Ricci flow papers from 2026

We prove that every smooth closed strictly convex hypersurface in ${\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}$ contracts to a round point under the ${\sigma }_k$-curvature flow for $2\le k\le n-1$, without additional pinching or symmetry assumptions. After rescaling about the extinction point to mean width two, the hypersurfaces converge smoothly and exponentially in normalized time to the unit sphere. The proof is based on an entropy which is invariant under translations and dilations and admits a representation by weighted boundary areas of orthogonal projections. A strengthened Codazzi inequality yields its monotonicity. An upper bound for the entropy controls the inradius relative to the mean width, while its dissipation controls the spatial variation of the normalized speed. We also obtain two-sided curvature bounds at the natural extinction scale.

In this article we produce many examples of knotted self expanders. For example, there is an expander isotopic to a trefoil knot with three half cylinders attached.

We prove that, in every dimension, the focal set of the potential function of a complete gradient shrinking Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is totally geodesic whenever it has dimension two or three, and that every complete five-dimensional gradient shrinking Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is rigid. The first result follows from a Bochner identity for the covariant derivative of the Ricci tensor at the focal set. For the second, when the scalar curvature is twice the soliton constant, we prove that total geodesy implies rigidity through an integral identity on the level hypersurfaces; the case of scalar curvature three times the soliton constant is treated by a separate argument. As further applications, we combine our methods with the rigidity theorem in the recent preprint of Li, Li, Ou, Qu, Wu and Zhou to obtain rigidity in arbitrary dimension when the scalar curvature is twice or three times the soliton constant, and under integral Weyl pinching for four-dimensional focal sets.

We study curvature flows for the dual Orlicz–Minkowski problem for strictly convex capillary hypersurfaces in the Euclidean half-space. The prescribed function has the form $\phi (h)G(X)$, where $X=\nabla h+h\nu$ and $G$ may be nonradial and nonhomogeneous. For acute contact angles, the evenness assumption together with either of the two integral conditions yields a smooth weighted-volume-preserving flow for all $t>0$ and a smooth solution to the dual Orlicz–Minkowski equation. Without the evenness assumption, two strict spherical-cap barriers yield the same conclusions for an unnormalized flow, whose limiting hypersurfaces solve the dual Orlicz–Minkowski equation with $c=1$. A uniform strict monotonicity condition under rescaling ensures uniqueness for $c=1$ and convergence of the unnormalized flow in any $C^k$ norm at an exponential rate. The problem considered here includes the capillary $L_p$-Minkowski and $L_p$ dual Minkowski problems as special cases.

We show that Ricci flows of invariant metrics on twisted principal bundles with nilpotent fibres over $S^1$ are immortal and type III. After normalisation and lift to the universal cover, a sequence of metrics converges in the Cheeger–Gromov topology to a homogeneous expanding Ricci soliton. The proof extends the bracket flow technique from homogeneous Ricci flows to invariant Ricci flows on twisted principal bundles.

We prove that on a connected, simply-connected nilpotent Lie group, the notions of left-invariant generalized Ricci soliton, semi-algebraic and algebraic generalized Ricci soliton coincide. Moreover, every such soliton has harmonic torsion. We classify all algebraic solitons with positive definite metric on the five-dimensional Heisenberg algebra, the four-dimensional oscillator algebra and the four-dimensional split-oscillator algebra up to automorphisms and rescalings. We find that there is only a finite number of algebraic solitons, all of which have harmonic torsion.

We study global smooth Calabi flows on polarized Kähler surfaces $(M,L)$, assuming uniformly bounded Sobolev constants and the algebraic conditions $\chi ({\mathcal{O}}_M)=1$ and $c_1(M)\cdot c_1(L)>0$. Using the orbifold compactness theorem, we prove a uniform Bergman estimate, construct a normal test configuration for each geometric limit, and establish uniqueness of the extremal orbifold limit up to polarized holomorphic isometry. K-polystability then identifies the limit with the original surface and gives a constant scalar curvature Kähler metric. We also prove finite-group equivariant versions of these results. Independently of the flow, we obtain a uniform Bergman lower bound for polarized cscK surfaces with bounded volume and Sobolev constants and $|S|\le 1$. We illustrate the hypotheses with nonstationary flows near a product cscK metric on ${\mathbb{P}}^1\times {\mathbb{P}}^1$ and near Calabi's non-cscK extremal metric on the first Hirzebruch surface. Their controlled-cone energy inequalities follow from elementary calculations and continuity.

We study global Calabi flows $g(t)$ on compact Kähler surfaces with a uniform Sobolev constant. For any sequence $t_j\to \infty$, set $g_j(t):=g(t_j+t)$. After passing to a subsequence, these flows converge to an eternal Calabi flow on a compact extremal Kähler orbifold surface. The convergence holds in the spacetime ${\hat{C}}^{\infty }$-Cheeger–Gromov topology: it is uniform in the Gromov–Hausdorff sense on compact time intervals and smooth away from the orbifold singularities, using comparisons fixed in time.

On every unit-volume flat complex three-torus, we construct a solution of the volume-preserving conformal Chern–Calabi flow with a finite-time Chern Type-I singularity at any prescribed point. The full spatial supremum has an exact asymptotic coefficient, and prescribed rescalings converge to a complete nonflat radial shrinking solution. The positive part of Chern scalar curvature can remain arbitrarily small throughout the flow, as can each prescribed subcritical spatial curvature norm. We determine the punctured terminal metric, its one-point completion and unique nonflat tangent cone, and the terminal energy asymptotics. We also exclude Chern Type-II under a logarithmically improved critical weak $L^3$ bound on Chern scalar curvature, and prove a separate scale-invariant integral criterion involving first Chern–Ricci curvature. The constructed singular solutions satisfy both criteria.

We prove strong uniqueness of tangent flows at the first singular time of a closed Ricci flow when one tangent flow is generated by a complete smooth asymptotically conical Ricci shrinker. The modified flow converges to this shrinker in a fixed gauge, with quantitative estimates on expanding domains. The main ingredients are a Łojasiewicz-Simon inequality for Perelman's entropy, based on the global weighted divergence-free gauge constructed in the preceding paper, and estimates controlling the geometric radius under Ricci flow.

We show that the blowdown shrinking Ricci soliton of Feldman, Ilmanen and Knopf is strictly dynamically stable in the following strong local sense: (1) The Ricci flow from every metric on a closed 4-manifold containing a region close to a rescaling of a sufficiently large compact subset of the soliton in either orientation and with controlled geometry elsewhere develops a singularity with unique tangent flow modeled on the soliton. (2) The singular time slice has an isolated conical singularity, and by Gianniotis-Schulze the flow can be continued by blowing down a sphere of self-intersection $\pm 1$. (3) On a closed 4-manifold, the set of metrics whose Ricci flows have their first singularity modeled on the soliton is $C^{14}$-open. It is nonempty if and only if the manifold contains a sphere of self-intersection $\pm 1$. (4) The soliton is strongly rigid among shrinking Ricci solitons. As applications, we construct $C^{14}$-open sets of initial data whose Ricci flows perform any prescribed ordered sequence of blowdowns. (1) Every closed simply connected smooth 4-manifold, including spin and exotic examples, can be reached by Ricci flow from a standard $k{\mathbb{CP}}^2\#\ell \overline{\mathbb{CP}}{}^2$, through finitely many blowdown singularities. (2) On the standard $2{\mathbb{CP}}^2\#9\overline{\mathbb{CP}}{}^2$, there are infinitely many open sets of initial metrics whose Ricci flows, after a single blowdown, reach pairwise nondiffeomorphic manifolds. The proof uses the spectral analysis of Naff and the second author and deals with the gauge-fixing problem along Ricci flow through a Ważewski argument inspired by Stolarski. We also use Bamler-Lai's PDE-ODI principle. Except for continuation (requiring nonnegative curvature of the asymptotic cone), all results apply to linearly stable nonflat asymptotically conical shrinkers in all dimensions.

We classify complete, non-compact, simply connected, irreducible four-dimensional steady gradient Ricci solitons that are globally conformally Kähler and have an isoparametric potential. The steady Ricci solitons are $U(2)$-invariant nuts on ${\mathbb{R}}^4$, including the Bryant and Cao solitons, and bolts on ${\mathbb{S}}^2\times {\mathbb{R}}^2$ and on $\mathcal{O}(-m)\to {\mathbb{CP}}^1$. For each $m\ge 3$ there is exactly one non-collapsed bolt. A key step, valid for Ricci solitons of every sign, is that away from the locally conformally flat case, the conformal factor is aligned with the potential function, which yields cohomogeneity-one symmetry.

We derive an interior planarity estimate for space-time proper mean curvature flows of $n$-dimensional submanifolds of ${\mathbb{R}}^{n+p}$, $n\ge 5$, that are uniformly quadratically pinched up to the Andrews-Baker threshold $\frac{4}{3n}$. The estimate is parabolically scale-invariant and it requires neither curvature nor entropy bounds. The proof combines Naff's gradient estimates with a localization argument in the spirit of Ecker and Huisken. In dimensions five and six, Naff's estimates alone do not give the gradient terms a sign. We bound these terms from below with an argument we developed in a previous work. As a consequence, for $n\ge 5$, and by known results for $2\le n\le 4$, every space-time proper ancient solution that is uniformly $\frac{4}{3n}$-pinched is either a static affine $n$-plane or lies in a fixed affine $(n+1)$-dimensional subspace. This replaces the finite entropy and polynomial curvature growth assumptions of Lee, Naff and Zhu by space-time properness, and improves their pinching constant in dimensions two, five and six. For closed flows, we extend Lynch's planarity estimate to a larger range of exponents.

We develop the weighted Sobolev and Hölder analysis needed to study perturbations of complete asymptotically conical (AC) Ricci shrinkers. Weighted elliptic estimates yield a global weighted divergence-free slice in spaces that retain the asymptotic data at infinity. As a geometric application, we prove pointed Gromov-Hausdorff rigidity of nontrivial AC shrinkers with vanishing infinitesimal solitonic deformation space.

We study the arrival time equation of the mean-convex horizontal mean curvature flow in the Heisenberg group. We prove existence of viscosity solutions when the initial set is horizontally mean-convex and either non-characteristic, or axisymmetric and with horizontal mean curvature extending continuously across the characteristic set. A key ingredient is an approximation scheme by sets with prescribed Riemannian mean curvature, which preserves the mean-curvature bounds up to an arbitrarily small error. We further show that, when the evolving level sets form a generalized $C^2$-foliation, the horizontal mean curvature blows up around characteristic points. This provides an obstruction to self-similar evolution in the axisymmetric class considered above and, in particular, shows that the Pansu sphere cannot evolve self-similarly.

Statistical manifolds, introduced by Amari in information geometry, carry a pair of dual torsion-free connections $(\nabla ,{\nabla }^{\ast })$ together with a Riemannian metric. In this chapter we survey the theory of statistical solitons, that is, vector fields and constants that solve the Ricci-soliton equation simultaneously for $\nabla$ and ${\nabla }^{\ast }$, together with the statistical analogue of almost quasi-Yamabe solitons. We discuss two principal settings: (i) statistical warped products $\mathbb{R}{\times }_f{N}_2$ and $N_1{\times }_f\mathbb{R}$ for (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds $N_1$ and $N_2$, where the soliton equation constrains the warping function; and (ii) statistical submanifolds of Kenmotsu statistical manifolds, where the position of the Reeb field $\xi$ relative to the submanifold and the presence of concircular or concurrent vector fields determine the Einstein, $\eta$-Einstein or quasi-Einstein character of the submanifold. We further review the results of Blaga and Chen on gradient solitons and statistical structures, in particular the connections ${\nabla }^{\theta }$ defined by a $1$-form, volume formulas and bounds for the Ricci tensor. We also describe Chen-type inequalities for statistical warped product submanifolds, which give the extrinsic context in which such solitons live. Key steps of the proofs, remarks on the sharpness of hypotheses, worked examples, and open problems are included.

In this paper, we establish a new estimate on the time-derivative of pointed Nash entropy and use it to give a new proof of backward pseudolocality for Ricci flow. The proof does not rely on Bamler's compactness theorem and structure theory concerning limits of Ricci flows. Our methods also work for other reasonable geometric flows, like the $G_2$-Laplacian, at a scale depending on its deviation from Ricci flow and its scalar curvature.

In this paper, we give a new proof of Perelman's pseudolocality theorem for Ricci flow, which does not rely on Perelman's Harnack-type inequality. The key step is an estimate relating initial local $\mu$-entropy to pointed Nash entropy at later spacetime points. The argument also works for other reasonable geometric flows, like the $G_2$-Laplacian flow, at a scale depending on its deviation from Ricci flow and its scalar curvature lower bound. As a consequence, we can also prove the quantitative rigidity results concerning pointed Nash entropy due to Hein-Naber and Bamler for such geometric flows. In the appendix, we also show that the other results in Bamler's work (arXiv:2008.07093), when suitably modified, remain valid for Laplacian flow with bounded torsion. These include log-Sobolev/Poincaré inequality for conjugate heat kernel measure, heat kernel estimates, and dependence of the pointed Nash entropy on its basepoint.

Inspired by recent work of Inoue and Hallam-Lahdili, we prove an equivariant Miyaoka-Yau inequality with a correction term for smooth Fano manifolds admitting Kähler-Ricci solitons. It recovers the usual Miyaoka-Yau inequality in the Kähler-Einstein case. Our proof uses weighted equivariant Bogomolov-Gieseker and Langer inequalities for torsion-free sheaves, together with a weighted slope estimate for the canonical extension sheaf. We also construct toric examples showing that the existence of a soliton implies neither weighted semistability of the canonical extension sheaf nor nonnegativity of the equivariant Miyaoka-Yau number.

We develop a parabolic formulation of the Uhlenbeck gauge fixing theorem and use it to prove the maximal existence of the Yang-Mills flow in vector bundles over compact $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifolds for $n\ge 4$. We apply Moser's iteration technique to give a new proof of the bound of the curvature. Using an idea of Hamilton on the Ricci flow, we also provide a new proof on uniform estimates of higher order derivatives. Furthermore, we investigate the blow-up of the Yang-Mills flow at the maximal existence time and improve an asymptotical result of Hong-Tian.

For a rotationally symmetric Ricci flow $g(t)=d{s}^2+f(s,t{)}^2{g}_{{\mathbb{S}}^{n-1}}$, $n\ge 3$, we study the scale-invariant curvature anisotropy $A=1-f_s^2+f{f}_{ss}$ introduced by Angenent–Knopf. At the critical power $p_{\ast }=(n-1)/(n-2)$, with $\Phi =sgn(A)|A{|}^{p_{\ast }/2}$, we prove the distributional identity $$({\partial }_t-\Delta )|A{|}^{p_{\ast }}=-\frac{4}{n-1}{\left|{\Phi }_s+(n-1)\frac{f_s}{f}\Phi \right|}^2.$$ Integration against a conjugate heat kernel gives an anisotropic entropy formula. As an application, we obtain an entropy threshold for Type-I singularities on ${\mathbb{S}}^n$: if the entropy associated with a singular-time kernel is at most $1$ at an earlier regular time, every tangent flow at the corresponding singular point is a round shrinking sphere. This criterion follows from the $0/1$ quantization of the singular-time anisotropic density.

Let $(M^n,g,f)$ be a complete connected shrinking gradient Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature, satisfying $$\text{Ric}+{\nabla }^{2}f=\frac{1}{2}g.$$ We prove that if the focal set of $f$ is totally geodesic, then $M$ is rigid. Equivalently, its universal cover is a product of a compact Einstein manifold and a Euclidean space.

We prove that a complete connected four-dimensional gradient steady Ricci soliton with positive curvature operator that is $\kappa$-noncollapsed at all scales admits an effective isometric $O(3)$ action preserving the potential function and having principal orbits diffeomorphic to $S^2$.

For closed negatively curved surfaces, we obtain formulas for the derivatives of the harmonic entropy of its geodesic flow and the linear drift of its Brownian motion along conformal deformations. We deduce that the harmonic entropy of the geodesic flow of a closed surface of non-constant negative curvature (resp. linear drift of the Brownian motion on its universal cover) is strictly decreasing (resp. increasing) along the normalized Ricci flow. We also prove that any hyperbolic metric on a surface admits a neighborhood in the space of conformal negatively curved metrics in which the linear drift is greater or equal to the Liouville entropy, with equality if and only if the metric is hyperbolic.

We study quermassintegral-preserving curvature flows in ${\mathbb{H}}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 3$, driven by the curvature quotient $(E_k/E_{\ell }{)}^{1/(k-\ell )}$. For $1\le \ell <k$ with $k+\ell \le n$, we prove that positive sectional curvature is preserved. Starting from a smooth closed strictly convex hypersurface with positive sectional curvature, the flow exists for all time and converges smoothly and exponentially to a geodesic sphere. As an application, we establish sharp Alexandrov–Fenchel inequalities between $W_k$ and $W_{\ell }$ for smooth bounded convex domains whose boundaries have nonnegative sectional curvature, whenever $0\le \ell <k\le n$ and $k+\ell \le n$. Equality holds if and only if the domain is a geodesic ball. Together with previously known cases, these inequalities give the full family of Alexandrov–Fenchel inequalities for this class of domains in ${\mathbb{H}}^6$. We also construct counterexamples showing that $k+\ell \le n$ is the optimal range for preservation of positive sectional curvature by these flows.

We extend the quermassintegral inequalities of our earlier work from star-shaped domains to a substantially broader class of domains in Euclidean space, which we call spiral-star-shaped. A smooth domain is spiral-star-shaped if its boundary satisfies $$⟨X+AX,\nu ⟩>0$$ for some fixed skew-symmetric linear map $A$, where $X$ is the position vector and $\nu$ is the outward unit normal. The vector field $X+AX$ is conformal Killing, with dilation component $X$ and rotational component $AX$; its trajectories combine expansion and rotation, giving rise to the spiral terminology. When $A=0$, it reduces to ordinary star-shapedness, while nonzero $A$ allows domains that are not star-shaped in the usual radial sense. For smooth $k$-convex spiral-star-shaped domains, we prove long-time existence and exponential convergence to a round sphere for a locally constrained inverse curvature flow. The positive spiral support function provides the geometric control needed to treat initial hypersurfaces that need not be star-shaped in the usual sense. Monotonicity of the quermassintegrals along the flow yields sharp quermassintegral inequalities in this enlarged class, with equality if and only if the domain is a ball.

In this paper, we study the singularity behavior of immersed locally convex closed plane curves evolving under generalized anisotropic Gage area-preserving flows with slow curvature speeds of the form ${\kappa }_{\sigma }^{\alpha }$, where $0<\alpha \le 1$. Here ${\kappa }_{\sigma }$ denotes the anisotropic curvature associated with a prescribed anisotropy function $\sigma$. We prove that every finite-time blow-up is of Type-II provided that the Euclidean length of the evolving curve remains uniformly bounded away from zero. This result holds without any symmetry assumptions on either the initial curve or the anisotropy. When the initial signed area is nonzero, this length lower bound is automatically satisfied, and thus any finite-time singularity is necessarily of Type-II. By means of Hamilton's rescaling method combined with a differential Harnack estimate, we show that along a suitable blow-up subsequence, the rescaled curves at the selected times converge locally to the profile of a translating solution of the corresponding anisotropic curvature flow $V={\kappa }_{\sigma }^{\alpha }$. We also establish sufficient conditions for finite-time singularity formation in terms of the initial signed area and anisotropic length. Moreover, we construct locally convex initial curves arbitrarily close to the Wulff curve for which a finite-time Type-II singularity occurs.

We construct closed mean curvature flows with arbitrarily large genus increase in every smooth Riemannian three-manifold, giving counterexamples to Ilmanen's genus-reduction conjecture. We prove that a compact hypersurface with a single isolated conical singularity and a power rate of convergence to its cone admits a mean curvature flow whose forward rescaled limit is a prescribed expander in the tangent space at the singular point, smoothly asymptotic to that cone. Combining this theorem with closed mean curvature flows with prescribed tangent flows (arXiv:2405.15577, arXiv:2607.23879) and the noncompact counterexample (arXiv:2605.09657) gives the desired examples.

We classify all left-invariant affine Ricci solitons associated with the Bott connections of two fixed rank-two distributions on the seven standard families of three-dimensional Lorentzian Lie groups. The distributions are defined by a fixed orthogonal change of the spacelike frame. A universal adapted-frame calculation provides explicit connection matrices, curvature operators and the symmetrized Ricci tensor. The equation in the orthogonal-complement direction forces every left-invariant solution to be steady. The remaining equations yield elementary parameter families and finitely many real algebraic branches: four normalized branches for $G_2$, six branches for each sign parameter in $G_4$, and two quartic branches in $G_7$ in addition to its elementary families. Resultants, subresultants, exact polynomial reduction and Sturm root isolation establish necessity, sufficiency and exhaustiveness. Degenerate cases are treated separately, including all families with nonunique soliton vector fields. An invertible frame transformation relates the two distribution problems. The classification is in the stated structure parameters; no quotient by isometries, automorphisms or scaling is taken.

We compare the Chern holonomy of the first and second Chern-Ricci flows on compact complex manifolds. For the first flow, we construct an explicit immortal pluriclosed solution on a complex two-torus with full and restricted holonomy $U(2)$, except at one finite time when both groups are $U(1{)}^2$; its smooth limit has holonomy $SU(2)$. The solution is uniformly nondegenerate and has bounds of every fixed differential order for all time. In contrast, the second Chern-Ricci flow preserves full and restricted Chern holonomy under the natural unitary identification, including the initial time and nonclosed groups. The proof combines preservation of a connection reduction, positive-time analyticity, and a path-transport comparison. As an application, the optimal minimum mean curvature on a holomorphic bundle is unchanged when metrics are restricted to any realizable full and restricted holonomy class. An explicit projected-curvature source explains the failure of the corresponding Ricci-flow holonomy argument.

In this paper, we prove the long time existence of the pseudo-Calabi flow on a compact toric variety for any $T^n$-invariant initial Kähler metric. If the Mabuchi functional is proper modulo automorphisms, the flow converges exponentially to a constant scalar curvature Kähler (cscK) metric. In particular, this gives a flow proof that properness of the K-energy implies the existence of a cscK metric in the toric setting.

We study ancient solutions to curve shortening flow on a class of warped product surfaces. For closed embedded ancient solutions whose curves are not null-homotopic, we prove that graphicality at every time is equivalent to a uniform length bound as $t\to -\infty$, and that these properties hold whenever the length is $o(\sqrt{-t})$. Under an additional positivity condition on the linearized height equation, every such solution with bounded length is a family of slices. We derive backward convergence to a limiting circle from the length bound and prove slice rigidity by an $L^2$ estimate for the height perturbation.

We study rotationally symmetric graphical solutions to mean curvature flow that are initially close to a homothetic reference expander, in particular near infinity. Based on a computer algebra aided proof, we show that under appropriate conditions, at large times, the solutions are closer to a different expander than to the reference expander.

We construct a family of integrable 2d sigma models through 4d Chern-Simons theory and show that their classical point-particle reduction corresponds to a Hitchin system. The integrable Hitchin quantisation then provides a natural candidate Hamiltonian for the one-loop reduced dynamics of the sigma models, which coincides with the Perelman operator in all cases examined. This allows us to study the corresponding spectral problems using 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theory and 2d conformal field theory methods. For the sausage model, we derive exact quantisation conditions and compute exponentially small corrections essential for the agreement with numerical finite-volume results.

We study the volume-normalized gradient flow of the squared Chern scalar curvature on compact Hermitian manifolds of complex dimension $n\ge 3$. The flow extends smoothly past a finite time if the spatial supremum of Chern scalar curvature belongs to $L^2$ in time. A uniform curvature bound in the evolving $L^p$ norm, for one fixed $p>n$, gives global existence and smooth convergence of the whole trajectory to a constrained critical metric. On Chern scalar-flat backgrounds, small initial $L^p$ curvature gives exponential convergence to the background. A corresponding condition on the trace-free first Chern–Ricci form gives exponential convergence on Chern–Ricci-flat Hermitian and positive Kähler–Einstein backgrounds. The smallness thresholds are independent of the initial higher derivatives. We also construct constant Chern scalar curvature backgrounds of either sign with arbitrarily small smooth perturbations whose solutions, if global, cannot converge back to the background.

In this paper, we propose the Chern-Calabi Flow for extremal metrics in conformal Hermitian geometry. After the existence of extremal metric, we consider the existence of global flows to the Chern-Calabi flows for extremal metrics on compact complex surfaces with Gauduchon metrics. To achieve this goal, we use the Adams inequality and the Gronwall inequality method to obtain fourth order derivative norm estimates. We also study the convergence of the global solution to the Chern-Calabi flow and its limit is the solution of the Chern-Calabi extremal metric problem. We propose a fourth order elliptic problem and derive the Bochner formula relevant to the elliptic estimates for the Chern-Calabi heat flow.

We study ancient Ricci flows whose tangent flow at backward infinity is a smooth compact Ricci shrinker. After normalization, every nontrivial solution either converges exponentially or has polynomial decay governed by neutral directions. We recover the finite-dimensional parametrization of the exponentially convergent solutions and establish finite-order asymptotic expansions for all slowly convergent solutions. For principal slow solutions, we obtain a locally bijective finite-dimensional parametrization compatible with diffeomorphisms, parabolic rescaling, and time translation.

In this paper, we study the quermassintegral inequalities for capillary hypersurfaces in a horoball in hyperbolic space. We construct a locally constrained nonlinear curvature flow that preserves the $k$-th quermassintegral while monotonically increasing the $l$-th quermassintegral for any $(1\le l<k\le n)$. Using this flow, we establish a full family of the quermassintegral inequalities for horo-convex capillary hypersurfaces in a horoball with contact angle $\theta \in (0,\pi /2]$. Moreover, we weaken the horo-convexity to convexity and obtain the quermassintegral inequalities for convex capillary hypersurfaces between the $n$-th and $l$-th quermassintegrals.

We give a finite negative-shift criterion for preserving a prescribed exterior noncollapsing bound under fully nonlinear curvature flows whose hypersurfaces need not be convex. The criterion uses the optimized two-point expression of Andrews and Langford. We verify it by a uniform global two-matrix estimate for the explicit speed $$F_{\epsilon }(A)=trA-\epsilon \frac{\text{norm}{A^{\circ }}^2}{trA}$$ on the open cone $$\Gamma =\{A\in \text{Sym}(n):trA>0,\text{norm}{A}^{\circ }<trA\}.$$ Here $A^{\circ }$ denotes the trace-free part of $A$. This cone contains the positive cone and also matrices with a negative eigenvalue, while the displayed speed is concave and non-convex. For an explicit range of parameters depending on the initial exterior bound, the cone and that bound are preserved throughout the smooth embedded existence interval. Together with the known interior estimate for concave speeds, this gives two-sided tangent-ball bounds for this nonlinear family, including closed nonconvex initial hypersurfaces.

Let an isometric involution act on a smooth Riemannian $3$-sphere with sectional curvature at least one. We prove that every one-dimensional connected component of its fixed-point set has length at most $2\pi$, and that the bound is sharp. The proof realizes the fixed circle as the link of a complete totally geodesic surface in a positively curved expanding Ricci soliton and applies Bishop–Gromov comparison to its area growth. The analytic input is an equivariant version of Deruelle's smoothing of positively curved cones. We use Gianniotis–Schulze's equivariant local deformation and explain a marked compactness argument for arbitrary finite isotropy. In particular, the end chart retains the specified group action, rather than only an unspecified conjugate.

We prove that every complete Kähler–Ricci shrinker with nonnegative Ricci curvature is holomorphically isometric to ${\mathbb{C}}^k\times N^{n-k}$ for some $0\le k\le n$, where ${\mathbb{C}}^k$ is the Gaussian shrinker and $N$ is a compact Kähler–Ricci shrinker with nonnegative Ricci curvature. As a corollary, every complete Kähler–Ricci shrinker with quasi-positive Ricci curvature is compact.

This study develops numerical methods for computing homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models on manifolds with non-trivial spatial topologies. The use of Ricci flow is introduced here to aid in the construction of globally homogeneous initial data on these manifolds. The initial data produced in this way are evolved by solving Einstein's equation numerically to construct homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models on three exemplar manifolds in this study: Seifert-Weber space, the lens space $L(5,2)$, and Sixth-Turn space.

In the study of geometric structures on nilmanifolds, two-step nilpotent Lie algebras obtained by graphs play an important role. Recently, additional examples of nilpotent Lie algebras have been constructed from finite quivers without cycles. These latter examples can have arbitrarily high degrees of nilpotency, and admit Riemannian Ricci soliton metrics. In this paper, we study nilpotent Lie algebras obtained by finite quivers without cycles that are two-step nilpotent, and we prove that they can also be obtained by graphs. Using this relationship, we demonstrate that every two-step nilpotent Lie algebra obtained by a finite quiver without cycles admits a pseudo-Riemannian Ricci-flat metric. Additionally, we also classify these nilpotent Lie algebras that admit symplectic structures.

We describe the self-expanders of the mean curvature flow in ${\mathbb{R}}^{p+q+2}$ invariant under $O(p+1)\times O(q+1)$. Apart from the Clifford minimal cone, every such hypersurface is complete, proper and noncompact, and belongs to one of three families: two one-parameter families of embedded hypersurfaces diffeomorphic to ${\mathbb{R}}^{p+1}\times {\mathbb{S}}^q$ or to ${\mathbb{R}}^{q+1}\times {\mathbb{S}}^p$, whose profile curves leave an axis, and a two-parameter family diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}\times {\mathbb{S}}^p\times {\mathbb{S}}^q$, parametrized by the point of the profile curve closest to the origin, which is the generic family: its set of initial conditions is open and of full measure in the phase space. Every end is asymptotically conical, with explicit decay rates, and every such hypersurface has Euclidean volume growth. A profile curve of the third family has at most one loop, and the point of the curve closest to the origin lies on that loop.

We describe the global structure of the self-shrinkers of the mean curvature flow in ${\mathbb{R}}^{p+q+2}$ invariant under $O(p+1)\times O(q+1)$, without assuming properness or embeddedness. The main tool is a pair of piecewise monotone quantities along the profile curves, in the spirit of Hsiang's analysis of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. We prove that every such self-shrinker other than the two invariant cylinders intersects both of them transversely, and all of them except the Clifford minimal cone are complete. Apart from those of the cylinders, each end is either asymptotic to a cone or meets both cylinders infinitely many times. Consequently, a complete noncompact example is proper if and only if all its ends are asymptotically conical, and this is equivalent to polynomial volume growth, to finite entropy, and to finitely many intersections with the cylinders. The reduced flow preserves a finite measure, and for almost every initial condition the profile curve is either closed or generates a complete nonproper self-shrinker of infinite entropy. We also bound the winding of the profile curve by its number of cylinder crossings and localize its self-intersections.

We study the combinatorial Calabi flow associated with vertex scalings on infinitely triangulated surfaces with piecewise Euclidean and piecewise hyperbolic metrics. Under the assumptions of uniformly bounded vertex degree and an $\epsilon$-uniformly nondegenerate initial metric, we establish short-time existence of smooth solutions and prove uniqueness among solutions that are continuous in the $L^{\infty }$ norm.

We develop a pinching method for mean curvature flow in higher codimension. Motivated by pinching constructions for Ricci flow, the method uses a nonlinear deformation of the second fundamental form. We introduce two tensorial curvature conditions for closed immersions in Euclidean space which extend beyond the scope of classical scalar pinching results. In dimensions at least ten, we apply the method to prove convergence to a round point under the first condition and a canonical neighborhood theorem under the second.

We demonstrate that Kähler-Ricci flow on a Fano surface decomposes as a symplectic deflation along a plurianticanonical divisor plus an exact symplectic deformation in the divisor complement. We apply this decomposition to the study of certain projective bundles. We establish the optimal decay rate in the setting of Song, Székelyhidi, and Weinkove for a family of toric metrics which match the cohomological profile of Kähler-Ricci flow. In doing so, we identify a $C^2$-obstruction to proving the optimal decay rate in the setting of ruled toric surfaces. We present these ideas as a new symplectic-topological approach to the study of Kähler-Ricci flow.

In this paper, we establish geometric consequences of our Type I scalar curvature estimate for finite-time solutions of the Kähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler manifolds. We prove a uniform global diameter bound and a Type I diameter bound for every fibre of finite time holomorphic contraction. These estimates yield Gromov-Hausdorff convergence to a unique compact metric space homeomorphic to the normal Kähler space determined by the limiting cohomology class. We also establish a local partial $C^0$ estimate for the normalized flow and show that the tangent shrinkers are normal complex analytic varieties with log terminal singularities.

Let $X$ be a compact Kähler manifold with semi-ample canonical bundle. For any Kähler class $[\omega ]$, Jian–Shi–Song proved that there exists a unique cscK metric in the class $2\pi c_1(K_X)+\epsilon [\omega ]$ when $\epsilon \in (0,{\epsilon }_0]$, using the properness criterion of Chen–Cheng. We prove that the cscK metrics in $2\pi c_1(K_X)+\epsilon [\omega ]$ converge, as $\epsilon \downarrow 0$, in the Gromov–Hausdorff topology to the metric completion of the twisted Kähler-Einstein metric on the canonical model of $X$ as conjectured by Jian–Shi–Song. Based on the technique developed in this paper, we can also give a new proof the theorem of Lee–Tosatti–Zhang on the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of the normalized Kähler–Ricci flow on $X$.

We establish local convexity and cylindrical pinching estimates for hypersurface mean curvature flow under an intermediate convexity condition and integral bounds on the mean curvature. These estimates hold after a positive waiting time and do not require pointwise upper bounds for the mean curvature on the parabolic boundary. In arbitrary codimension, we also establish local planarity estimates for properly defined flows satisfying a uniform $c_n$-pinching condition, without assuming bounded curvature. As applications, the hypersurface estimates yield convexity and cylindrical pinching for complete, spacetime-proper ancient hypersurface flows with uniform Euclidean area growth, without any bounded-curvature assumption. The planarity estimates imply that every complete, connected, spacetime-proper ancient flow satisfying the uniform $c_n$-pinching condition is either a static affine $n$-plane or lies in a fixed affine $(n+1)$-plane for all time.

Principal orbits of cohomogeneity one Hermann actions form a natural class of equifocal hypersurfaces in symmetric spaces of compact type. Based on Kollross's classification of cohomogeneity one actions on irreducible symmetric spaces of compact type, we obtain the time evolution of the squared norm of the shape operator and the mean curvature along the long-time solution of the backward mean curvature flows starting from their principal orbits. These results explicitly describe the authors' previous generalization of the results of Liu-Terng on backward mean curvature flows of isoparametric hypersurfaces to this class of equifocal hypersurfaces.

In this paper, we study heat kernel estimates along the Kähler-Ricci flow with finite time noncollapsing singularities over a compact Kähler manifold. The starting point is the type-II scalar-curvature estimate, which gives the natural parabolic scale $r\lesssim T-t$ near the singular time. By combining the distance distortion and space-time cut-off estimates of Bamler–Zhang with entropy, mean-value inequality, and conjugate heat-kernel estimates, we obtain two-sided Gaussian bounds and gradient bounds that are uniform on this scale. Under the global type-I scalar-curvature estimate, the same estimates hold on every scale. We then use these estimates and the monotonicity of the $W_1$-distance between conjugate heat flows to construct a canonical singular-time pseudo-distance. The distances $d_t$ (induced by $\omega (t)$) converge uniformly to this pseudo-distance. Its metric quotient is the unique Gromov–Hausdorff limit. Finally, we apply Bamler's theory and the recent work of Hallgren–Zhang to obtain the following. Every fixed-base-point type-I blow-up admits a subsequential metric-flow limit whose time slices are singular shrinking Kähler–Ricci soliton spaces with normal complex-analytic and log-terminal structure, unique tangent cones, and a polarized Fano fibration. For moving base points, the limiting metric flow, equipped with its limiting conjugate heat flow, is a metric soliton precisely under an entropy-pinching condition.

We prove the generic existence of mean curvature flows in spaces with rough weights. Our weak solutions are both unit-density Brakke flows and distributional solutions. Such a generic statement is optimal in the sense that we consider weights that are too rough to have well-defined traces on every hypersurface.

In this short note, using OpenAI's resolution of the Solomon–Yau conjecture, we extend our joint work with Pedro Gaspar to all dimensions $n\ge 2$. We construct eternal Allen–Cahn flows on $S^{n+1}$ connecting approximations of any prescribed least-area Clifford hypersurface and equatorial sphere. We also construct infinitely many eternal integral Brakke flows from least-area Clifford hypersurfaces to equatorial spheres.

We prove stability of geodesic spheres under volume-preserving mean curvature flow in the simply connected space forms under genuinely first-order geometric assumptions. The initial hypersurface is required to lie in a sufficiently thin annulus around a geodesic sphere and to have outward normal making a small angle with the radial direction. No convexity, mean convexity, initial curvature bound, or Hölder control of the normal is assumed. The main ingredient is a quantitative Alexandrov reflection argument that converts these initial assumptions into a strong reflection property preserved by the flow. The resulting radial and angular control allows us to derive estimates for the mean curvature and the full second fundamental form, and hence long-time existence, eventual convexity, and smooth exponential convergence to a geodesic sphere. In hyperbolic space, the eventual convexity can be strengthened to horospherical convexity. The reflection threshold also yields a quantitative estimate for the displacement of the limiting centre. For Lipschitz initial hypersurfaces, we develop a separate positive-time curvature estimate that is uniform along smooth approximations. This produces an instantaneously smooth evolution with the same eventual convexity and smooth exponential convergence.

The horizontal mean curvature flow is a geometric evolution associated with the horizontal perimeter in sub-Riemannian spaces. In this paper, we introduce a minimizing movement scheme for this flow in the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$, and prove the existence of a flat flow which is locally $1/2$-Hölder continuous in time, with respect to the $L^1$-distance. The construction applies to arbitrary bounded sets of finite horizontal perimeter and does not require smoothness or symmetry of the initial datum.

We fix a spacelike two-dimensional left-invariant distribution and its associated almost contact structure on a three-dimensional Lorentzian Lie group, and investigate the star-Ricci contraction of the curvature of the Bott connection. We compute the complete tensor for seven standard bracket families and determine all real parameter solutions of the general algebraic equation and its self-adjoint subclass. Using the symmetric part of the tensor, we also define a Bott affine star-Ricci soliton equation and classify all left-invariant vector field solutions. Every affine solution is steady, while two non-unimodular families admit branches with a nonzero symmetrized tensor. The proofs provide complete component equations, treat all degenerate parameter branches, and establish sufficiency by explicit substitution. We also distinguish almost contact structures from contact metric structures.

We study the $\alpha$-Ricci flow $(g(t),\alpha (t))$, which is a Ricci flow coupled with a harmonic 1-form heat flow, on the 2-torus $M$. We prove global existence for this flow as well as a Type III curvature estimate. The long-time behavior of the $\alpha$-Ricci flow depends on the cohomology class $[\alpha ]\in H^1(M,\mathbb{R})$, which is invariant under the flow. If $[\alpha ]$ is rational, then as $t\to \infty$, $(M,t^{-1}g(t))$ Gromov–Hausdorff converges to $S^1$ with length $\ell ([\alpha ])/\sqrt{2}$ where $\ell ([\alpha ])$ is the primitive length of $[\alpha ]$. On the universal cover, the rescaled flow $(s^{-1}\tilde{g}(st),\tilde{\alpha }(st))$ smoothly converges to an expander $(g^{\ast }(t),{\alpha }^{\ast }(t))$ on ${\mathbb{R}}^2$ as $s\to \infty$ where ${\alpha }^{\ast }(t)$ is nonzero and constant in spacetime and $g^{\ast }(t)$ is flat and expanding in the ${\alpha }^{\ast }$ direction. If $[\alpha ]$ is irrational, then there is a sequence $s_i\to \infty$ such that $(M,s_i^{-1}g(s_{i}t))$ Gromov–Hausdorff converges to a point. Moreover, on the universal cover, $(s_i^{-1}\tilde{g}(s_{i}t),\tilde{\alpha }(s_{i}t))$ smoothly converges to $(g^{\ast }(t),{\alpha }^{\ast }(t))$.

We establish the Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality and its modified version for arbitrary, possibly nonsmooth, horospherically convex bodies in hyperbolic space ${\mathbb{H}}^{n+1},n\ge 2$, and prove that equality in each inequality holds if and only if the h-convex body is a geodesic ball. A key ingredient is a rigidity theorem characterizing geodesic balls via proportionality between modified support measures of adjacent orders. Its proof combines the $C^{1,\alpha }\cap W^{2,k+1}$ approximation of the outer parallel hypersurfaces by smooth strictly h-convex hypersurfaces with the estimates for the total variation norm of the signed measure associated with the proportionality relation along the shifted curvature flows independent of initial curvature bounds. For $0\le k\le n-1$, we construct weak flows preserving the $k$-th modified quermassintegral ${\tilde{W}}_k$ with arbitrary h-convex initial bodies as Hausdorff limits of the smooth flows. The rigidity theorem above characterizes the limit shape of the flow and gives a positive lower bound on the rate of decrease of ${\tilde{W}}_{k+1}$ for a short time whenever the initial h-convex body is not a geodesic ball, which characterizes the equality cases in the modified Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality. For the Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality, we establish the Hausdorff stability independent of curvature bounds described by the Alexandrov-Fenchel deficits for h-convex bodies, which characterizes the equality cases in the Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality.

In this paper, we introduce a concept of modified curvature measures for h-convex domains in hyperbolic space and prove a shifted version of the generalized Alexandrov theorem, which characterizes geodesic balls in hyperbolic space via modified curvature measures. This result generalizes the classical work of Kohlmann (1998). We further investigate a volume-preserving shifted $\alpha$-Gauss curvature flow for strictly h-convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space and prove that for any $\alpha >0$ the solution exists for all time and converges smoothly to a geodesic sphere. The theory of modified curvature measures developed in the first part serves as a key ingredient in characterizing the Hausdorff limit shape of the flow.

In this paper, we prove a uniform pseudolocality theorem for smooth complete Ricci flows whose initial metrics have Ricci curvature bounded below and uniformly positive injectivity radius. No a priori curvature bound is assumed on the flow. As a consequence, we obtain strong uniqueness for smooth complete Ricci flows from a complete metric with the above geometric bounds. We also prove that every smooth complete Ricci flow from a complete Ricci-flat metric with uniformly positive injectivity radius is stationary. The same conclusion holds for any complete flat initial metric. In particular, we give an affirmative answer to Chen's question on the strong uniqueness of Ricci flow from Euclidean space in every dimension.

We prove that every tangent flow at the first singular time of a smooth, closed, embedded mean curvature flow has smooth support, provided that the total curvature satisfies ${\sup }_{t\in [0,T)}{\int }_{M_t}|A{|}^{n}d{\mu }_t<\infty$. This extends Ilmanen's smoothness result for tangent flows to higher dimensions.

We prove two constant rank theorems for the Ricci tensor in two geometric settings: manifolds with harmonic curvature and gradient Ricci solitons. In both cases, if the $k$-intermediate Ricci curvature satisfies ${\text{Ric}}_k\ge 0$ for some $1\le k\le n-2$, then the Ricci tensor has constant rank and its nullity distribution is parallel. In the complete case, the universal cover splits isometrically along the Ricci-null directions. We also show that the range $1\le k\le n-2$ is sharp: in every dimension $n\ge 4$, nonnegative Ricci curvature alone does not imply the constant rank property in either setting.

Let compact $\mathrm{RCD}(\kappa ,N)$ spaces converge in the measured Gromov–Hausdorff sense, and suppose that they have $(\delta ,\rho )$-Reifenberg local covers for one fixed $\rho >0$, with $|\kappa |{\rho }^2\le 1$ and $\delta$ small. We prove that, along a subsequence, the spaces are singular fibrations over the limit: their canonical frame spaces converge to a topological manifold with a locally linear action of $O(n)$ whose quotient is the limit; for large indices the frame spaces fibre over this manifold, by maps that commute with $O(n)$, with fibres homeomorphic to nilmanifolds; and the induced maps to the limit are, near every point, quotients of products by the isotropy group, with fibres homeomorphic to infranilmanifolds. As applications, we extend a fibration theorem of Honda and Zhang to non-smooth RCD spaces whose local covers have injectivity radius bounded below, and we show that for aspherical spaces the isotropy groups are finite, the fibre groups inject into the fundamental groups, and the limit is the quotient of a contractible manifold by a proper cocompact action; under Rong's condition $A_s$ it is a closed aspherical manifold. Three appendices treat smooth manifolds with $\mathrm{Ric}\ge -(n-1)$ and small local rewinding Reifenberg error: a uniform short-time Ricci flow with $|\mathrm{Rm}|\le \alpha /t$, also for complete non-compact data, where it is unique among complete flows with curvature at most $A/t$; a second construction with affine nilmanifold bundles; and, conditional on Nifa's construction, examples showing that rewinding volume control alone does not give continuous Gromov–Hausdorff approximations with small error.

In this note, we prove that on a compact Hermitian manifold with negative Gauduchon degree, the Chern-Yamabe flow introduced in our recent work [13] converges to the solution of prescribed Chern scalar curvature problem, provided that the candidate curvature function is nonpositive and not identically zero.

For $1\le r\le n-1$ we study shrinking self-similar ends of the $r$-mean curvature flow, $S_r=c⟨X,N⟩$ with $c<0$, that are asymptotic to a cone. For every rotational cone of positive slope we construct a smooth embedded rotational end and prove that its profile is the only positive solution of the profile equation with the prescribed slope at infinity. Its angular defect $x{u}^{\prime }-u$ is strictly negative, which yields $r$-admissibility, and the profile has a complete asymptotic expansion for $u(x)/x$ in powers of $x^{-(r+1)}$, valid after arbitrary differentiation. The profiles depend real analytically on the slope and, on sufficiently distant exterior regions, foliate the image of the corresponding family. Our main result removes the symmetry assumption: two ends that converge smoothly, with multiplicity one, to the same circular cone coincide outside a compact set. The proof transforms the equation for their difference into an almost-eigenfunction inequality for a drift Laplacian on an auxiliary conical metric and applies Bernstein's asymptotic analysis on weakly conical ends. The argument extends to strictly $r$-admissible cones whose links have constant principal curvatures.

We formalize the Hamilton–Perelman Ricci-flow proof of Thurston's geometrization conjecture. The public Lean declaration is reproduced in this paper. Its geometric interpretation follows, and verification is recorded in 4.

We give direct proofs of rigidity results for gradient Ricci solitons, compact quasi-Einstein manifolds with boundary, and critical spaces with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor. For solitons and quasi-Einstein manifolds, successive traces of first-order pointwise identities yield quadratic equations for the Ricci tensor and its modification. These equations imply radial flatness and radial $Q$-flatness, respectively, and the corresponding global rigidity theorems apply. For critical spaces, comparison of two expressions for the Laplacian of the Hessian gives a pointwise tensor identity whose scalar contraction yields a weighted divergence formula. Integration then gives the vacuum static, CPE, and Miao–Tam conclusions. The same comparison also proves Ricci parallelism pointwise for solitons and quasi-Einstein manifolds.

We construct compact, embedded solutions to the mean curvature flow in ${\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}$ that arise from various non-compact initial data and exist for a finite time.

We show that for a generic compact initial surface in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, and any generic compact initial mean convex hypersurface in higher dimensions, the mean curvature flow encounters only finitely many singularities. This resolves the full generic Morse regularity conjectures of Ilmanen and Colding-Minicozzi-Pedersen in the above two cases. More generally, we show that if a mean curvature flow of a compact hypersurface has only multiplicity one spherical and cylindrical singularities, then after a small perturbation of the initial condition only non-degenerate cylindrical and spherical singularities appear.

Let $(M^{2m},g,f,J)$ be a complete nonsteady gradient Kähler-Ricci soliton satisfying $\mathrm{Ric}+{\nabla }^{2}f=\lambda g$, $\lambda \ne 0$. We prove that constant scalar curvature forces the soliton to be rigid. More precisely, the universal cover splits holomorphically and isometrically as $N^{2k}\times {\mathbb{C}}^{m-k}$, where $N^{2k}$ is Kähler-Einstein with ${\mathrm{Ric}}_{g_N}=\lambda g_N$. In the shrinking case the quotient is trivial; in the normalization $\lambda =1/2$ one has $R\equiv k$. The Kähler result rests on a Riemannian rigidity criterion. On a complete nonsteady gradient Ricci soliton, if ${\mathcal{L}}_{\nabla f}\mathrm{Ric}$ is nonnegative or nonpositive everywhere, then it vanishes and the soliton is rigid; no assumption on the scalar curvature is needed. Along the Ricci flow generated by the soliton, this means that a Ricci tensor that is monotone in time is constant in time, and that this forces rigidity. We also give a direct proof that the pinching $0\le \mathrm{Ric}\le \lambda g$ forces constant scalar curvature and radial flatness, yielding the rigidity conclusion through the Petersen-Wylie characterization. The proof combines a weighted cutoff argument with a partial Codazzi symmetry for the Ricci endomorphism.

We study Killing vector fields, Ricci solitons and hyperbolic Ricci solitons on the hyperbolic strip $S_a=\{(x,y)\in {\mathbb{R}}^2:0<y<a\}$ endowed with the metric $g_{S_a}=\frac{{\pi }^2}{a^2{\sin }^2(\pi y/a)}(d{x}^2+d{y}^2)$, and on its unit tangent bundle $T^1{S}_a$ endowed with the Sasaki metric $g^S$. On the strip, we show that the Gauss curvature is constant equal to $-1$, that the Lie algebra of Killing fields is isomorphic to $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{R})$, that every Ricci soliton is trivial (Killing potential, $\lambda =-1$), and that a $2$-Killing field which is conformal, or which is the potential of a hyperbolic Ricci soliton with $\lambda \ne 0$, is a Killing field. On the unit tangent bundle, we prove that the Lie algebra of Killing fields of $(T^1{S}_a,g^S)$ is four-dimensional and isomorphic to $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{R})\oplus \mathbb{R}$, that $g^S$ is not Einstein but is $\eta$-Einstein with constant coefficients, ${\mathrm{Ric}}^S=-\frac{3}{2}{g}^S+2\eta \otimes \eta$, and that $(T^1{S}_a,g^S)$ admits no Ricci soliton. For hyperbolic Ricci solitons we prove non-existence for Killing, left-invariant, and $\theta$-invariant potentials with conformal projection, and we reduce the general $\theta$-invariant case to a system of equations on the strip; the classification for an arbitrary potential is left open. Finally, we show that the $\eta$-Ricci solitons of $g^S$ have a Killing potential and $\lambda =\frac{3}{2}$, $\mu =-2$, and that the $\eta$-hyperbolic Ricci solitons obtained in the same classes of potentials are the trivial ones, with a Killing potential, $\mu =-\frac{3}{2}$ and $\nu =2$.

We study gradient Ricci solitons whose potential functions have level hypersurfaces with parallel second fundamental form. We show that such a soliton is locally a multiply warped product of a one-dimensional base and Einstein fibers, with potential function depending only on the base. Thus, locally, this condition characterizes the multiply warped structure that occurs in many classical constructions of Ricci solitons. We further prove that the same local structure follows for any gradient Ricci soliton if just one regular level hypersurface has parallel second fundamental form and parallel intrinsic Ricci tensor. As an application, we prove that a complete nonsteady gradient Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature is rigid as soon as one regular level hypersurface has this property. In particular, the conjecture of Cao holds for gradient shrinking Ricci solitons with this property. We also prove that a complete gradient shrinking Ricci soliton whose regular level hypersurfaces have parallel second fundamental form and at most one nonzero principal curvature is rigid, without any assumption on the scalar curvature.

In this paper, we establish a sharp dynamical isoperimetric principle for weak mean curvature flow. We prove that, among weak mean curvature flows with fixed area of initial smooth closed hypersurfaces, the standard smoothly shrinking spherical mean curvature flow uniquely maximizes the extinction time. More precisely, for the level set flow $K_t$ starting from the boundary of a smooth bounded domain $\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}$, as well as for the integral Brakke flow $\{{\mu }_t\}$ with initial Radon measure ${\mu }_0={\mathcal{H}}^n└\partial \Omega$, we establish the corresponding optimal extinction time estimates \beginequation* T_{\rm ext}(Ω),\, T^B_{\rm ext}(Ω) \leq \frac12n \left(\fracP( Ω){|{\mathbbS^n}|}\right)^{\frac2n}, \endequation* where $P(\Omega )$ is the perimeter of $\Omega$ representing the area of $\partial \Omega$, and the equality holds if and only if $\Omega$ is a round ball and the flow is the standard multiplicity-one smoothly self-shrinking round sphere. In particular, we obtain the sharp $L^p$-estimates for the arrival time function of a smooth bounded mean convex domain. In addition, we also establish the sharp isoperimetric inequality for the parabolic measure of the space-time track filling $X$ of outward minimizing level set flow starting from the boundary of a smooth bounded domain $\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}$: \beginequation* \mathcal H_par^n+2(X) \leq \fracπ {2n(n+2)^2|{\mathbbS^n}|^{{\frac2n}}} P(Ω)^{\fracn+2n}, \endequation* where the equality holds if and only if $\Omega$ is a round ball and the flow is standard smoothly shrinking round sphere.

We provide an alternative and independent proof of the analogue of the Gage-Hamilton-Grayson Theorem for embedded free boundary curve shortening flows in a convex planar domain established by Langford-Zhu. Our proof is based on blowup arguments introduced by B. White in his work on mean-convex mean curvature flow.

We construct an example of a smooth embedding of ${\mathbb{S}}^{p+q-1}$ in ${\mathbb{R}}^{p+q}$ whose evolution under the mean curvature flow forms an isolated singularity at one point, after which it is a smoothly embedded copy of ${\mathbb{S}}^{p-1}\times {\mathbb{S}}^q$. In doing so, we prove some general results about $SO(p)\times SO(q)$-invariant mean curvature flow whose initial data is generated by the rotation of a graphical profile curve, including an analysis of bubblesheet singularities. The most involved part of our analysis is an instant smoothness result, which requires a delicate approximation and pseudolocality.

We study a positive radial graph evolving by $V=H^{\alpha }+b$, with $\alpha >0$ and $b<0$, in the unit cylinder and with $u_r(1,t)=u(1,t)$. We separate finite-time continuation estimates from the time-uniform interior estimates needed for convergence of normalized translates. On existing classical intervals we prove height and gradient bounds and an explicit conversion of velocity bounds into estimates for $H$, $u_r/r$, and $u_{rr}$. We derive the correct boundary defect for comparisons with finite-slope translators. Under independent interior velocity bounds and two-sided slope trapping, we prove compactness and identify every translated limit with the cup translator. We identify the radial zero-number comparison still required to establish that trapping. Stationary caps and power-law Robin laws are included.

We study the graphical forced mean curvature flow in a planar strip subject to Robin boundary conditions. The normal velocity is prescribed by $V=H+b$, where $b>0$ is constant and $H$ denotes the curvature of the graph. We consider positive even solutions and reduce the problem to the half interval. The main results describe the degeneration produced by the Robin condition: the height, the instantaneous velocity, and the spatial gradient diverge, while the normalized slope $u_x/u$ converges to one away from the symmetry axis. The normalized velocity $u_t/u$ converges to the forcing parameter $b$. The curvature converges to zero in the interior in an integral sense, whereas its horizontal curvature measure concentrates at the symmetry axis.

In this paper, we study strong uniqueness for smooth instantaneously complete Chern-Ricci flows on noncompact complex manifolds. Under suitable reference metric and positivity assumptions, we establish strong uniqueness for initial Hermitian metrics which are Kähler outside a compact set. The initial metric may be incomplete, and no curvature, metric comparison, or growth bounds are imposed on the evolving solutions. In particular, we obtain strong uniqueness from complete initial metrics in this class with bounded Chern-Ricci curvature. We also prove stationarity of flows from the Euclidean metric on ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ and uniqueness of the instantaneously complete flow from the Euclidean metric on the complex unit ball for all positive time. Finally, on complex surfaces, we show that a Ricci flow remaining Hermitian for a fixed complex structure is Kähler at all times if it is Kähler at one time, and derive a corresponding strong uniqueness result for Ricci flows in this class.

We study the HKT geometry of compact locally conformally hyperkähler manifolds. We prove that on these manifolds the quaternionic Monge-Ampère equation is always solvable, extending results of Alesker and of Dinew-Sroka, and we confirm the conjecture on the maximal existence time of the HKT-Ricci flow. On quaternionic Hopf surfaces we construct non-trivial HKT solitons and prove convergence of the normalized flow for symmetric initial data.

We establish a scale-invariant spatial non-collapse estimate for hypersurface-orthogonal timelike geodesic congruences. The result extends a previous Raychaudhuri-based construction in which a comparison estimate for the expansion was used to control the volume of domains transported along the congruence. The additional ingredient here is a quantitative estimate of the spatial distance distortion induced by the expansion and shear. Assuming that the initial spatial geometry is non-collapsed up to a scale $r_0$, and that the expansion, shear, and timelike Ricci curvature satisfy suitable uniform bounds, we obtain, before the first blow-up time of the Raychaudhuri comparison solution, \beginequation* \operatornameVol_h_τ\bigl(B_h_τ(p_τ,r)\bigr) \geq κ_L(τ)\, r^3, \endequation* where \beginequation* κ_L(τ) = κ_0 e^-3Kτ \exp\!\left(\int_0^τΘ(s)\,ds\right), \qquad K = \fracΘ_03 + Σ_0 . \endequation* Here $\Theta$ denotes the solution of the scalar Raychaudhuri comparison equation and $K$ controls the spatial metric distortion. For every finite time strictly before the comparison barrier, ${\kappa }_{\mathrm{L}}(\tau )$ is positive. When the comparison solution has a finite blow-up time, the explicit comparison coefficient approaches zero as that time is approached from below. The comparison barrier is a boundary of the estimate and is not, by itself, a statement that the physical congruence develops a focal point or spacetime singularity. The result is structurally analogous to scale-invariant non-collapse estimates in geometric flow, but is mathematically distinct from Perelman's $\kappa$-noncollapsing theorem for Ricci flow.

In this paper, we study Ricci flows with uniformly bounded scalar curvature. On such Ricci flows we establish uniform $L^2$ Riemannian curvature bounds and $L^4$ Ricci curvature bounds up to dimension 7. These estimates improves $L^{2-\epsilon }$ curvature bounds established by Bamler and $L^2$ curvature bounds in dimension 4 established by Bamler and Zhang. More generally, we establish uniform $L^2$ curvature bounds on $n$-manifolds satisfying an integral $L^p$ Ricci curvature bound for $p>n/2$, a uniform volume lower bound, and a strong $\epsilon$-regularity assumption. This result extends the celebrated $L^2$ curvature estimates of Jiang and Naber, which were established under pointwise two-sided Ricci curvature bounds. To overcome the lack of pointwise control, we develop an $L^p$ adaptation of the neck decomposition theorem and establish a superconvexity estimate for the curvature on neck regions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our structural assumptions are dynamically natural on Ricci flows with bounded scalar curvature. As an application, by combining our estimate with the a priori $L^{4-\epsilon }$ curvature radius bound of Ricci flow established by Bamler, we obtain uniform $L^2$ curvature bounds on Ricci flows with bounded scalar curvature of dimension $n\le 7$.

We prove harmonicity for nonshrinking algebraic generalized Ricci solitons and for all algebraic generalized Ricci solitons on solvable Lie algebras. In the solvable setting, we characterize expanding solitons by normal extensions of generalized nilsolitons, and derive a sharp rank bound.

We study regularity of bounded weak solutions to complex Monge-Ampère equations on compact Hermitian manifolds with right-hand side possibly decreasing in the unknown. Our proof relies on the domination principle and a priori estimates, partially motivated by the Monge-Ampère eigenvalue problem. Our main result roughly says that any bounded solution is smooth in the regular locus of the data. When the right-hand side is strictly positive and smooth, we recover known results by Nie, Ko lodziej-Nguyen for the Hermitian case and Székelyhidi-Tosatti for the Kähler case, which rely on the regularizing property of the Kähler-Ricci flow.

Sasakian manifolds, a subclass of contact metric manifolds, play a central role in modern differential geometry and mathematical physics, where they arise naturally in geometric mechanics, CR geometry, and supersymmetric field theories. The weak contact metric (w.c.m.) structure generalizes the contact metric structure and provides a broader framework for studying contact geometry and its applications. A fundamental problem is to understand how curvature conditions constrain the underlying contact metric structure and, in particular, how they distinguish Sasakian geometry from its weaker variants. Using the partial Ricci flow, we characterize Sasakian structure (among w.c.m. manifolds) under the $(\kappa ,\mu )$-nullity condition related to curvature. For $\kappa <1$ we find conditions under which a w.c.m. manifold admits a bi-Legendrian structure, and for $\kappa =\mu =0$ establish splitting and classification results.

We study an area-preserving curvature flow for planar open curves whose end points lie on skew lines and meet the lines at general contact angles. In previous studies of moving boundary problems for higher-order geometric gradient flows, the right-angle condition has often been imposed to ensure that the evolving curves naturally satisfy the boundary conditions. However, under general contact-angle conditions, the evolution must be described by a free boundary problem. Under suitable assumptions on the contact angles ${\theta }_{\pm }$, the angle $\theta$ between the skew lines, and the initial data ${\gamma }_0$, we prove global-in-time existence and uniqueness up to reparametrization. We further prove that, after choosing a constant-speed parametrization at each time, the solution converges exponentially to a circular arc with the same signed area as the initial curve. Our analysis is based on a formulation of the evolution as a free boundary problem together with the derivation of uniform a priori estimates.

We prove a uniform scalar curvature bound, depending only on the dimension, for Kähler–Ricci shrinkers. We also prove that every noncompact Kähler–Ricci shrinker has a unique tangent cone at infinity, naturally homeomorphic to the base of its polarized Fano fibration. For shrinkers with maximal volume growth, this cone is isometric to the metric completion of the regular part equipped with the intrinsic distance induced by the limiting Kähler metric.

We prove that the Calabi flow extends past any finite time on compact Kähler surfaces if its Sobolev constants remain uniformly bounded. Moreover, we show the long-time existence of Calabi flow in certain Kähler classes on compact Kähler surfaces when the initial Calabi energy is strictly below an explicit threshold.

We study tangent flows of noncollapsed Ricci flow limit spaces in the sense of Fang-Li. We prove that the regular part of every negative time slice is geodesically convex: any minimizing geodesic that meets the regular part has its entire interior contained in it. We also identify each negative time slice with the metric completion of its regular Riemannian part, thereby identifying the negative-time tangent flow with its associated metric soliton.

We first define an extended Mabuchi functional for a class of generalized Kähler metrics of symplectic type on a toric Fano manifold $(M,J,\mathbb{T})$, and prove it is proper. Then by showing the monotonicity of functional along the normalized generalized Kähler-Ricci flow for any initial $\mathbb{T}$-invariant generalized Kähler metric with its symplectic form in $2\pi c_1(M,J)$, we prove that the flow converges to a Kähler-Ricci soliton. The result confirms a conjecture of Apostolov-Streets-Ustinovskiy.

Let $V$ be an oriented Euclidean vector space and let $\text{D}(V)=\Lambda V^{\ast }\otimes \Lambda V^{\ast }$ be the algebra of double forms. The two exterior factors carry natural factorwise exterior and interior multiplication operators and therefore two commuting Clifford actions. The central result of the paper is an intrinsic realization of these Clifford actions inside Greub's composition algebra. For $a\in V^{\ast }$ we introduce the inhomogeneous double form $${\chi }_a=((1\otimes a)-(a\otimes 1))e^g,$$ prove that the ${\chi }_a$ satisfy the Clifford relations for the composition product, and establish the exact regular-action formulas $$C_R(a)\omega ={\chi }_a\circ \omega ,C_L(a)\omega =-\omega \circ {\chi }_a.$$ For $h\in {\text{D}}^{1,1}$ this yields a canonical four-component decomposition of the coupled left–right Clifford action into exterior multiplication, double contraction and two generalized Bianchi operators. For the metric double form $g$ these four operators generate two commuting ${\mathfrak{sl}}_2$ actions. The construction extends canonically to arbitrary bidegree. In bidegree $(2,2)$ its degree-preserving component admits a direct comparison with the double-form extension of the sharp product: for every $R\in {\text{D}}^{2,2}$, $${\Gamma }_{1,1}(R)(\omega )=\frac{1}{4}R\#\omega .$$ The point of this identity is not a new definition of $R\#$, which is already constructed from Clifford commutators, but the fact that it appears canonically as the central homogeneous component of the higher left–right Clifford transform. As an application, the algebraic quadratic map $\mathcal{Q}(R)=-\frac{1}{4}R\#R$ satisfies $$\mathcal{Q}(R)=-{\Gamma }_{1,1}(R)R,$$ and its linearization at $R$ is the operator $-2{\Gamma }_{1,1}(R)$. For curvature tensors this is the sharp contribution to the Ricci-flow reaction term.

For noncompact smooth Kähler-Ricci shrinkers, we prove a Matsushima theorem identifying the centralizer of the soliton field with the complexification of its Killing centralizer, uniqueness up to biholomorphism on a fixed complex manifold, and K-polystability of the associated polarized Fano fibration.

We consider the problem of uniqueness of Ricci flows, starting from singular initial data. Even when the initial data is smooth and smoothly obtained, in the complete noncompact case uniqueness is not known in full generality. When starting from nonsmooth initial data, very little is known, even in the compact case. We obtain a uniqueness result for Ricci flows with scaling-invariant curvature bounds, a suitable noncollapsing assumption, and sectional curvature lower bounds, coming out of (possibly singular) Reifenberg spaces. As a consequence of our result, and existence results obtained by Simon–Topping and Lai, there is a canonical way to define a smooth structure on any Reifenberg uniformly volume-noncollapsed PIC2 limit space. Further, we obtain a diffeomorphic version of Perelman's stability theorem for these limit spaces.

Let $G$ be a compact connected semisimple Lie group, let $Q$ be a bi-invariant metric and let $\rho$ be its Cartan three-form. We prove that every left-invariant generalized Ricci flow with $[H_0]=[\rho ]$ exists for all positive time and converges smoothly to a Bismut-Ricci-flat pair without rescaling or pullback. The standard pair uniquely maximizes generalized scalar curvature in its torsion class, and every left-invariant Bismut-Ricci-flat pair on a compact simple group is standard, answering questions of Fusi, Lafuente and Stanfield and of Lauret and Will. On the product of two copies of a compact simple group, nonstandard stationary pairs in the Cartan class are known; we construct nonstationary flows with the exact initial form $[H_0]=[\rho ]$ and nonstandard limits, disproving the general semisimple case of the convergence conjecture of Garcia-Fernandez and Streets. The proofs use a proper nonincreasing energy and a decomposition of Killing fields that parametrizes the stationary pairs by nilpotent Lie algebra endomorphisms.

We study almost Hermitian manifolds whose lowered Nijenhuis tensor is totally skew-symmetric and whose characteristic (Bismut) torsion is closed, the almost-SKT condition. This extends the SKT (pluriclosed) condition beyond the integrable setting. For a fixed almost complex structure, these constraints are linear in the metric. We introduce an overdetermined ellipticity condition which, on compact manifolds, makes the admissible infinitesimal deformation space finite-dimensional and yields short-time existence for a constrained Bismut–Ricci flow. In real dimension six, almost-SKT structures satisfy a dichotomy: either the almost complex structure is integrable, or the skew Nijenhuis tensor is nowhere vanishing with constant norm and the Bismut Ricci form vanishes. Hence, on compact non-integrable almost-SKT six-manifolds, the constrained Bismut–Ricci flow is stationary. In dimension eight, ellipticity always fails, while in higher dimensions Nijenhuis rigidity holds on an open dense locus. In arbitrary dimension, we characterize when total skew-symmetry of the lowered Nijenhuis tensor determines the compatible metric pointwise up to scale. On compact manifolds, with closed torsion, this implies uniqueness of the almost-SKT metric up to scaling; the constrained Bismut–Ricci flow is then an explicit homothetic solution. We also relate this flow to generalized Ricci flow and characterize the infinitesimal obstruction to lifting the evolution when the almost complex structure varies. Finally, we construct non-integrable almost-SKT structures with nowhere vanishing Nijenhuis tensor and non-flat characteristic connection on compact six-manifolds, including $S^1\times S^2\times S^3$ and $S^3\times S^3$. In these families, the metric is fixed and the compatible almost complex structures form an $S^2$-family. These structures have vanishing Bismut Ricci form and are therefore almost-CYT.

We extend the classification of manifolds with positive isotropic curvature to all dimensions $n\ge 5$. This result also completes the classification of uniformly positive isotropic curvature on complete non-compact $\kappa$-noncollapsed ancient solutions and gradient shrinking Ricci solitons. The proof involves a construction of pinching cones in all dimensions, refining and extending to all dimensions the results of the first author. We have used MATHEMATICA to find viable parameters for the cone families. The final presentation is self-contained and can be verified manually. No stage of this work involved LLMs.

We establish the uniqueness of the soliton vector field of a complete shrinking gradient Kähler-Ricci soliton up to pushforward by biholomorphism.

We study complete translating solitons for the mean curvature flow in arbitrary codimension under quadratic pinching of the second fundamental form. We prove a codimension reduction theorem at the Andrews-Baker threshold: if a complete $n$-dimensional connected translator isometrically immersed in $({\mathbb{R}}^{n+p},⟨\cdot ,\cdot ⟩)$ satisfies $$|B{|}^2\le \left(\frac{4}{3n}-{\epsilon }_0\right)|H{|}^2$$ for some ${\epsilon }_0>0$, then either it is an affine $n$-plane or $|H|>0$ everywhere and the translator is contained in an $(n+1)$-dimensional affine subspace. In particular, this improves in low dimensions the pinching range previously obtained from codimension reduction results for ancient mean curvature flows. Our proof is purely elliptic: viewing translators as weighted minimal submanifolds, we combine Simons-type identities for the drift Laplacian with refined gradient estimates and an Omori-Yau maximum principle. As a consequence, under the stronger pinching condition $$|B{|}^2\le (c_n-{\epsilon }_0)|H{|}^2,c_n=\min \left\{\frac{4}{3n},\frac{1}{n-2}\right\}$$ for $n\ge 3$, with $c_n=2/3$ when $n=2$, we obtain a rigidity theorem: the translator is either an affine plane or a bowl soliton contained in an $(n+1)$-dimensional affine subspace. No entropy assumption is required.

We establish a Type I curvature bound for finite-time volume-collapsing Kähler–Ricci flows on compact Kähler surfaces. No symmetry assumption is imposed, and the initial Kähler class need not be rational. The proof combines local symplectic topology with the classification of gradient Kähler–Ricci shrinking solitons. Bamler's compactness and structure theory provides the shrinking limits used in the argument.

We prove new structural results for algebraic generalized Ricci solitons on solvable Lie algebras and we discuss the existence of examples in low dimensions. We establish that all non-trivial solvable algebraic generalized Ricci solitons must be expanding and give necessary conditions for the existence of such solitons on one-dimensional extensions of abelian Lie algebras. Finally, we classify algebraic generalized Ricci solitons on three-dimensional Lie algebras, and algebraic generalized Ricci solitons on four-dimensional solvable unimodular Lie algebras, up to isometry and scaling.

We prove a uniform $L^{\infty }$-estimate for the parabolic Monge–Ampère equation under uniform Hörmander-Tian type estimates with respect to the initial and prescribed measures. We apply this estimate to rescaled Kähler–Ricci flows on a family of polarized Calabi–Yau manifolds over the punctured disk. An interpolation argument gives uniform Hörmander-Tian type estimates along the flows. We also establish uniform diameter bounds and Gromov–Hausdorff precompactness for this family of flows. In particular, we obtain an alternative proof of the diameter estimate by Li-Tosatti.

The Navier-Stokes/Mean Curvature Flow system describes a two-phase flow of incompressible, viscous and immiscible fluids separated by a sharp interface, whose evolution is governed by a convective mean curvature flow equation, coupled to a two-phase Navier-Stokes equation accounting for surface tension. Among others, this model describes the dynamics of dry foams and it also arises as a sharp interface limit of Navier-Stokes/Allen-Cahn systems with non-vanishing mobility. Despite this wide range of applications, global-in-time existence of any kind of weak solutions remains a challenging open problem. In this work, we introduce a novel notion of varifold weak solution in two and three ambient dimensions, based on a sharp energy dissipation principle à la De Giorgi, and we show for the first time the unconditional global-in-time existence of such a weak solution. We also show, by means of a relative entropy approach, that any classical solution to the Navier-Stokes/Mean Curvature Flow system is unique in the class of our new weak varifold solutions.

We establish the Type I estimate for the scalar curvature of the Kahler-Ricci flow on compact Kahler manifolds, for arbitrary smooth initial metrics, whenever the flow develops finite time singularities. This estimate is a building block for the analytic minimal model program with Ricci flow.

Naff's planarity estimate is a crucial tool for analysing singularities of quadratically pinched mean curvature flows in high codimension, showing that high-curvature regions become asymptotically codimension one. Naff established the estimate throughout the full Andrews–Baker pinching range in dimensions at least $7$, while in dimensions $5$ and $6$ a stronger pinching assumption was required. We close this remaining gap, proving the planarity estimate in dimensions $5$ and $6$ throughout the full Andrews–Baker range. The key new ingredient is a sharp Kato-type inequality relating the twisting of the principal normal to the gradient of the second fundamental form.

We prove Petrunin's smoothing conjecture in all dimensions: every compact Euclidean polyhedral space without boundary and with nonnegative Alexandrov curvature is a Gromov-Hausdorff limit of smooth Riemannian orbifolds with geometrically nonnegative curvature. More strongly, the approximating metrics are positive-time slices of a single orbifold Ricci flow whose metric initial condition is the given polyhedral space. The proof rests on a new short-time existence and regularization theory for Ricci flow that, under two-sided volume bounds and a generalized segment inequality, replaces pointwise lower curvature control by small scale-invariant integral control of the defect from a preserved curvature cone. Although it allows arbitrarily large pointwise violations, this theory yields an existence time and positive-time curvature estimates independent of the initial upper curvature bound. As a further application, it gives rigidity consequences for manifolds with small integral curvature defect.

Let $(M^{2m},g,f,J)$ be a complete gradient Kähler–Ricci shrinker satisfying $$\mathrm{Ric}+{\nabla }^{2}f=\frac{1}{2}g.$$ We prove that if the scalar curvature is constant, then the soliton is rigid. More precisely, there exists an integer $k\in \{0,\dots ,m\}$ such that $$R\equiv k$$ and $$(M^{2m},g,J)\cong (N^{2k}\times {\mathbb{C}}^{m-k},g_N+g_{\mathrm{Euc}},J_N\oplus J_0),$$ where $(N^{2k},g_N,J_N)$ is Kähler–Einstein and $${\mathrm{Ric}}_{g_N}=\frac{1}{2}{g}_N.$$ As part of the proof, we establish a Riemannian rigidity criterion: for a complete nonsteady gradient Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature, the condition ${\mathcal{L}}_{\nabla f}\mathrm{Ric}=0$ implies radial flatness and hence rigidity.