains a result of do Carmo and Changyu as a special case.     

Ricci curvature,radial curvature and large volume growth

In this paper, we study complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below. When the Ricci curvature is nonnegative, we show that this kind of manifolds are diffeomorphic to a Euclidean space, by assuming an upper bound on the radial curvature and a volume growth condition of their geodesic balls. When the Ricci curvature only has a lower bound, we also prove that such a manifold is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean space if the radial curvature is bounded from below. Moreover, by assuming different conditions and applying different methods, we shall prove more results on Riemannian manifolds with large volume growth.     

Geodesic vector fields and Eikonal equation on a Riemannian manifold

In this paper, we study the impact of geodesic vector fields (vector fields whose trajectories are geodesics) on the geometry of a Riemannian manifold. Since, Killing vector fields of constant lengths on a Riemannian manifold are geodesic vector fields, leads to the question of finding sufficient conditions for a geodesic vector field to be Killing. In this paper, we show that a lower bound on the Ricci curvature of the Riemannian manifold in the direction of geodesic vector field gives a sufficient condition for the geodesic vector field to be Killing. Also, we use a geodesic vector field on a 3-dimensional complete simply connected Riemannian manifold to find sufficient conditions to be isometric to a 3-sphere. We find a characterization of an Einstein manifold using a Killing vector field. Finally, it has been observed that a major source of geodesic vector fields is provided by solutions of Eikonal equations on a Riemannian manifold and we obtain a characterization of the Euclidean space using an Eikonal equation.     

On the Kneser–Poulsen conjecture in elliptic space

The Kneser–Poulsen conjecture claims that if some balls of Euclidean space are rearranged in such a way that the distances between their centers do not increase, then neither does the volume of the union of the balls. A special case of the conjecture, when the balls move continuously in such a way that the distances between the centers (weakly) decrease during the motion, is known to hold not only in Euclidean, but also in spherical and hyperbolic spaces. In the present paper, we show that this theorem cannot be extended to elliptic space by constructing three smoothly moving congruent balls with centers getting closer to one another in such a way that the volume of the union of the balls strictly increase during the motion. In spite of this counterexample, it is true that n + 1 balls in n-dimensional elliptic space cover maximal volume if the distances between the centers are all equal to the diameter π/2 of the space. The second part of the paper is devoted to the proof of this fact.

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The authors were supported by the Hung. Nat. Sci. Found. (OTKA), grant no. T047102 and T037752.     

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.     

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.     

Multiple closed geodesics on 3-spheres

This paper is devoted to a study on closed geodesics on Finsler and Riemannian spheres. We call a prime closed geodesic on a Finsler manifold rational, if the basic normal form decomposition (cf. [Y. Long, Bott formula of the Maslov-type index theory, Pacific J. Math. 187 (1999) 113-149]) of its linearized Poincaré map contains no 2×2 rotation matrix with rotation angle which is an irrational multiple of π, or irrational otherwise. We prove that if there exists only one prime closed geodesic on a d-dimensional irreversible Finsler sphere with d?2, it cannot be rational. Then we further prove that there exist always at least two distinct prime closed geodesics on every irreversible Finsler 3-dimensional sphere. Our method yields also at least two geometrically distinct closed geodesics on every reversible Finsler as well as Riemannian 3-dimensional sphere. We prove also such results hold for all compact simply connected 3-dimensional manifolds with irreversible or reversible Finsler as well as Riemannian metrics.     

Asymptotic distribution and weak convergence on compact Riemannian manifolds

LetM be a compact Riemannian manifold. The discrepancy of two measures onM can be defined by means of geodesic balls onM. It is shown that a sequence of positive measures converges weakly to an absolutely continuous measure (w.r.t. the volume measure ofM) if and only if the discrepancy converges to 0, and the geodesic balls with vanishingv-measure of the boundary constitute a convergence determining class of sets for weak convergence of a sequence of positive measures tov. Estimates for the distance of probability measures with respect to the Kantorovich metric in terms of the discrepancy are obtained.     

Closed manifolds with small excess

In this article, we study closed Riemannian manifolds with small excess. We show that a closed connected Riemannian manifold with Ricci curvature and injectivity radius bounded from below is homeomorphic to a sphere if it has sufficiently small excess. We also show that a closed connected Riemannian manifold with weakly bounded geometry is a homotopy sphere if its excess is small enough.     

Polar actions with a fixed point

We prove a criterion for an isometric action of a Lie group on a Riemannian manifold to be polar. From this criterion, it follows that an action with a fixed point is polar if and only if the slice representation at the fixed point is polar and the section is the tangent space of an embedded totally geodesic submanifold. We apply this to obtain a classification of polar actions with a fixed point on symmetric spaces.     

The index growth and multiplicity of closed geodesics

In the recent paper [31] of Long and Duan (2009), we classified closed geodesics on Finsler manifolds into rational and irrational two families, and gave a complete understanding on the index growth properties of iterates of rational closed geodesics. This study yields that a rational closed geodesic cannot be the only closed geodesic on every irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler sphere, and that there exist at least two distinct closed geodesics on every compact simply connected irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler 3-dimensional manifold. In this paper, we study the index growth properties of irrational closed geodesics on Finsler manifolds. This study allows us to extend results in [31] of Long and Duan (2009) on rational, and in [12] of Duan and Long (2007), [39] of Rademacher (2010), and [40] of Rademacher (2008) on completely non-degenerate closed geodesics on spheres and CP² to every compact simply connected Finsler manifold. Then we prove the existence of at least two distinct closed geodesics on every compact simply connected irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler 4-dimensional manifold.     

The higher rank rigidity theorem for manifolds with no focal points

We say that a Riemannian manifold M has rank M ≥ k if every geodesic in M admits at least k parallel Jacobi fields. The Rank Rigidity Theorem of Ballmann and Burns–Spatzier, later generalized by Eberlein–Heber, states that a complete, irreducible, simply connected Riemannian manifold M of rank k ≥ 2 (the “higher rank” assumption) whose isometry group Γ satisfies the condition that the Γ-recurrent vectors are dense in SM is a symmetric space of noncompact type. This includes, for example, higher rank M which admit a finite volume quotient. We adapt the method of Ballmann and Eberlein–Heber to prove a generalization of this theorem where the manifold M is assumed only to have no focal points. We then use this theorem to generalize to no focal points a result of Ballmann–Eberlein stating that for compact manifolds of nonpositive curvature, rank is an invariant of the fundamental group.     

Volume comparison theorems for manifolds with radial curvature bounded

In this paper, for complete Riemannian manifolds with radial Ricci or sectional curvature bounded from below or above, respectively, with respect to some point, we prove several volume comparison theorems, which can be seen as extensions of already existing results. In fact, under this radial curvature assumption, the model space is the spherically symmetric manifold, which is also called the generalized space form, determined by the bound of the radial curvature, and moreover, volume comparisons are made between annulus or geodesic balls on the original manifold and those on the model space.     

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)     

Dynamical properties of the space of Lorentzian metrics

We study the mechanisms of the non properness of the action of the group of diffeomorphisms on the space of Lorentzian metrics of a compact manifold. In particular, we prove that nonproperness entails the presence of lightlike geodesic foliations of codimension 1. On the 2-torus, we prove that a metric with constant curvature along one of its lightlike foliation is actually flat. This allows us to show that the restriction of the action to the set of non-flat metrics is proper and that on the set of flat metrics of volume 1 the action is ergodic. Finally, we show that, contrarily to the Riemannian case, the space of metrics without isometries is not always open.     

Geodesic transformations and harmonic spaces

We prove that a Riemannian manifold is harmonic if and only if there exists a divergence-preserving geodesic transformation with respect to each point which is not volume-preserving.