Introduced by Richard Hamilton in 1982. Start with a Riemannian metric g0 and let it evolve by
∂t∂g=−2Ric(g),g(0)=g0.
In harmonic coordinates Ricij=−21Δgij+(lower order), so this is a nonlinear heat equation for the metric. Regions of positive curvature contract, negative curvature expands, and the geometry tends to even out.
Ricci flow is invariant under diffeomorphisms, which makes it only weakly parabolic, so standard PDE theory doesn't apply directly. DeTurck adds a Lie-derivative term
∂tg=−2Ric(g)+LWg,Wk=gij(Γijk−Γ~ijk),
which makes the system strictly parabolic. You solve that equation, then pull back by the diffeomorphisms generated by W to get a genuine Ricci flow.
The IIB system is a system of PDEs for an SU(3)–structure and a positive function on a 6-manifold. Its solutions describe conformally balanced pluriclosed Hemitian metrics on complex 3-folds with holomorphically trivial canonical line bundle. In particular, solutions of the IIB system are steady solitons for the generalized Ricci-flow and Bismut–Hermitian–Einstein metrics. In this paper we study cohomogeneity one solutions of the IIB system. We construct 1-parameter families (up to scaling symmetries) of complete non-compact non-Kähler solutions on the smoothing of the conifold with controlled geometry at infinity. The generic member of the family is asymptotically conical with tangent cone at infinity the Calabi–Yau cone metric on the conifold. As a limit of the family we recover an explicit solutions known in the physics literature as the Chamseddine–Volkov/Maldacena–Nuñez solution, which has an exotic asymptotic geometry. We show that there are no complete cohomogeneity one solutions on crepant resolutions of the conifold (or its quotient), but we also establish the existence of an analogous 1-parameter family of forward complete solutions defined on exterior domains of the conifold with prescribed incomplete behaviour along the interior boundary and similar asymptotic behaviour at infinity. As a byproduct of these existence results, we produce infinitely many complete non-compact non-Kähler Bismut–Hermitian–Einstein metrics in complex dimension 3 with full holonomy of the Bismut connection, in contrast to the holonomy reduction forced upon compact examples. We also find infinitely many such complete non-compact full-holonomy non-Kähler examples (with at least two ends) in complex dimension 2 by revisiting a construction due to Callan–Harvey–Strominger in the physics literature.
We study a family of coupled geometric evolution equations describing the deformation of a Riemannian metric and a non-abelian gauge field on closed manifolds, which generalizes the Ricci–Yang–Mills flow. We derive interior curvature estimates, find a preserved integral curvature condition, and discover a scaling invariant monotone functional analogue to Perelman's entropy. In particular, we prove strong dominance of the Riemannian curvature over the gauge curvature at finite-time singularities in all dimensions. We also provide a non-trivial explicit example of a shrinking self-similar solution on a SU(2) bundle over S4.
We prove a Positive Mass Theorem for C0-asymptotically flat Riemannian metrics with nonnegative scalar curvature in a weak sense that are sufficiently uniformly close to Euclidean space. More precisely, we show that a C0-asymptotically flat Riemannian metric that is a C0 perturbation of Euclidean space with nonnegative scalar curvature in the sense of Ricci flow has nonnegative mass, where the mass is given by a C0 analog of the classical ADM mass previously introduced by the author.
The analytic minimal model program proposed in seeks to describe the birational transitions and fibre collapsing of the Kähler–Ricci flow through the geometry of its singularities. A fundamental conjecture of predicts Type I bounds for the scalar curvature and diameter of every fibre contratced by the limiting cohomological class at the finite singular time. This paper is a continuation of that establishes the Type I conjecture for collapsing solutions on Fano bundles with arbitrary smooth Fano fibres. If the fibre admits a smooth Kähler-Einstein metric, the Type I bound holds for the full curvature tensor.
We prove that any finite-timecollapsingKähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler surfaces develops a Type I singularity. Together with the previous results, this implies that any finite time singularity of the Kähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler surfaces is of Type I.
As a metric measure space possessing positive Bakry-Émery curvature, a Ricci shrinker with potential function f admits a heat kernelHf under the weighted volume measure e−fdv. In this paper, we study Hf systematically and establish a series of fundamental estimates. Moreover, we clarify the equivalence between Hf and the spacetime heat kernel H(x,t;y,s) under Ricci flow induced by a Ricci shrinker. Inspired by this relation, we extend corresponding analysis tools of Ricci flows to Ricci shrinker metric measure spaces, such as Nash entropy and reduced distance. As a direct application, we prove that ∣∇R∣=o(f3/2) implies R=o(f).
Let S be a Kato surface and D its maximal reduced divisor of rational curves. On S∖D we construct Hermitian metrics which are flat along the leaves of the canonical foliation and study their evolution under the Chern-Ricci flow. For Enoki surfaces, we construct an immortal normalised solution which, on every compact sublevel of the natural exhaustion, converges in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense to the elliptic base endowed with an explicit flat metric. For Kato surfaces of intermediate type, the affine Green model and its finite-index extension give, under the assumption 0<μ<2, an explicit normalised solution which, on every compact Green block, collapses in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense to a circle. In the Enoki case the limiting area is 2πb2(S); in the intermediate case the length of the limiting circle is determined by the Green and leafwise monodromies.
Charles Cifarelli, Ronan Conlon, Max Hallgren, Junsheng Zhang
For any volume-collapsingfinite-time singularity of a Kähler-Ricci flow on a compact Kähler surface, we show the flow satisfies a Type I curvature bound and classify the corresponding tangent flows. Combined with previous results, this shows that any finite-time singularity of a Kähler-Ricci flow on a compact Kähler surface is of Type I.
We study an adapted Ricci flow of connections with metric torsion on surfaces with positive Euler characteristic. We first prove that there do not exist any nontrivial solitons of the flow on the 2-sphere thus confirming a conjecture of Branding–Kröncke (J. Geom. Anal. 27.3 (2017), arXiv:1606.09121). We give an explicit family of torsion data for which the corresponding global solutions fail to converge on S2. Nevertheless, we provide several sufficient conditions for the convergence of the flow to a stationary point. We first prove that the normalized adapted Ricci flow always converges on RP2, which completely answers a question in the paper of Branding and Kröncke. Using this, we deduce that the flow converges on S2 whenever the initial metric and the torsion one-form are antipodally symmetric. We also prove a Łojasiewicz–Simon gradient inequality for the flow and use it to prove convergence to a stationary point provided the solution is close to an arbitrary stationary point.
Carlos Daniel Velázquez-Mendoza, María de los Ángeles Sandoval-Romero, Romulo Diaz Carlos
This monograph develops an introduction to global analysis centered on the interaction between differential geometry, functional analysis, partial differential equations, and variational methods on Riemannian manifolds. Beginning with smooth and Riemannian geometry, it develops Sobolev spaces, distributions, interpolation and fractional regularity, differential and pseudodifferential operators on vector bundles, elliptic theory, heat methods, bounded geometry, and trace theorems. It then treats Fredholm and index theory, culminating in the Atiyah–Singer index theorem, followed by geometric evolution equations and Ricci flow, infinite-dimensional geometry on Banach and Hilbert manifolds, and variational methods including the direct method, Palais–Smale theory, deformation arguments, the mountain pass theorem, and the Nehari method. Particular emphasis is placed on explicit proofs, the passage from local Euclidean estimates to intrinsic global statements, and the precise geometric hypotheses required in compact, noncompact, and boundary settings. The text is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as readers approaching global analysis from geometry or differential equations.
In this note, we study volume comparison for 3-manifolds with 2-Ricci curvature lower bound. We establish monotonicity and rigidity for geodesic sphere area and ball volume, and derive the pointed Gromov-Hausdorff precompactness under a uniform lower bound on the conjugate radius for 3-manifolds with 2-Ricci curvature lower bound. We also discuss the almost preservation of 2-Ricci curvature lower bound and the local non-collapsing propagation along Ricci flow. Finally, we point out a topological rigidity result on nonnegative scalar curvature.
We prove that the weighted Laplacian, or equivalently its conjugate Schrödinger operator, on every complete gradient Ricci shrinker satisfies the classical Weyl law. The main difficulty is that uniform bounded geometry is not known for general Ricci shrinkers. To overcome this, we establish a large-scale regularity property for complete gradient Ricci shrinkers and apply it to the spectral asymptotics of the weighted Laplacian. We prove that, inside large geodesic balls of radius R, the region where the curvature radius is smaller than R−1 occupies an asymptotically negligible proportion of the volume. The proof uses the Ricci flow associated with the shrinker, together with the curvature-radius estimates and Sobolev inequalities of Li–Wang.
In this paper, we study the Kähler–Ricci flow on CPm-bundles over a product of Kähler–Einstein manifolds, starting from an initial metric with Calabi symmetry. We prove that every finite-time singularity arising along the flow must be of Type I.
We use the Kähler-Ricci flow to give alternate proofs of several known Miyaoka-Yau inequalities and slope semi-stabilities, in particular, for the case of compact Kähler manifolds with semi-ample canonical line bundles and K-semistable Fano manifolds. Moreover, when the canonical line bundle is semi-ample, and the Kodaira dimension is n−1, we prove the Miyaoka-Yau quantity is equal to the intersection of the Weil-Petersson metric and the Fubini-Study metric on the canonical model. Consequently, equality holds in the Miyaoka-Yau inequality if and only if the pluricanonical map is a holomorphic fibre bundle.
For the inverse-weight Lin–Lu–YauRicci flow on a finite tree, we prove that the curvature satisfies an exact heat equation and that every edge curvature converges. The limiting curvature vector is independent of the positive initial metric and is the unique minimum-norm point of the base polyhedron of a submodular function determined by the tree; in particular, it can be recovered by finitely many combinatorial minimizations. We also characterize subsequential limits of the normalized weights and obtain criteria for their convergence. Finally, for any two positive initial metrics, the corresponding unnormalized edgewise ratios converge, and the normalized omega-limit sets are related by a projective homeomorphism.
We study the singularity type and models of the Kähler–Ricci flow on compact manifolds constructed from the 1-parameter foliation of a circle-bundle over a product of Kähler–Einstein manifolds N:=N1×⋯×Nr, with metric constructed using the ansatz considered in, et. al. In the earlier work by the authors, we considered the "two-bolt" case where both ends of the foliation close with the "bolt" N. In this article, we continue our work on the more subtle "nut-bolt" and "two-nut" cases. The former has one end of the interval closes with a nut-type collapse (i.e. N′:=N2×⋯×Nr) and the other with a bolt (i.e. N). The compactification M is then a CPm+1-bundle over N′. The "two-nut" case is one that both ends close with nut-type collapses, necessarily two of the Ni's must be CPm0 and CPmℓ, and the compactification M is a CPm0+mℓ+1-bundle over ∏k≥3Nk. We proved that in all "two-bolt", "nut-bolt" and "two-nut" caess the singularity must be of Type I. Furthermore, we study the pointed Cheeger-Gromov limit of the rescaled and dilated sequence of the flow in all of three cases, and prove that the limit model must be (Σm+1,gΣ(t))×(Ck,flat) with m,k≥0, where Σ is one of the following: CPm+1, Tot(L⊕(m+1)), or a projectivization P(O⊕(m0+1)⊕L⊕(mℓ+1)) with m0+mℓ=m, and L is a line bundle over the product of some of the N1,⋯,Nr factors. The metric gΣ(t) is a Kähler-Ricci shrinker satisfying the circle-bundle ansatz.
We study collapsingfinite-time singularities of the unnormalized Kähler–Ricci flow on Fano bundles arising in the analytic minimal model program. For a Fano bundle Xn→Ym, we prove a maximal splitting theorem by the Kähler-Ricci flow that every tangent space at a fixed limiting point splits globally as (\Cm,gE,J0)×(Z′,d′,J′). If the fibre has complex dimension one, we prove a global Type-I bound for the full curvature tensor and show that the ambient and intrinsic diameters of every fibre are uniformly comparable to T−t. Furthermore, every tangent flow at any fixed limiting point is the round shrinking cylinder \Cm×\PP1.
We prove that any finite timecollapsingKähler Ricci flow on ruled surfaces develops a Type I singularity, such singularity is modeled on the standard product shrinkerP1×C. As an application, we obtain the optimal collapse rate of fibers on ruled surfaces.
Let λ(u,x) be the local Arnold multiplicity of a quasi-plurisubharmonic function u. Di Nezza–Guedj–Lu asked whether every maximal weak solutionφt of the twisted Kähler–Ricci flow satisfies λ(φt,x)=max{λ(φ0,x)−t,0}. We give counterexamples on the Hirzebruch surface Fe=PP1(OP1⊕OP1(−e)), e≥2. Let S be its negative section and F1,…,Fk be distinct fibres. If a,bi>0, ∑ibi>ea, and the initial current is a[S]+∑ibi[Fi], then λ(φt,x)=a−min{k/e,1}t for x∈S∖⋃iFi and 0<t<min{a,b1,…,bk}. Thus the formula fails for k<e; the slower decay is forced by the Zariski negative part of the residual class. Under explicit SNC and positivity hypotheses, we also prove an exact surface formula for pure divisorial data. Consequences include nonlocality with fixed background data and explicit multiplier ideals. Products with smooth factors give counterexamples in every complex dimension n≥2.
We determine the long-time behavior of the canonical Ricci flow on a closed three-manifold of Thurston type R3, Nil, or Sol, starting from an arbitrary initial metric. In the Euclidean case, the metric g(t) converges exponentially fast to a flat metric. The Gromov–Hausdorff limit of (M,t−1g(t)) is a point in the Euclidean and Nil cases, and a metric circle or a compact interval of positive length in the Sol case. In all three cases, the blowdown flows lifted to the universal cover, s−1g(sτ), converge, in the pointed Cheeger–Hamilton sense, to an explicit homogeneous expanding Ricci soliton solution.
We establish the existence and uniqueness modulo time-independent diffeomorphisms of the positively curved ancient Ricci flow (M2,∂M2,g(t)) on a two-dimensional surface with boundary, assuming uniformly bounded diameter and constant positive boundary geodesic curvature. In particular, this ancient Ricci flow is rotationally symmetric, its backward limit is the flat disk, and its forward limit is a half-spherical singularity. To our knowledge, this result is the first instance of a classification result for ancient Ricci flows with boundary.
We construct and prove the transversal invariance of two families of pinching cones for the Hamilton ODE dtdR=Q(R) in dimensions n=7,8, thereby extending the pinching estimate established by Brendle for n≥12 and by Chen for 9≤n≤11. In dimension n=8, two steps in Chen's construction genuinely fail. The first, an estimate for the second cone family, is repaired by retaining a coupling discarded in the dimension-general argument. The second is the gluing of the two cone families, for which Chen's estimate fails at n=8 by a definite margin. We replace it with a new argument that reduces the gluing to a single linear inequality on the cone of weakly PIC curvature operators, and prove this inequality by an explicit finite combination of frame inequalities. In dimension n=7, the two separate cone-invariance results are proved, but the gluing step is not established here. Accordingly, the resulting full pinching estimate and classification statements are restricted to dimension n=8. The n=8 pinching estimate, together with dimension-free arguments of Brendle, yields the topological classification in dimension eight of compact manifolds with positive isotropic curvature that contain no nontrivial incompressible (n−1)-dimensional space forms, extending a theorem of Brendle from n≥12. Together with curvature-improvement and classification results of Cho–Li and Brendle–Naff, it also yields the classification of noncompactκ-noncollapsed ancient solutions to the Ricci flow with uniformly PIC, extending a theorem of Cho–Li from n=4 or n≥12.
We relate the generalized Ricci curvature of left-invariant generalized metrics on a Lie group with the Ricci curvature of certain metric Lie algebras. As an application, we prove subconvergence of rescaled generalized Ricci flows to expanding generalized Ricci solitons on simply connected Lie groups with positive semi-definite Killing form. Under the same hypotheses, subconvergence of pluriclosed flows to expanding pluriclosed solitons is also shown. We further prove that left-invariant Bismut-Ricci flat metrics arise as critical points for the generalized scalar curvature functional on unimodular Lie groups. In view of this, we establish dynamical stability for the generalized Ricci flow of so-called standard bi-invariant, Bismut-flat metrics on compact, simply connected, semisimple Lie groups and construct examples of dynamically unstable Bismut-flat metrics which are non-standard.
We describe a Lean formalization of Hamilton's 1982 theorem on closed, connected three-manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. The development contains a short-time existence theorem for Ricci flow and substantial geometric-analysis infrastructure: Riemannian tensor calculus, the Levi–Civita connection, Ricci-flow evolution equations, scalar and tensor maximum principles, three-dimensional curvature algebra, preservation of Ricci pinching, and Hamilton's improved pinching estimate. The formalization follows an alternative blow-up route, rather than Hamilton's original normalized-flow proof. Its time-uniform short-time existence, maximal continuation, no-local-collapsing, and Cheeger–Gromov–Hamilton compactness pipelines have been formalized and are included in the artifact, while we give only a brief account of these companion developments and record the interfaces and consequences used by the Hamilton argument; a detailed exposition of their full constructions is deferred to the second author's forthcoming thesis. We interweave representative Lean declarations with their mathematical meaning and record the status and provenance of every major component. All source-level status claims are tied to the source release identified below.
In this paper, we prove a gap theorem for F-limit metric solitons with respect to the asymptotic volume ratio (AVR): if the AVR of a metric soliton is sufficiently close to 1, then the metric soliton is Euclidean; this is a metric-soliton counterpart of Wang-Wang. Our result can be applied to Ricci flows to derive a gap theorem and an ε-regularity theorem: (1) an ancient Ricci flow with a type-I scalar curvature bound and AVR close enough to 1 must be the static Euclidean space, (2) a Ricci flow with locally type-I scalar curvature bound and local volume ratio close enough to 1 must be regular enough locally (in the sense that its curvature radius cannot be too small).
We describe certain finite-time singularities of the Kähler-Ricci flow arising in the analytic minimal model program. Assuming that convergence to an asymptotically conical Kähler-Ricci shrinker is realized by holomorphic maps, we prove that, in a fixed holomorphic gauge, the nearby flow is modeled on the shrinker at the level of Kähler potentials. Consequently, every noncollapsed Kähler-Ricci flow through singularities in complex dimension two is modeled on a shrinker-cone-expander transition, confirming a strong form of Song's conjectural picture. We also show analogous results in higher dimensions under the Calabi ansatz, and improve known results in the compact shrinker case. These give the first compact Ricci flows through conical singularities whose small-scale behavior is fully described.
For m=2,3, we prove that every smooth immersion F:RPm↬B,N(1) satisfies κ(F)2≥2m/(m+1), with equality only for the Veronese embedding, up to congruence. We also prove that a closed, connected, orientable three-manifold admitting an immersion into a Euclidean unit ball with κ(F)≤3/2 is diffeomorphic to S3, RP3, or S2×S1. All three possibilities occur, while κ(F)<3/2 forces X≅S3. These results answer a question of Petrunin and prove a conjecture of Chodosh–Li concerning the normal curvature of three-manifolds. The key intrinsic input is the strict scalar–systolic inequality (YminRg)sys(g)2<6π2 for every spherical three-space formY with ∣π1(Y)∣>2. Its proof uses systolic monotonicity along Ricci flow with surgery. This strict inequality complements the sharp scalar–systolic inequality for RP3 of Bray–Brendle–Eichmair–Neves.
We prove the Feldman–Ilmanen–Knopf conjecture for finite time Type I singularities of the Kähler–Ricci flow. More precisely, for any compact Kähler manifold Y and its blow-up π:BlpY⟶Y, if [ω0]−Tc1(M)=π∗[ωY], then any Type I parabolic blow-up limit of the KählerRicci flow along the exceptional divisor is the FIK shrinkerTot(OPn−1(−1)).
We study higher-order global estimates for the heat equation on Riemannian manifolds, both for static metrics and for metrics evolving under the Ricci flow. Under minimal geometric assumptions, we derive first-order regularizing estimates for log-solutions of the heat equation, together with upper second-order bounds with explicit constants. Our quantitative approach is based on integral duality methods proposed by L.\ C.\ Evans, J.-M.\ Lasry and P.-L.\ Lions in different settings.
We introduce and study a Fisher information metric gτF associated to the conjugate heat kernel of a Ricci flow(Mn,gt). This tensor measures, at a fixed scale, how the pointed heat-kernel measure changes when the base point is moved. We prove that gτF is monotone in scale and satisfies gτF≤gt. We relate its trace to the pointed Nash entropy and prove a matrix square identity for the Fisher defect gt−gτF. This identity gives a rigidity theorem for the equality case; on closed connected flows one has the strict inequalities 0<gτF<gt at every positive scale, while in the complete case equality forces a Euclidean splitting. We also develop several consequences of this point of view. These include a sharp reverse Poincaré inequality for the heat semigroup, a contraction formula for φ-divergences along conjugate heat flow, and a canonical construction of heat-kernel splitting maps from large eigenvalues of the Fisher endomorphism. As applications, we relate pointed Nash entropy close to 0 to small Fisher deficit at comparable scales, and we obtain a codimension-one Fisher-metric criterion for applying Bamler's ε-regularity theorem.
For a closed connected Riemannian manifold (M,g), the Gigli–Mantegazza construction pulls back the quadratic Wasserstein metric under the heat kernel embedding x↦pt(x,⋅)dvolg. The resulting family gt agrees with Ricci flow to first order in t, but in general not to second order. We prove that gt=g−2tRicg+t2(−ΔRicg+2Ricg2−32Qg)+OC0(t3), where Qg is quadratic in the full curvature tensor. The term −ΔRicg also occurs in the second-order expansion of Ricci flow, so the discrepancy depends pointwise and quadratically on the curvature. In particular, at a Ricci-flat metric that is not flat, Ricci flow is stationary while gt is not. The Gromov–Hausdorff distance between the Gigli–Mantegazza and Ricci-flow metrics is O(t2), and round spheres show that this estimate is sharp.
The work is a natural continuation of that published in Stud Appl Math. 2024; 153:e12737. All possible two-components evolutions systems of (1+2)-dimensional second-order PDEs admitting an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra are constructed. It is shown that a natural generalisation of this Lie algebra to the higher-dimensional case does not lead to a more general result because the infinite-dimensional symmetry is broken. The recently derived system, which is related to Ricci flows, is identified as a very particular case among the evolution systems obtained. All possible stationary solutions of this system in the radially symmetric case are constructed using the surprisingly rich Lie algebra of the reduced system of ODEs. Moreover, it is proved that this Lie algebra is reducible to the fifteen-dimensional algebra of the simplest system of two second-order ODEs. Several time-dependent exact solutions in the radially symmetric case are constructed as well. It is shown that the solutions obtained are bounded and smooth provided arbitrary parameters are correctly specified.
In this paper, we observe that the (spacelike) mean curvature flow of a submanifold in a (pseudo-)Euclidean space is equivalent to a harmonic-Ricci flow with coupling constant α=−1 (or +1), for the corresponding Gauss map and the induced metric. The solitons of these two flows are also equivalent. As an application, we get a monotonicity formula for the spacelike mean curvature flow.
Beatrice Brienza, Anna Fino, Udhav Fowdar, Gueo Grantcharov
Motivated by the analogy with the Bismut connection in Hermitian geometry, we study Sasaki with torsion manifolds. In particular, we characterize co-Kähler-like and flat Sasaki with torsion manifolds, and we introduce the notion of a ∇-Einstein manifold as the odd-dimensional analogue of the Bismut Hermite-Einstein condition. We provide non-compact examples and we study compact ∇-Einstein manifold in dimension 5 and 7. We also develop a general framework for geometric flows of almost contact metric structures. In particular, we derive a flow for Sasaki with torsion structures that preserves the strong condition, that is, the closure of the torsion. Furthermore we prove that such flow is gauge-equivalent to the generalized Ricci flow and it is gauge-equivalent to the pluriclosed flow, after performing a trivial product with S1.
We prove that the Feldman–Ilmanen–Knopf (FIK) blowdown singularity has a nonempty open nonlinear formation basin in the full space of smooth Riemannian metrics and, on a smaller neighborhood, local marked first-order asymptotic moduli. Given a closed connected oriented Riemannian four-manifold, an implantation point, and a positive time bound, its oriented blow-up admits a relatively C2,α-open set of smooth metrics whose Ricci flows form, before that time, a localized FIK singularity with global Type-I curvature control. No symmetry, Kähler condition, or finite-dimensional tuning is imposed. Curvature stays uniformly bounded outside the implantation region; fixed-convention marked rescalings converge along the full singular-time sequence to the ancient FIK flow; and the exceptional sphere has sharp FIK asymptotics for area, intrinsic diameter, and curvature. To our knowledge, this is the first open full-metric formation theorem for a finite-time singularity modeled on a noncompact, noncylindrical shrinker. A self-contained spectral certification identifies the weighted FIK operator's nine-dimensional nonnegative space with the scaling and diffeomorphism directions, and exact modulation removes this block. On a smaller little-Hölder h2,α neighborhood, a fixed positive-time restart yields the marked first-profile coordinate A1=λ∞−γ1V∞∈E1. This amplitude is a split C1 submersion and locally the projection onto E1. Equality of amplitudes characterizes marked first-order agreement; a transverse disk uniquely realizes each sufficiently small amplitude; normalized two-flow differences converge to the corresponding Jacobi field; and the amplitude determines the first quadratic scale and phase response. This gives a complete local marked first-order profile coordinate for FIK blowdown.
We present a numerical method that constructs geometrically defined coordinates on black-hole horizons, from which the multipole moments are computed without assuming axisymmetry. This method, which we denote the conformal-mapping method (CMM), provides a numerical realization of the conformal construction proposed by Ashtekar et al. in 2022, combining discrete Ricci flow, spectral embedding onto the unit sphere, and Möbius gauge fixing by the vanishing-area-dipole condition. We first test the CMM against analytic Kerr benchmarks, and then apply it to an equal-mass, non-spinning binary black-hole merger. We also compare it with an approximate-symmetry-based method. The CMM allows the multipole moments to be expressed in a fixed reference frame, whereas the symmetry-adapted frame can reorient abruptly when the preferred approximate axis changes. In a frame aligned with the orbital angular momentum, the amplitude of the quadrupole mode grows during inspiral and decays after merger, displaying a qualitative ringdown behavior. These results show that the CMM is a useful tool for studying horizon geometry in dynamical situations where no stable symmetry axis is available.
In this note, we prove that, on weighted graphs, the Lin–Lu–Yau curvature coincides with the p-Ollivier curvature up to scaling whenever the idleness parameter p≥1/2. Moreover, the threshold 1/2 is sharp. This extends an earlier result of Bourne et al. (Ollivier–Ricci idleness functions of graphs, SIAM J. Discrete Math., 32 (2018), no. 2, 1408-1424), where combinatorial graphs were considered. This observation yields a simple proof for the global existence and uniqueness of solutions of the Lin–Lu–Yau curvature flow in Bai et al. (Ollivier Ricci-flow on weighted graphs, Amer. J. Math. 146 (2024), 1723-1747).
Eric Cochran, Arseny Mingajev, Lawrence Mouillé, Nazia Valiyakath
We study normalized Ricci flow on simply connected homogeneous spaces G/H for which the isotropy representation splits into exactly two equivalent irreducible subrepresentations. We prove that every G-invariant metric evolves to one with positive Ricci curvature, and that the family of G-invariant metrics with positive Ricci curvature is forward-invariant under the flow. The proof relies on the fact that the phase portrait of the family of fixed-volume G-invariant metrics can be explicitly visualized.
We study the metric geometry of finite-time singularities of volume-noncollapsed Kähler-Ricci flows and the geometry at infinity of Ricci shrinkers. For a compact volume-noncollapsed Kähler-Ricci flow approaching its first singular time, we prove that the time slices converge to a unique Gromov-Hausdorff limit, canonically identified with the time-zero slice of the Ricci-flow spacetime completion. Its regular part is identified with the complement of the null locus, and we show that the singular set has Hausdorff codimension at least four. For Kähler-Ricci shrinkers, we relate the geometry at infinity to the associated Fano fibration. We prove local smooth convergence to a Kähler cone metric on the locus where the fibration is biholomorphic, and characterize asymptotic conicality by biholomorphicity outside a compact set. For Ricci shrinkers with bounded scalar curvature, we show that local compactness of the time-zero slice implies pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of the full self-similar flow to that slice. As applications, we prove uniqueness of the tangent space at infinity for Kähler-Ricci shrinkers with bounded scalar curvature and Euclidean volume growth whose soliton vector field generates an S1-action, and for all four-dimensional Ricci shrinkers with bounded scalar curvature.
Let V be an n-dimensional Euclidean vector space, ,where n≥4, and ℓ=⌊2n⌋. We prove the sharp pointwise estimate q2(E)≥−3ℓ2(ℓ−1)Scal(E)IdΛ2V∗ for every algebraic curvature tensor E on V with nonnegative sectional curvature. Applying this estimate to the decomposition Rmg=KminI+E, we obtain the vanishing of H2(M;R) under a dimension-dependent strict sectional-scalar curvaturepinching condition. At the weak endpoint, all harmonic two-forms are parallel. Apart from the flat case, this yields b2(M)=0 in odd dimensions and b2(M)≤1 in even dimensions. At even-dimensional endpoint, b2(M)>0 forces (M,g) to be isometric, up to scaling, to CPℓ with its Fubini-Study metric. As a consequence every closed five-dimensional manifold satisfying the strict pinching condition implies is a rational homology sphere. An anisotropic rescaling of the same homogeneous four-frame estimate also gives the sharp pointwise sectional-scalar pinching criterion Kmin≥n2−n+12n(n−1)S0⟹PIC2. The strict pinching places the curvature tensor in the interior of PIC2 and normalized Ricci flow brings it to a positive constant sectional curvature.
In this paper, we establish a geometric correspondence between the Lorentzian Raychaudhuri equation and Perelman's non-collapsing theorem for the Ricci flow. By interpreting the Raychaudhuri equation as a Lorentzian analogue of Ricci flow, we connect geodesic focusing in general relativity to the monotonicity and entropy functionals of geometric analysis. Using this correspondence, we derive a Lorentzian non-collapsing theorem and introduce a covariant entropy functional governing causal volume evolution. Finally, we propose the concept of geodesic entropy capacity, a curvature-bounded limit on the information that can be stored in spacetime regions, providing a unified geometric framework linking gravitation, thermodynamics, and information.
We study the geometric regularization of a positive closed current by the (twisted) Kähler-Ricci flow on a compact Kähler manifold. We conjecture that the local Arnold multiplicities linearly decrease to zero, while the flow produces complete Kähler metrics in the Zariski open subset of points that have small Lelong numbers. We prove this conjecture in complex dimension 1 and provide several partial results in higher dimension.
We investigate the stochastic Ricci flow of spherically symmetric perturbations of the Schwarzschild–Anti de Sitter black-hole metric. Elaborating on the Ricci-flow analysis of Headrick and Wiseman, we include a negative cosmological constant through a Ricci-target term and study how the flow is correlated with the thermodynamic heat capacity of the black hole. Numerical simulations show that, in the positive heat-capacity regime, perturbations of the angular sector of the metric relax toward the Schwarzschild–Anti de Sitter fixed point, while in the negative heat-capacity regime they grow under the deterministic Ricci flow. We then introduce a multiplicative stochastic noise and find that sufficiently strong stochasticity can suppress the growth of these perturbations, effectively stabilizing configurations that would otherwise be thermodynamically unstable. Finally, we reformulate the dynamics in terms of an entropy variable evolving on a thermodynamic free-energy landscape, and support the metric-flow results through Monte Carlo simulations and the associated Fokker–Planck equation. These results suggest that stochastic fluctuations can modify the relation between geometric stability under Ricci flow and thermodynamic stability in asymptotically Anti de Sitter black-hole spacetimes.
We study the stability problem for Einstein manifolds with boundary with respect to the Einstein-Hilbert action. The geometric boundary conditions we are using arise naturally from studying the calculus of variations associated with Ricci flow. Upon the introduction of a boundary, the space of TTg tensors no longer arise naturally as the defining space for the stability condition. Thus we must settle for the larger subspace of tensors preserving the scalar curvature, the total volume and the Bianchi gauge condition, which we call the space of TVg tensors. As a test-case, we shall discuss stability of the Riemannian Schwarzschild anti-deSitter family of metrics; a problem known as "a Black hole in a box".
Panagiota Daskalopoulos, Wenkui Du, Natasa Sesum, Ziyi Zhao
We obtain the unique asymptotics of SO(k)×SO(n−k+1)-invariant, compact, simply-connected, factorwisely non-self-similar n-dimensional κ-solutions of the Ricci flow(Mn,g(t)), where n≥4 and 2≤k≤n−2. More precisely, these κ-solutions are either ancient ovals of the Ricci flow that are diffeomorphic to the standard sphere Sn, having a positive curvature operator metric g(t) and a cylindrical tangent flow at −∞, or they are a Riemannian product of a Perelman's ancient oval and a shrinking round sphere. The metric g(t) of every SO(k)×SO(n−k+1)-invariant ancient oval is represented in the form g(t)=dz⊗dz+F2(z,t)gSk−1+G2(z,t)gSn−k (up to flipping k−1 and n−k). We obtain results about the blowdown limits of such solutions, establish the unique sharp asymptotics of the profile function G(z,t), and prove that the uniqueness of G(z,t) implies the uniqueness of F(z,t). In particular, this provides the first instance of a classification result for geometric flows represented by a coupled PDE system, opening new avenues for studying the classification of higher-dimensional κ-solutions of the Ricci flow.
In this work, we study the positive mass theorem under critical low regularity assumptions using Ricci flow smoothing. We show that asymptotically flat manifolds (Mn,g) of regularity L∞∩W1,n with non-negative distributional scalar curvature have non-negative ADM mass. Furthermore, when the ADM mass vanishes, the manifold is globally isometric to Euclidean space with respect to an integral distance introduced by De Cecco-Palmieri. This extends the recent work of Hafemann to the critical regularity case. Our approach is based on showing that Riemannian metrics of regularity L∞∩W1,n, whose scalar curvature is bounded from below in the distributional sense, admit a Ricci flow smoothing whose scalar curvature is bounded from below by the same initial lower bound in the classical sense. In contrast, Cecchini-Frenck-Zeidler constructed examples of metrics which are in L∞∩W1,p for all 2<p<n, and whose distributional scalar curvature is bounded from below, that cannot be approximated by smooth metrics with the same scalar curvature lower bound. In this sense, our result is optimal.
Kong and Liu introduced the concept of hyperbolic Ricci flow in 2007 and used it to study the wave character of metrics. After that, many mathematicians have used this new geometric flow to study the evolution of manifolds and their structures. Ricci solitons and hyperbolic Ricci solitons are self-similar solitons of the Ricci flow and hyperbolic Ricci flow respectively. In this paper, we introduce the concept of hyperbolic ∗−Ricci solitons and hyperbolic Ricci-Yamabe solitons on a trans-Sasakian space forms and characterized the nature of some hyperbolic solitons. Additionally, we deduce the Ricci tensors of submanifolds of trans-Sasakian space forms and conformal trans-Sasakian space form and found the nature of solitons on submanifolds. Finally, we have included an example which will justify our result.
For every n≥3, we construct uncountably many families of type II ancient solutions to the Yamabe flow on the unit round n-sphere \Ssn. These families are pairwise distinct up to conformal equivalence, and no member is conformally equivalent to a rotationally symmetric solution. At every negative time, the Ricci curvature tensor of each solution is indefinite at some point. Moreover, the associated backward limit space is a wedge sum of finitely many isometric copies of \Ssn. These examples show that the collection of ancient Yamabe flows on \Ssn has a much richer structure than suggested by two natural comparison problems: the compact ancient Ricci flows on \Ss2, all of which are known to be rotationally symmetric, and the elliptic Yamabe equation on Rn, whose positive entire solutions are only the standard bubbles. The construction uses a non-radial inner–outer gluing scheme. After stereographic projection, we reformulate the flow as a conformally invariant parabolic problem on Rn. By exploiting Kelvin invariance and switching between the Euclidean and spherical formulations as needed, we control the non-radial modes directly without reducing the problem to one space dimension. Weighted Hölder estimates provide the pointwise control needed to establish the Type II behavior, the Ricci-sign property, conformal inequivalence, and the description of the backward limits in a straightforward manner.
Jason DeVito, David González-Álvaro, Masoumeh Zarei
We prove that the Ricci flow preserves positive sectional curvature on homogeneous spheres and complex projective spaces. In conjunction with prior results, this completes the classification of which homogeneous spaces have positively curved metrics flowing outside the set of positively curved metrics and which do not.
The Bures–Helstrom metric is the minimal monotone Riemannian metric on the state space of a qubit. With the quantum Fisher normalization used here, it identifies the Bloch ball with a geodesic hemisphere of the unit round three–sphere. We describe its Ricci flow explicitly. In a general rotationally symmetric gauge the flow is a coupled system for the radial lapse and warping factor; a single scalar equation appears only after a Hamilton–DeTurck gauge choice. In the corresponding moving DeTurck frame the squared warping function Ψ=Φ2 satisfies the linear forced heat equation \beginequation* D_tΨ=Ψ_ss-2, \endequation* while the fixed-lapse coordinate form contains the associated transport term. Since the Bures–Helstrom metric is Einstein, the geometric flow itself is the homothetic shrinker \beginequation* g(t)=(1-4t)g_BH, \endequation* with scalar curvature6/(1−4t) and extinction time T=1/4. Thus the metric remains inside the monotone cone for all t<T and leaves the cone of nondegenerate Riemannian metrics only through the collapsed limit. We also record the volume–normalized flow, for which the Bures–Helstrom metric is a fixed point. Its linearization is the shifted round–sphere Laplacian ΔS3+3, with spectrum \beginequation* σ_\ell=-(\ell-1)(\ell+3), \endequation* and spectral gap 5 after removal of the scaling mode.
This paper is concerned with a class of the long time Kähler-Ricci flow on a compact Kähler manifold. It is shown that the uniform μ-entropy or uniform Sobolev inequality along the normalized Kähler-Ricci flow with semiample canonical bundle. As a consequence, we prove that the scalar curvature of the Kähler metrics along the normalized Kähler-Ricci flow converge to negative Kodaira dimension of the compact Kähler manifold.
We study the geometric regularization of positive closed currents by the Kähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler manifolds. In a previous work of ours, it was shown that the Kähler-Ricci flow immediately smoothes out such a current when it has zero Lelong numbers. We study here the case when T0 has divisorial singularities, showing that the flow gradually replaces the latter by Poincaré type ones, providing an approximation of T0 by complete Kähler metrics with bounded curvature in a Zariski open set.
We construct stochastic thermodynamics of overdamped Langevin systems on nonrelaticvistic curved spaces with time-dependent metrics. The time dependence of the metric contributes to the energy balance by performing work on the kinetic energy, which is instantaneously dissipated as heat in the overdamped regime. This contribution makes our framework thermodynamically consistent so that entropy production satisfies the second law of thermodynamics. As a special case, when the metric evolves according to backward Ricci flow, the entropy balance exhibits a structure similar to Perelman's entropy functional. Our framework provides a way to quantify thermodynamic costs in dynamics on time-evolving spaces such as diffusion on membranes.
Starting from a closed, orientable three-dimensional Riemannian manifold, we consider the completion of the associated singular Ricci flow with respect to a natural spacetime distance. We show that this completion admits canonical intrinsic metrics on its time-slices, defined by conjugate heat kernel measures, and that these time-slices arise as metric limits of the regular part of the flow. More precisely, for any t0>0 and any connected component Zt0′ of the time-slice Zt0 of the completion, we prove that (Rt′,dgt)Gromov-Hausdorfft↗t0(Zt0′,dt0Z), where Rt′ is the corresponding connected component of the regular part and Rt′ denotes its metric completion. In particular, this yields the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence at the first singular time for closed three-dimensional Ricci flows. We also establish a refined structure theory for the singular set of the completion. In particular, the singular set is horizontally parabolic 1-rectifiable, and its time image has vanishing 1/2-dimensional Hausdorff measure. Moreover, on each time-slice, the singular set has Minkowski dimension at most 1. The proof relies on heat kernel estimates for singular Ricci flows and the generalization of the structure theory of noncollapsed Ricci flow limit spaces.
We continue our local singularity analysis for Ricci flow initiated in ArXiv:2006.16227. Building on that framework, we study Type I singular points in general Ricci flows, without assuming any global Type I curvature bound, and prove that the scalar curvature must blow up at a Type I rate at each such point in all dimensions. As a consequence, Ricci flows with bounded scalar curvature cannot develop Type I singular points. This extends earlier results of the first author with Enders and Topping and with Mantegazza that relied on a global Type I assumption. We then adapt the same local perspective to ancient Ricci flows and analyse the curvature behaviour as time goes to negative infinity, showing in particular that every ancient Type I point exhibits scalar curvature behaviour of ancient Type I order.
The analysis of singularities in scalar curvature is a classical problem. In this survey, we investigate the behavior of scalar curvature under several geometric flows, with a focus on three specific cases: the Ricci flow, the Kähler-Ricci flow coupled with (1,1)-forms, and the Laplacian flow.
In this paper, we consider the Ricci flow with prescribed curvature on infinite graphs, which reads as \beginequation* \fracddtω(t)=-(κ(t)-κ^*)ω(t), t>0, \endequation* where ω is the edge weight, κ and κ∗ are Lin-Lu-Yau Ricci curvature and the prescribed curvature on the set of edges, respectively. First, we establish the existence and uniqueness of the solution to the Ricci flow. Furthermore, we prove the convergence of the Ricci flow for graphs with girth at least 6 under two different conditions. Our convergence result aligns with the conclusion of Rodin and Sullivan (J Differ Geom, 26(2) 1987) that a circle packing in the plane with the hexagonal pattern is the regular hexagonal packing.
In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the long time behaviour of solutions to the Kahler-Ricci flow on an asymptotically conical gradient Kahler-Ricci expander and the asymptotic behaviour of their initial data at spatial infinity.