Paper · Apr 3, 2025
Convergence of Ricci flow and long-time existence of Harmonic map heat flow
As on arXiv
Abstract
For an ancient Ricci flow asymptotic to a compact integrable shrinker, or a Ricci flow developing a finite-time singularity modelled on the shrinker, we establish the long-time existence of a harmonic map heat flow between the Ricci flow and the shrinker for all times. This provides a global parabolic gauge for the Ricci flow and implies the uniqueness of the tangent flow without modulo any diffeomorphisms. We present two main applications: First, we construct and classify all ancient Ricci flows asymptotic to any compact integrable shrinker, showing that they converge exponentially. Second, we obtain the optimal convergence rate at singularities modelled on the shrinker, characterized by the first negative eigenvalue of the stability operator for the entropy. In particular, we show that any Ricci flow developing a round singularity converges at least at the rate .
Comments: 52 pages. Comments are welcome!
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Background reading
The guides for the topics of this paper: what each idea is, why it matters, and the papers to read first.
In the guidebook
- 12B.3The Structure of κ-Solutions
Necks and caps, compactness, and universal estimates.
- 12B.2The Asymptotic Soliton and Three-Dimensional Shrinkers
Perelman's Proposition 11.2 proved with Morgan and Tian: the reduced-length bounds on κ-solutions, the limit of rescalings, the equality case, and the classification of shrinking solitons in dimensions two and three.
- 11B.4Blow-Ups, Blow-Downs and Splitting at Infinity
Limits of rescaled manifolds and flows: why blow-up limits are nonnegatively curved, what blow-downs see, and how lines appear at infinity.