On Weyl’s Asymptotics and Remainder Term for the Orthogonal and Unitary Groups

We examine the asymptotics of the spectral counting function of a compact Riemannian manifold by Avakumovic (Math Z 65:327–344, [1]) and Hörmander (Acta Math 121:193–218, [15]) and show that for the scale of orthogonal and unitary groups \(\mathbf{SO}(N)\), \(\mathbf{SU}(N)\), \(\mathbf{U}(N)\) and \(\mathbf{Spin}(N)\) it is not sharp. While for negative sectional curvature improvements are possible and known, cf. e.g., Duistermaat and Guillemin (Invent Math 29:39–79, [7]), here, we give sharp and contrasting examples in the positive Ricci curvature case [non-negative for \(\mathbf{U}(N)\)]. Furthermore here the improvements are sharp and quantitative relating to the dimension and rank of the group. We discuss the implications of these results on the closely related problem of closed geodesics and the length spectrum.     

A gradient estimate in the Calabi–Yau theorem

We prove a C ¹-estimate for the complex Monge–Ampère equation on a compact Kähler manifold directly from the C ⁰-estimate, without using a C ²-estimate. This was earlier done only under additional assumption of non-negative bisectional curvature.     

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.     

The Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation on arbitrary domains of a Riemannian manifold

We show that the Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation defined on arbitrary C ² bounded domain Ω of an arbitrary complete Riemannian manifold M is solvable if the oscillation of the boundary data is bounded by a function \({\mathcal{C}}\) that is explicitely given and that depends only on the first and second derivatives of the boundary data as well as the second fundamental form of the boundary \({\partial\Omega}\) and the Ricci curvature of the ambient space M. This result extends Theorem 2 of Jenkins-Serrin (J Reine Angew Math 229:170–187,1968) about the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation defined on bounded domains of the Euclidean space. We deduce that the Dirichlet problem for the minimal hypersurface equation is solvable for any continuous boundary data on a mean convex domain. We also show existence and uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem with boundary data at infinity—exterior Dirichlet problem—on Hadamard manifolds.     

Pinching the Sectional Curvature on Open Manifolds

We sharpen Gromov’s well-known and surprising result that any smooth open manifold M admits (generally incomplete) Riemannian metrics with strictly positive sectional curvature as well as ones with strictly negative curvature by showing that any such M indeed also supports metrics which are arbitrarily pinched. This result is actually also optimal, since for the existence of constant sectional curvature metrics on M, even incomplete ones, there are topological obstructions known. The result is proven by observing that using jets of metrics, the pinching problem can be transformed into a differential curvature relation, which makes it feasible to Gromov’s general h-principle.     

On Measure Contraction Property without Ricci Curvature Lower Bound

Measure contraction properties M C P (K, N) are synthetic Ricci curvature lower bounds for metric measure spaces which do not necessarily have smooth structures. It is known that if a Riemannian manifold has dimension N, then M C P (K, N) is equivalent to Ricci curvature bounded below by K. On the other hand, it was observed in Rifford (Math. Control Relat. Fields 3(4), 467–487 2013) that there is a family of left invariant metrics on the three dimensional Heisenberg group for which the Ricci curvature is not bounded below. Though this family of metric spaces equipped with the Harr measure satisfy M C P (0,5). In this paper, we give sufficient conditions for a 2n+1 dimensional weakly Sasakian manifold to satisfy M C P (0, 2n + 3). This extends the above mentioned result on the Heisenberg group in Rifford (Math. Control Relat. Fields 3(4), 467–487 2013).     

Strongly positive curvature

We begin a systematic study of a curvature condition (strongly positive curvature) which lies strictly between positive-definiteness of the curvature operator and positivity of sectional curvature, and stems from the work of Thorpe (J Differ Geom 5:113–125, 1971; Erratum. J Differ Geom 11:315, 1976). We prove that this condition is preserved under Riemannian submersions and Cheeger deformations and that most compact homogeneous spaces with positive sectional curvature satisfy it.     

Remarks on the nonexistence of biharmonic maps

In this short note we study a nonexistence result of biharmonic maps from a complete Riemannian manifold into a Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature. Assume that \({\phi : (M, g) \to (N, h)}\) is a biharmonic map, where (M, g) is a complete Riemannian manifold and (N, h) a Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature, we will prove that \({\phi}\) is a harmonic map if one of the following conditions holds: (i) \({|d\phi|}\) is bounded in L^q(M) and \({\int_{M}|\tau(\phi)|^{p}dv_{g} < \infty}\), for some \({1 \leq q \leq \infty}\), \({1 < p < \infty}\); or (ii) \({Vol(M) = \infty}\) and \({\int_{M}|\tau(\phi)|^{p}dv_{g} < \infty}\), for some \({1 < p < \infty}\). In addition, if N has strictly negative sectional curvature, we assume that \({rank\phi(q) \geq 2}\) for some \({q \in M}\) and \({\int_{M}|\tau(\phi)|^{p}dv_{g} < \infty}\), for some \({1 < p < \infty}\). These results improve the related theorems due to Baird et al. (cf. Ann Golb Anal Geom 34:403–414, 2008), Nakauchi et al. (cf. Geom. Dedicata 164:263–272, 2014), Maeta (cf. Ann Glob Anal Geom 46:75–85, 2014), and Luo (cf. J Geom Anal 25:2436–2449, 2015).     

Projections of self-similar sets with no separation condition

Two natural symplectic constructions, the Lagrangian suspension and Seidel’s quantum representation of the fundamental group of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms, Ham(M), with (M, ω) a monotone symplectic manifold, admit categorifications as actions of the fundamental groupoid Π(Ham(M)) on a cobordism category recently introduced in [BC14] and, respectively, on a monotone variant of the derived Fukaya category. We show that the functor constructed in [BC14] that maps the cobordism category to the derived Fukaya category is equivariant with respect to these actions.     

Eigenvalue estimates for submanifolds with bounded <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">f</Emphasis>-mean curvature

In this paper, we obtain an extrinsic low bound to the first non-zero eigenvalue of the f-Laplacian on complete noncompact submanifolds of the weighted Riemannian manifold (H ^m (?1),e^?f dv) with respect to the f-mean curvature. In particular, our results generalize those of Cheung and Leung in Math. Z. 236 (2001) 525–530.     

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).     

On the generalization of the Salem test

The assertion that the Salem test [5] for the uniform convergence of a trigonometric Fourier series is improvable, is proved. In particular, an example of a continuous function, which does not fulfill the condition of the Salem test but satisfies the condition of the generalized Salem test [10], is constructed.Besides, the theorem which improves Golubov’s [3,4] result for continuous functions of two variables, is given.     

The continuity and range of the quaternionic Monge–Ampère operator on quaternionic space

In this paper, we use the quaternionic closed positive currents to establish some pluripotential results for quaternionic Monge–Ampère operator. By introducing a new quaternionic capacity, we prove a sufficient condition which implies the weak convergence of quaternionic Monge–Ampère measures \((\triangle u_j)^n\rightarrow (\triangle u)^n\). We also obtain an equivalent condition of “convergence in \(C_{n-1}\)-capacity” by using methods from Xing (Proc Am Math Soc 124(2):457–467, 1996). As an application, the range of the quaternionic Monge–Ampère operator is discussed.     

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.     

Uniform Sublevel Radon-like Inequalities

This paper is concerned with establishing uniform weighted L ^p –L ^q estimates for a class of operators generalizing both Radon-like operators and sublevel set operators. Such estimates are shown to hold under general circumstances whenever a sublevel-type inequality is satisfied by certain associated measures (the inequality is of the sort studied by Oberlin (Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 129(3):517–526, 2000), relating measures of parallelepipeds to powers of their Euclidean volumes). These ideas lead to previously unknown, weighted affine-invariant estimates for Radon-like operators as well as new L ^p -improving estimates for degenerate Radon-like operators with folding canonical relations which satisfy an additional curvature condition of Greenleaf and Seeger (J. Reine Angew. Math. 455:35–56, 1994) for FIOs (building on the ideas of Sogge (Invent. Math. 104(2):349–376, 1991) and Mockenhaupt et al. (J. Am. Math. Soc. 6(1):65–130, 1993)); these new estimates fall outside the range of estimates which are known to hold in the generality of the FIO context.     

Universal varieties of quasi-Stone algebras

In this paper, we are mainly concerned with semicontinuity of complete lattices and their distributive reflections, introduced by Rav in 1989. We prove that for a complete lattice L, the distributive reflection L_d is isomorphic to the lattice of all radicals determined by principal ideals of L in the set-inclusion order, obtaining a method to depict the distributive reflection of a given lattice. It is also proved that if a complete lattice L is semicontinuous and every semiprime element x ∈ L is the largest in d(x), then L_d is continuous whenever the distributive reflector d is Scott continuous. We construct counterexamples to confirm a conjecture and solve two open problems posed by Zhao in 1997.     

A version of the theorem of Johnson,Palmer, and Sell for quasicompact cocycles

We provide a classification of Einstein submanifolds in space forms with flat normal bundle and parallel mean curvature. This extends a previous result due to Dajczer and Tojeiro (Tohoku Math J (2) 45:43–49, 1993) for isometric immersions of Riemannian manifolds with constant sectional curvature.     

A general pinching principle for mean curvature flow and applications

We prove a sharp pinching estimate for immersed mean convex solutions of mean curvature flow which unifies and improves all previously known pinching estimates, including the umbilic estimate of Huisken (J Differ Geom 20(1):237–266, 1984), the convexity estimates of Huisken–Sinestrari (Acta Math 183(1):45–70, 1999) and the cylindrical estimate of Huisken–Sinestrari (Invent Math 175(1):137–221, 2009; see also Andrews and Langford in Anal PDE 7(5):1091–1107, 2014; Huisken and Sinestrari in J Differ Geom 101(2):267–287, 2015). Namely, we show that the curvature of the solution pinches onto the convex cone generated by the curvatures of any shrinking cylinder solutions admitted by the initial data. For example, if the initial data is \((m+1)\)-convex, then the curvature of the solution pinches onto the convex hull of the curvatures of the shrinking cylinders \(\mathbb {R}^m\times S^{n-m}_{\sqrt{2(n-m)(1-t)}}\), \(t<1\). In particular, this yields a sharp estimate for the largest principal curvature, which we use to obtain a new proof of a sharp estimate for the inscribed curvature for embedded solutions (Brendle in Invent Math 202(1):217–237, 2015; Haslhofer and Kleiner in Int Math Res Not 15:6558–6561, 2015; Langford in Proc Am Math Soc 143(12):5395–5398, 2015). Making use of a recent idea of Huisken–Sinestrari (2015), we then obtain a series of sharp estimates for ancient solutions. In particular, we obtain a convexity estimate for ancient solutions which allows us to strengthen recent characterizations of the shrinking sphere due to Huisken–Sinestrari (2015) and Haslhofer–Hershkovits (Commun Anal Geom 24(3):593–604, 2016).     

On homothetic balanced metrics

In this article, we study the set of balanced metrics given in Donaldson’s terminology (J. Diff. Geometry 59:479–522, 2001) on a compact complex manifold M which are homothetic to a given balanced one. This question is related to various properties of the Tian-Yau-Zelditch approximation theorem for Kähler metrics. We prove that this set is finite when M admits a non-positive Kähler–Einstein metric, in the case of non-homogenous toric Kähler-Einstein manifolds of dimension ≤ 4 and in the case of the constant scalar curvature metrics found in Arezzo and Pacard (Acta. Math. 196(2):179–228, 2006; Ann. Math. 170(2):685–738, 2009).     

On a Classification of 4-d Gradient Ricci Solitons with Harmonic Weyl Curvature

We study a characterization of 4-dimensional (not necessarily complete) gradient Ricci solitons (M, g, f) which have harmonic Weyl curvature, i.e., \(\delta W=0\). Roughly speaking, we prove that the soliton metric g is locally isometric to one of the following four types: an Einstein metric, the product \( \mathbb {R}^2 \times N_{\lambda }\) of the Euclidean metric and a 2-d Riemannian manifold of constant curvature \({\lambda } \ne 0\), a certain singular metric and a locally conformally flat metric. The method here is motivated by Cao–Chen’s works (in Trans Am Math Soc 364:2377–2391, 2012; Duke Math J 162:1003–1204, 2013) and Derdziński’s study on Codazzi tensors (in Math Z 172:273–280, 1980). Combined with the previous results on locally conformally flat solitons, our characterization yields a new classification of 4-d complete steady solitons with \(\delta W=0\). For the shrinking case, it re-proves the rigidity result (Fernández-López and García-Río in Math Z 269:461–466, 2011; Munteanu and Sesum in J. Geom Anal 23:539–561, 2013) in 4-d. It also helps to understand the expanding case; we now understand all 4-d non-conformally flat ones with \(\delta W=0\). We also characterize locally 4-d (not necessarily complete) gradient Ricci solitons with harmonic curvature.