Fundamental groups of compact manifolds and symmetric geometry of noncompact type

We introduce the notion of geometrical engagement for actions of semisimple Lie groups and their lattices as a concept closely related to Zimmer's topological engagement condition. Our notion is a geometrical criterion in the sense that it makes use of Riemannian distances. However, it can be used together with the foliated harmonic map techniques introduced in [8] to establish foliated geometric superrigidity results for both actions and geometric objects. In particular, we improve the applications of the main theorem in [9] to consider nonpositively curved compact manifolds (not necessarily with strictly negative curvature). We also establish topological restrictions for Riemannian manifolds whose universal cover have a suitable symmetric de Rham factor (Theorem B), as well as geometric obstructions for nonpositively curved compact manifolds to have fundamental groups isomorphic to certain groups build out of cocompact lattices in higher rank simple Lie groups (Corollary 4.5). Received: October 22, 1997     

Pucci eigenvalues on geodesic balls

We study the eigenvalue problem for the Riemannian Pucci operator on geodesic balls. We establish upper and lower bounds for the principal Pucci eigenvalues depending on the curvature, extending Cheng’s eigenvalue comparison theorem for the Laplace–Beltrami operator. For manifolds with bounded sectional curvature, we prove Cheng’s bounds hold for Pucci eigenvalues on geodesic balls of radius less than the injectivity radius. For manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded below, we prove Cheng’s upper bound holds for Pucci eigenvalues on certain small geodesic balls. We also prove that the principal Pucci eigenvalues of an \({O(n)}\)-invariant hypersurface immersed in \({{\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}}\) with one smooth boundary component are smaller than the eigenvalues of an \({n}\)-dimensional Euclidean ball with the same boundary.     

Riemann流形上Laplace算子第一特征值的一点注记

本文研究了黎曼流形上Laplace算子的第一特征值,利用流形的测地球上的Sobolev常数进行讨论并进行Moser迭代,得到闭的黎曼流形上Laplace算子第一特征值的一个下界估计.     

Closed geodesics and volume growth of open manifolds with sectional curvature bounded from below

In this paper, the relationship between the existence of closed geodesics and the volume growth of complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds is studied. First the authors prove a diffeomorphic result of such an n-m2nifold with nonnegative sectional curvature, which improves Marenich-Toponogov＇s theorem. As an application, a rigidity theorem is obtained for nonnegatively curved open manifold which contains a clesed geodesic. Next the authors prove a theorem about the nonexistence of closed geodesics for Riemannian manifolds with sectional curvature bounded from below by a negative constant.     

Universal bounds for eigenvalues of the biharmonic operator on Riemannian manifolds

In this paper we consider eigenvalues of the Dirichlet biharmonic operator on compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary (possibly empty) and prove a general inequality for them. By using this inequality, we study eigenvalues of the Dirichlet biharmonic operator on compact domains in a Euclidean space or a minimal submanifold of it and a unit sphere. We obtain universal bounds on the (k+1)th eigenvalue on such objects in terms of the first k eigenvalues independent of the domains. The estimate for the (k+1)th eigenvalue of bounded domains in a Euclidean space improves an important inequality obtained recently by Cheng and Yang.     

The first eigenvalue of Finsler p-Laplacian

The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of p-Laplacian on Finsler manifolds are defined to be critical values and critical points of its canonical energy functional. Based on it, we generalize some eigenvalue comparison theorems of p-Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds, such as Lichnerowicz type estimate, Obata type theorem and Mckean type theorem, to the Finsler setting. Not only that, the Lichnerowicz type estimate we obtained is even better than the corresponding one in Riemannian geometry.     

Mean Value Operators, Differential Operators and D'Atri Spaces

We study commutativity relations between differential operators and spherical means on Riemannian manifolds. The results show that all D'Atri spaces are ball-homogeneous. A further consequence characterizes complete nonpositively curved, simply connected D'Atri spaces by commuting mean value operators.     

Inequalities for eigenvalues of the drifting Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds

This paper studies eigenvalues of the drifting Laplacian on compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary (possibly empty) and provides a general inequality for them. Using the general inequality, we obtain universal inequalities for eigenvalues of the drifting Laplacian of Payne-Pólya-Weinberger-Yang type for manifolds supporting some special functions. We also obtain a lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the square of the drifting Laplacian on compact manifolds with boundary under some condition on the Bakry-Ricci curvature.     

Harmonicity of totally geodesic maps into nonpositively curved metric spaces

We prove the harmonicity of totally geodesic maps from a Riemannian manifold to a nonpositively curved metric space in the sense of Alexandrov for both Korevaar-Schoen-type and Cheeger-type energies. This enables us to make many examples of harmonic maps of an unknown type. We also construct an example of totally geodesic map between CAT(0)-spaces which is not harmonic.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 53C22, 53C43, 58E20     

A sharp lower bound for the first eigenvalue on Finsler manifolds

In this paper, we give a sharp lower bound for the first (nonzero) Neumann eigenvalue of Finsler-Laplacian in Finsler manifolds in terms of diameter, dimension, weighted Ricci curvature.     

Eigenvalue inequalities for the p-Laplacian on a Riemannian manifold and estimates for the heat kernel

In this paper, we successfully generalize the eigenvalue comparison theorem for the Dirichlet p  -Laplacian (1<p<∞$1<p<\infty$) obtained by Matei (2000) [19] and Takeuchi (1998) [22], respectively. Moreover, we use this generalized eigenvalue comparison theorem to get estimates for the first eigenvalue of the Dirichlet p-Laplacian of geodesic balls on complete Riemannian manifolds with radial Ricci curvature bounded from below w.r.t. some point. In the rest of this paper, we derive an upper and lower bound for the heat kernel of geodesic balls of complete manifolds with specified curvature constraints, which can supply new ways to prove the most part of two generalized eigenvalue comparison results given by Freitas, Mao and Salavessa (2013) [9].     

Totally Geodesic Orbits of Isometries

We study cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds and we establish some simple criterium to test when a singular orbit is totally geodesic. As an application, we classify compact, positively curved Riemannian manifolds which are acted on isometrically by a non-semisimple Lie group with an hypersurface orbit.     

小负曲率流形上Laplace算子第一特征值的下界估计

本文首先对流形的测地球上的Sobolev常数进行讨论,并利用它进行Moser迭代,最终得到具有小负曲率的闭的黎曼流形上Laplace算子特征值的一个下界估计.     

Upper eigenvalue estimates for Dirac operators

We derive upper eigenvalue estimates for generalized Dirac operators on closed Riemannian manifolds. In the case of the classical Dirac operator the estimates on the first eigenvalues are sharp for spheres of constant curvature.     

Evolution of the first eigenvalue of the clamped plate on manifold along the Ricci flow

ABSTRACT

In this article, we study the evolution, monotonicity for the first eigenvalue of the clamped plate on closed Riemannian manifold along the Ricci flow. We prove that the first nonzero eigenvalue is nondecreasing under the Ricci flow under certain geometric conditions and find some applications in 2-dimensional manifolds.     

Expansive dynamics and hyperbolic geometry

LetM be a compact Riemannian manifold with no conjugate points such that its geodesic flow is expansive. Then we show that the universal Riemannian covering ofM is a hyperbolic geodesic space according to the definition of M. Gromov. This allows us to extend a series of relevant geometric and topological properties of negatively curved manifolds toM and in particular, geometric group theory applies to the fundamental group ofM.     

Vanishing structure set of Haken 3-manifolds

In this article we prove that the surgery groups of the fundamental group of a certain class of Haken 3-manifolds can be computed in terms of a generalized homology theory even if the manifolds do not support any nonpositively curved Riemannian metric. A consequence of this result is that the integral Novikov conjecture is true for the fundamental group of this class of manifolds. Received October 2, 1998 / in revised form February 10, 2000 / Published online July 20, 2000     

Invariant subsets of rank 1 manifolds

It is proved that for a Riemannian manifold M with nonpositive sectional curvature and finite volume the space of directions at each point in which geodesic rays avoid a sufficiently small neighborhood of a fixed rank 1 vector v∈UM looks very much like a generalized Sierpinski carpet. We also show for nonpositively curved manifolds M with dim M≥ 3 the existence of proper closed flow invariant subsets of the unit tangent bundle UM whose footpoint projection is the whole of M. Received: 6 July 2000 / Revised version: 11 October 2001     

The geometry of closed conformal vector fields on Riemannian spaces

In this paper we examine different aspects of the geometry of closed conformal vector fields on Riemannian manifolds. We begin by getting obstructions to the existence of closed conformal and nonparallel vector fields on complete manifolds with nonpositive Ricci curvature, thus generalizing a theorem of T.K. Pan. Then we explain why it is so difficult to find examples, other than trivial ones, of spaces having at least two closed, conformal and homothetic vector fields. We then focus on isometric immersions, firstly generalizing a theorem of J. Simons on cones with parallel mean curvature to spaces furnished with a closed, Ricci null conformal vector field; then we prove general Bernstein-type theorems for certain complete, not necessarily cmc, hypersurfaces of Riemannian manifolds furnished with closed conformal vector fields. In particular, we obtain a generalization of theorems J. Jellett and A. Barros and P. Sousa for complete cmc radial graphs over finitely punctured geodesic spheres of Riemannian space forms.     

Line integration of Ricci curvature and conjugate points in Lorentzian and Riemannian manifolds

Generalizing results of Cohn-Vossen and Gromoll, Meyer for Riemannian manifolds and Hawking and Penrose for Lorentzian manifolds, we use Morse index theory techniques to show that if the integral of the Ricci curvature of the tangent vector field of a complete geodesic in a Riemannian manifold or of a complete nonspacelike geodesic in a Lorentzian manifold is positive, then the geodesic contains a pair of conjugate points. Applications are given to geodesic incompleteness theorems for Lorentzian manifolds, the end structure of complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds, and the geodesic flow of compact Riemannian manifolds.Partially supported by NSF grant MCS77-18723(02).