Ricci flow papers from 2023

We prove that a complete solution to the Ricci flow on $M\times [-T,0)$ which has quadratic curvature decay on some end of $M$ and converges locally smoothly to the end of a cone on that neighborhood as $t\nearrow 0$ must be a gradient shrinking soliton.

We establish sufficient conditions which ensure that a locally-warped product structure propagates backward in time under the Ricci flow. As an application, we prove that if an asymptotically conical gradient shrinking soliton is asymptotic to a cone whose cross-section is a product of Einstein manifolds, the soliton must itself be a multiply-warped product over the same manifolds.

We construct a new example of an immortal mean curvature flow of smooth embedded connected surfaces in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, which converges to a plane with multiplicity $2$ as time approaches infinity.

We show that the set of awesome homogeneous metrics on non-compact manifolds is Ricci flow invariant. Moreover, if the universal cover of such awesome homogeneous space is not contractible the Ricci flow has finite extinction time, confirming the Dynamical Alekseevskii Conjecture in this case. We also analyze the long-time limits of awesome homogeneous Ricci flows.

In this article, we recapture the Smale conjecture on a Sasakian $3$-sphere via the Legendrian mean curvature flow. More precisely, we deform the area-preserving contactomorphism (symplectomorphism) of Sasakian $3$-spheres to an isometry via the Legendrian mean curvature flow on the Legendrian graph in ${\mathbb{S}}^2\times {\mathbb{S}}^3$. By using the monotonicity formula and blow-up analysis, we obtain the minimal Legendrian graph in ${\mathbb{S}}^2\times {\mathbb{S}}^3$. Finally, we will address the rigidity theorem of $2$-dimensional Legendrian self-shrinkers in ${\mathbb{R}}^5$. We are able to reconstruct the Harvey-Lawson special Lagrangian cone in ${\mathbb{C}}^3$ from this Legendrian self-shrinker. The partial classification is also provided if the squared norm of the second fundamental form is constant.

We study a family of nonlinear integral flows that involve Riesz potentials on Riemannian manifolds. In the Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev (HLS) subcritical regime, we present a precise blow-up profile exhibited by the flows. In the HLS critical regime, by introducing a \textit{dual $Q$ curvature} we demonstrate the concentration-compactness phenomenon. If, in addition, the integral kernel matches with the Green's function of a conformally invariant elliptic operator, this critical flow can be considered as a dual Yamabe flow. Convergence is then established on the unit spheres, which is also valid on certain locally conformally flat manifolds.

We prove dynamical stability and instability theorems for Poincaré-Einstein metrics under the Ricci flow. Our key tool is a variant of the expander entropy for asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds, which Dahl, McCormick and the first author established in a recent article. It allows us to characterize stability and instability in terms of a local positive mass theorem and in terms of volume comparison for nearby metrics.

In this work, we consider the area non-increasing map between manifolds with positive curvature. By exploring the strong maximum principle along the graphical mean curvature flow, we show that an area non-increasing map between certain positively curved manifolds is either homotopy trivial, Riemannian submersion, local isometry or isometric immersion. This implies that an area non-increasing self map of ${\mathbb{CP}}^n$, $n\ge 2$ is either homotopically trivial or is an isometry. This confirms a speculation of Tsai-Tsui-Wang. We also use Brendle's sphere Theorem and mean curvature flow coupled with Ricci flow to establish related results on manifolds with positive $1$-isotropic curvature.

This paper is concerned with a PDE approach to horizontally quasiconvex (h-quasiconvex) functions in the Heisenberg group based on a nonlinear second order elliptic operator. We discuss sufficient conditions and necessary conditions for upper semicontinuous, h-quasiconvex functions in terms of the viscosity subsolution to the associated elliptic equation. Since the notion of h-quasiconvexity is equivalent to the horizontal convexity (h-convexity) of the function's sublevel sets, we further adopt these conditions to study the h-convexity preserving property for horizontal curvature flow in the Heisenberg group. Under the comparison principle, we show that the curvature flow starting from a star-shaped h-convex set preserves the h-convexity during the evolution.

We study the evolution of a Jordan curve on the plane by curvature flow, also known as curve shortening flow, and by level-set flow, which is a weak formulation of curvature flow. We show that the evolution of the curve depends continuously on the initial curve in Fréchet distance.

We study the behavior of a three-dimensional dynamical system with respect to some set $S$ given in 3-dimensional euclidian space. Geometrically such a system arises from the normalized Ricci flow on some class of generalized Wallach spaces that can be described by a real parameter $a\in (0,1/2)$, as for $S$ it represents the set of invariant Riemannian metrics of positive sectional curvature on the Wallach spaces. Establishing that $S$ is bounded by three conic surfaces and regarding the normalized Ricci flow as an abstract dynamical system we find out the character of interrelations between that system and $S$ for all $a\in (0,1/2)$. These results can cover some well-known results, in particular, they can imply that the normalized Ricci flow evolves all generic invariant Riemannian metrics with positive sectional curvature into metrics with mixed sectional curvature on the Wallach spaces corresponding to the cases $a\in \{1/9,1/8,1/6\}$ of generalized Wallach spaces.

In this paper, we explore the positive solutions to the Finslerian nonlinear equation $$\frac{\partial u}{\partial t}={\Delta }^{\nabla u}u+au\log u+bu,$$ which is related to Ricci solitons and serves as the Euler-Lagrange equation to the Finslerian log-energy functional. We then obtain the global gradient estimate of its positive solution on a compact Finsler metric measure space with the weighted Ricci curvature bounded below. Furthermore, using a new comparison theorem developed by the first author, we also establish a local gradient estimate on a non-compact forward complete Finsler metric measure spaces with the mixed weighted Ricci curvature bounded below, as well as finite bounds of misalignment and some non-Riemannian curvatures. Lastly, we prove the Harnack inequalities and a Liouville-type theorem of such solutions.