The short ruler on cones

Abstract

On complete Riemannian manifolds, a geodesic linking two different points could be approximated by applying short ruler methods to shorten a given path iteratively. In this paper we take a closer look at a short ruler method on a cone. To handle the problems caused by the fact that the cone is not smooth at its apex, we unwind the cone isometrically into the plane, and show that the sequence of shortened curves converges to a geodesic.     

The short ruler on the torus

ABSTRACT

We can shorten any path that links two given points by applying short ruler transforms iteratively. In this article we take a closer look at a short ruler process on the torus. The torus is a compact Riemannian manifold and at least a subsequence of the process converges to a geodesic between the two points. However, on compact Riemann manifolds there might exist different limit geodesics (with the same length). On the torus, the geodesics with the same length are isolated and the limit geodesic is unique.     

Curve shortening in a Riemannian manifold

In this paper, we study the curve shortening flow in a general Riemannian manifold. We have many results for the global behavior of the flow. In particular, we show the following results: let M be a compact Riemannian manifold. (1) If the curve shortening flow exists for infinite time, and , then for every n > 0, . Furthermore, the limiting curve exists and is a closed geodesic in M. (2) In M × S ¹, if γ₀ is a ramp, then we have a global flow which converges to a closed geodesic in C ^∞ norm. As an application, we prove the theorem of Lyusternik and Fet.      

ON THE INVARIANT SUBMANIFOLDS OF RIEMANNIAN PRODUCT MANIFOLD

In this paper, the vertical and horizontal distributions of an invariant submanifold of a Riemannian product manifold are discussed. An invariant real space form in a Riemannian product manifold is researched. Finally, necessary and sufficient conditions are given on an invariant submanifold of a Riemannian product manifold to be a locally symmetric and real space form.     

An elementary approach to gap theorems

Using elementary comparison geometry, we prove: Let (M, g) be a simply-connected complete Riemannian manifold of dimension ≥ 3. Suppose that the sectional curvature K satisfies −1 − s(r) ≤ K ≤ −1, where r denotes distance to a fixed point in M. If lim _{r → ∞} e^2r s(r) = 0, then (M, g) has to be isometric to ℍ ⁿ . The same proof also yields that if K satisfies −s(r) ≤ K ≤ 0 where lim _{r → ∞} r ² s(r) = 0, then (M, g) is isometric to ℝ ⁿ , a result due to Greene and Wu. Our second result is a local one: Let (M, g) be any Riemannian manifold. For a ∈ ℝ, if K ≤ a on a geodesic ball B _p (R) in M and K = a on ∂B _p (R), then K = a on B _p (R).     

The Dirichlet problem for harmonic maps from Riemannian polyhedra to spaces of upper bounded curvature

This is a continuation of the Cambridge Tract ``Harmonic maps between Riemannian polyhedra', by J. Eells and the present author. The variational solution to the Dirichlet problem for harmonic maps with countinuous boundary data is shown to be continuous up to the boundary, and thereby uniquely determined. The domain space is a compact admissible Riemannian polyhedron with boundary, while the target can be, for example, a simply connected complete geodesic space of nonpositive Alexandrov curvature; alternatively, the target may have upper bounded curvature provided that the maps have a suitably small range. Essentially in the former setting it is further shown that a harmonic map pulls convex functions in the target back to subharmonic functions in the domain.

     

Iterated index formulae for closed geodesics with applications

In this paper, various precise iteration equalities and inequalities of Morse indices for the closed geodesics are established. As applications of these formulae, multiplicity results of closed geodesics on some Riemannian manifolds are proved.     

Hypersurfaces whose tangent geodesics do not cover the ambient space

Let be an immersion of an -dimensional connected manifold in an -dimensional connected complete Riemannian manifold without conjugate points. Assume that the union of geodesics tangent to does not cover . Under these hypotheses we have two results. The first one states that is simply connected provided that the universal covering of is compact. The second result says that if is a proper embedding and is simply connected, then is a normal graph over an open subset of a geodesic sphere. Furthermore, there exists an open star-shaped set such that is a manifold with the boundary .

     

The Minimal Length of a Closed Geodesic Net on a Riemannian Manifold with a Nontrivial Second Homology Group

Let Mⁿ be a closed Riemannian manifold with a nontrivial second homology group. In this paper we prove that there exists a geodesic net on Mⁿ of length at most 3 diameter(Mⁿ). Moreover, this geodesic net is either a closed geodesic, consists of two geodesic loops emanating from the same point, or consists of three geodesic segments between the same endpoints. Geodesic nets can be viewed as the critical points of the length functional on the space of graphs immersed into a Riemannian manifold. One can also consider other natural functionals on the same space, in particular, the maximal length of an edge. We prove that either there exists a closed geodesic of length ≤ 2 diameter(Mⁿ), or there exists a critical point of this functional on the space of immersed θ-graphs such that the value of the functional does not exceed the diameter of Mⁿ. If n=2, then this critical θ-graph is not only immersed but embedded.Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000). 53C23, 49Q10     

Killing vector fields of constant length on Riemannian manifolds

We study the nontrivial Killing vector fields of constant length and the corresponding flows on complete smooth Riemannian manifolds. Various examples are constructed of the Killing vector fields of constant length generated by the isometric effective almost free but not free actions of S ¹ on the Riemannian manifolds close in some sense to symmetric spaces. The latter manifolds include “almost round” odd-dimensional spheres and unit vector bundles over Riemannian manifolds. We obtain some curvature constraints on the Riemannian manifolds admitting nontrivial Killing fields of constant length.     

Geodesic convexity in nonlinear optimization

The properties of geodesic convex functions defined on a connected RiemannianC ² k-manifold are investigated in order to extend some results of convex optimization problems to nonlinear ones, whose feasible region is given by equalities and by inequalities and is a subset of a nonlinear space.This research was supported in part by the Hungarian National Research Foundation, Grant No. OTKA-1044.     

Conformal type and isoperimetric dimension of Riemannian manifolds

The notion of conformal isoperimetric dimension is introduced. For Riemannian manifolds, connections between its conformal isoperimetric dimension and its conformal type are established. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 379–385, March, 1998. The authors are greatly indebted to N. A. Zorich for her help in preparing the computer version of this paper. This research was partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grants No. 96-01-01218 and No. 96-01-00901.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">δ</Emphasis>-homogeneous Riemannian manifolds. II

We continue the study of the δ-homogeneous Riemannian manifolds defined in a more general case by V. N. Berestovski? and C. P. Plaut. Each of these manifolds has nonnegative sectional curvature. We prove in particular that every naturally reductive compact homogeneous Riemannian manifold of positive Euler characteristic is δ-homogeneous.     

Anisotropic curve shortening flow in higher codimension

We consider the evolution of parametric curves by anisotropic mean curvature flow in ?ⁿ for an arbitrary n?2. After the introduction of a spatial discretization, we prove convergence estimates for the proposed finite‐element model. Numerical tests and simulations based on a fully discrete semi‐implicit stable algorithm are presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contactly geodesic transformations of almost-contact metric structures

We introduce the notion of contactly geodesic transformation of the metric of an almost-contact metric structure as a contact analog of holomorphically geodesic transformations of the metric of an almost-Hermitian structure. A series of invariants of such transformations is obtained. We prove that such transformations preserve the normality property of an almost-contact metric structure. We prove that cosymplectic and Sasakian manifolds, as well as Kenmotsu manifolds, do not admit nontrivial contactly geodesic transformations of the metric, which is a contact analog of the well-known result for Kählerian manifolds due to Westlake and Yano.     

Regular and quasiregular isometric flows on Riemannian manifolds

We study the nontrivial Killing vector fields of constant length and the corresponding flows on smooth Riemannian manifolds. We describe the properties of the set of all points of finite (infinite) period for general isometric flows on Riemannian manifolds. It is shown that this flow is generated by an effective almost free isometric action of the group S ¹ if there are no points of infinite or zero period. In the last case, the set of periods is at most countable and generates naturally an invariant stratification with closed totally geodesic strata; the union of all regular orbits is an open connected dense subset of full measure.     

带边界Riemann流形上的Sobolev空间等价范数

对具光滑边界αＭ的Ｒｉｅｍａｎｎ流形（Ｍ，ｇ），本文建立了Ｓｏｂｏｌｅｖ空间Ｈ（Ｍ）的等价范数     

Spectral gap on path spaces with infinite time-interval

Under certain curvature condition, the existence of spectral gap is proved on path spaces with infinite time-interval. Project supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 19631060), Beijing Normal University and the State Education Commission of China.     

Quantum Mechanics in Riemannian Space: Different Approaches to Quantization of the Geodesic Motion Compared

We compare different approaches to the construction of the quantum mechanics of a particle in the general Riemannian space and space–time via quantization of motion along geodesic lines. We briefly review different quantization formalisms and the difficulties arising in their application to geodesic motion in a Riemannian configuration space. We then consider canonical, semiclassical (Pauli–De Witt), and Feynman (path-integral) formalisms in more detail and compare the quantum Hamiltonians of a particle arising in these models in the case of a static, topological elementary Riemannian configuration space. This allows selecting a unique ordering rule for the coordinate and momentum operators in the canonical formalism and a unique definition of the path integral that eliminates a part of the arbitrariness involved in the construction of the quantum mechanics of a particle in the Riemannian space. We also propose a geometric explanation of another main problem in quantization, the noninvariance of the quantum Hamiltonian and the path integral under configuration space diffeomorphisms.     

Deformation properties of one remarkable hypersurface by H. Takagi in ℝ<Superscript>4</Superscript>

We prove that the remarkable hypersurface found by H. Takagi in 1972 (as the first counter-example to the Nomizu conjecture on semi-symmetric spaces) is locally rigid. For the second author, this work is a part of the research project MSM 0021620839 financed by MŠMT.