Take a dumbbell-shaped sphere. The thin neck, modelled on a round cylinder S2×R, has large positive curvature in the S2 direction and shrinks faster than the ends, so it pinches off in finite time. In 3D, Perelman's canonical neighborhood theorem says every high-curvature region looks like a piece of a κ-solution: a neck, a cap, or a round quotient.
Just before a neck pinches, cut along a thin ε-neck, discard the high-curvature piece, glue in standard caps, and restart the flow. Perelman showed the surgery times don't accumulate, so the process continues for all time. What gets discarded is topologically simple (spherical space forms and S2×S1 pieces), which is how topology is read off from the flow.
The models for every 3-dimensional singularity. An ancient κ-solution is a complete, non-flat ancient solution with bounded, nonnegative curvature operator that is κ-noncollapsed at all scales. Perelman proved that blow-up limits of finite-time singularities in dimension 3 are exactly these.
The 3-dimensional list is now complete: shrinking round spherical space forms, the round cylinder S2×R and its Z2-quotient, the Bryant soliton, and Perelman's ancient oval. Classifying the noncompact case was Brendle's theorem; the compact case is Brendle–Daskalopoulos–Šešum.
The structural heart of Perelman's argument. For a 3-dimensional flow and each ε>0 there is a scale r>0 such that every point with
∣Rm∣(x,t)≥r−2
has a neighborhood which, rescaled to unit curvature, is ε-close in C[1/ε] to a corresponding piece of an ancient κ-solution: an ε-neck, an ε-cap, or a closed manifold of positive curvature.
In plain terms: high curvature leaves you no choices. Anywhere the flow is about to fail, the geometry is one of a short list of shapes you already understand — which is exactly what makes surgery possible.
Ricci flow is not a local equation — curvature far away can influence you instantly. Perelman's pseudolocality theorem says it is almost local anyway: a region that starts out nearly Euclidean stays regular for a definite amount of time, no matter how wild the rest of the manifold is.
Quantitatively, if a ball B(x0,r0) has almost-Euclidean isoperimetric constant and R≥−r0−2 at time zero, then
∣Rm∣(x,t)≤αt−1+(εr0)−2
near x0 for 0<t≤(εr0)2. It is the tool that lets you do surgery in one place without the repair being destroyed by geometry somewhere else.
The engine behind every blow-up argument. Given a sequence of pointed Ricci flows with uniformly bounded curvature and a uniform lower bound on the injectivity radius at the basepoints, a subsequence converges in the pointed Cheeger–Gromov C∞ sense to a limit Ricci flow.
Rescale a sequence approaching a singularity, apply this, and the limit is an ancient solution — the singularity model. The injectivity radius hypothesis is the hard one, and it is precisely what κ-noncollapsing delivers. Before Perelman, the possibility of collapsing was the gap that stopped Hamilton's program.
Bamler's structure theory in all dimensions. Any noncollapsed limit of Ricci flows decomposes into a regular part, which is an honest smooth Ricci flow, and a singular set of parabolic codimension at least 4.
Four is the sharp number: Ricci-flat cones such as the Eguchi–Hanson space show that a 4-dimensional singular stratum really occurs. The result generalises the Cheeger–Colding–Naber theory for static Einstein manifolds to flows, and turns "the singular set is small" from a hope into a theorem.
On a Kähler manifold the flow preserves the Kähler condition, and the class evolves linearly:
[ω(t)]=[ω0]−2πtc1(M).
Everything therefore reduces to a scalar parabolic complex Monge–Ampère equation for a potential φ. The maximal existence time is determined by cohomology alone — the flow runs until the class leaves the Kähler cone. Song and Tian showed the singularities correspond to the operations of the minimal model program: divisorial contractions and flips, performed analytically by the flow.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
We study Riemann solitons and η-hyperbolic Ricci solitons on Bochner-flat Lorentzian Kähler spacetime manifolds. Under the Einstein field equations with cosmological constant and perfect fluid assumptions, explicit formulas for the soliton parameter are derived, yielding criteria for shrinking, steady, and expanding behaviors. Several physically relevant models, including dark fluid, stiff matter, dust, and radiation, are analyzed. We show that Bochner-flat Lorentzian Kähler spacetimes are Einstein and investigate the resulting geometric and dynamical consequences. In the context of generalized Robertson–Walker spacetimes, we obtain constraints on the warping function and classify soliton solutions. Global properties such as geodesic completeness, singularity formation, and stability are also examined.
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 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 first confirm the Hamilton-Tian conjecture for the Sasaki-Ricci flow in a compact transverse Fano quasi-regular Sasakian 5-manifold with klt foliation singularities. Secondly, we derive the compactness theorem of Sasaki-Ricci solitons on transverse Fano quasi-regular Sasakian 5-manifolds. Then,by the second Sasakian structure theorem, we confirm the Hamilton-Tian conjecture for a compact transverse Fano Sasakian 5-manifold. With its applications, we show that the gradient Sasaki-Ricci soliton orbifold metric on a compact Sasakian 5-manifold is Sasaki-Einstein if M is transverse K-stable.
In this paper, we extend the results of to generalized cylinders. More precisely, we establish a Lojasiewicz inequality for the pointed W-entropy in Ricci flow under the assumption that the geometry near the base point is close to a generalized cylinder Rk×Nn−k, where N is an Einstein manifold with obstruction of order three satisfying a suitable spectral condition. As an application, we prove the strong uniqueness of generalized cylindrical tangent flows. Furthermore, we show that the subset Sqck(N)⊂Sk, consisting of points at which some tangent flow is given by Rk×Nn−k or its quotient, is horizontally parabolic k-rectifiable.
We prove local versions of the Ricci curvature and ν-entropy gap theorems for Ricci shrinkers, which respectively generalize a previous result of Munteanu-Wang and a prior result of the authors with Ma. The key point is that these local gaps depend only on the dimension and not on the global entropy or any other geometric information of the Ricci shrinker. As an application, we provide a local criterion for removable Type I singularities of the Ricci flow.
Let (Y,g0) be a compact analytic space with a finite number of singular points, where the metric at each singular point is modelled on a Kähler cone with smooth canonical model. We show that the Kähler-Ricci flow with such initial data satisfies a C/t curvature bound, and that the flow near each singular point is modelled on the unique Kähler-Ricci expander asymptotic to the corresponding cone. Our motivation is to give a geometric description of the Kähler–Ricci flow emerging from singularities arising in the analytic minimal model program.
We study higher-order curvature estimates along Kähler-Ricci flows on compact Kähler manifolds of intermediate Kodaira dimension. We prove that away from singular fibers, the Ricci curvature is uniformly bounded in C1, the Laplacian of the Ricci curvature in C0, and the scalar curvature in C2. We identify a geometric obstruction to higher-order curvature bounds, whose non-vanishing causes a specific third-order derivative of the Ricci curvature to blow up at rate et/2. Uniform Ck bounds for every k hold for the Ricci curvature in the isotrivial case, and for the full Riemann curvature in the torus-fibered case.
In this paper, we study the Ricci flow on CP1-bundles over a product of Kähler-Einstein manifolds whose initial metric is constructed by the ansatz used in works by M. Wang et. al. We prove that the ansatz is preserved along the Ricci flow. Furthermore, in the Kähler case, we proved that Type I finite-time singularity must occur under such an ansatz.
This is the second of two papers studying both the geometric structure of Fano fibrations and the application to Kähler-Ricci flows developing a singularity in finite time. We assume that the Kähler-Ricci flow on a compact Kähler manifold has a rational initial metric and develops a singularity in finite time such that the manifold admits a Fano fibration structure. Moreover, it is assumed that the volume form of the flow collapses uniformly at the rate of C−1(T−t)n−mΩ≤ω(t)n≤C(T−t)n−mΩ. Under this setting, a diameter bound is obtained in any compact set away from singular fibres and the diameter of the fibres is proven to collapse at the optimal rate T−t. Furthermore, several precise C0-estimates are proven for the potential of the complex Monge-Ampere flow which involve the potentials of singular twisted Kähler-Einstein metrics on the base variety from part I. Finally, in the case of Kähler-Einstein Fano fibres, we deduce Type I scalar curvature in any compact set away from singular fibres and globally for a submersion.
This is the first of two papers studying both the geometric structure of Fano fibrations and the application to Kähler-Ricci flows developing a singularity in finite time. Given a Fano fibration which is generated by Kawamata's theorem from a compact Kähler manifold X endowed with an ample, rational line bundle L and non-nef canonical line bundle KX, we construct a (1,1)-form on the regular part of the base analytic variety which is related to the Weil-Petersson metric. It is also proven that the singular Kähler metric constructed by Zhang, Zhang, on the base analytic variety satisfies a twisted Kähler-Einstein equation involving this (1,1)-form and, for a submersion, that the Chern classes of X and the base manifold decompose in terms of this (1,1)-form.
We study a spinor-driven formulation of geometric evolution on closed 3-manifolds, in which the spinor field is treated as the primary dynamical variable and the Riemannian metric is induced conformally by the spinor amplitude. We introduce a spinorial heat flow governed by the squared Dirac operator, ∂tψ=−Dg(ψ)2ψ, where the metric g(ψ) depends nonlinearly on the evolving spinor field. As a consequence, the resulting system is quasi-linear and parabolic away from the nodal set {ψ=0}, while exhibiting degenerate behavior at vanishing spinor amplitude. We show that degeneration of the induced metric corresponds analytically to nodal behavior of the spinor field, rather than to curvature blow-up of the spinor evolution itself. This observation motivates an interpretation of geometric singularities as spinorial nodal transitions, across which the spinor field remains locally bounded in a weak or weighted sense. The induced metric evolution is derived explicitly and shown to be purely conformal, capturing only the trace component of curvature evolution and containing additional gradient terms that are not controlled a priori. Accordingly, the proposed flow should not be identified with the Ricci flow, and any analogy with curvature smoothing is understood at a heuristic level. The present work establishes a coherent analytical framework for studying geometric degeneration via spinor dynamics and highlights several open problems in degenerate parabolic theory, including rigorous existence results and the precise role of nodal structures in geometric and topological evolution.
We show that the recently discovered BCCD shrinking soliton is linearly unstable, by extending the approach of and, via recent work the on gradient shrinking Ricci solitons. On the other hand, we prove that the weighted L2-spectra of the weighted Lichnerowicz Laplacians of steady and expanding Kähler Ricci solitons are nonpositive in real dimension 4. We additionally determine the linear stability of the orbifold singularities of Kähler solitons: shrinkers are unstable, steadies are neutrally stable and expanders are strictly stable. All of these results follow from new Weitzenböck formulae for the weighted Lichnerowicz Laplacian specialized to Kähler metrics.
We prove a weaker version of the transcendental base-point freeness on compact Kähler manifolds. As a consequence, we derive the diameter lower bound for finite time singularities of Kähler-Ricci flow with non-Fano initial data.
In this paper, we establish a Lojasiewicz inequality for the pointed W-entropy in the Ricci flow, under the assumption that the geometry near the base point is close to a standard cylinder Rk×Sn−k or the quotient thereof. As an application, we prove the strong uniqueness of the cylindrical tangent flow at the first singular time of the Ricci flow. Specifically, we show that the modified Ricci flow near the singularity converges to the cylindrical model under a fixed gauge.
We prove that a three dimensional compact Ricci flow that encounters a Type I singularity has uniformly bounded diameter up to the singular time, thus giving an affirmative answer - for Type I singularities - to a conjecture of Perelman. To achieve this, we introduce a concept of a neck-region for a Ricci flow, analogous to the neck-regions introduced by Jiang-Naber and Cheeger-Jiang-Naber, in the study of Ricci limit spaces. We then prove that the associated packing measure is, in a certain sense, Ahlfors regular, a result that holds in any dimension.
This paper shows for the first time the existence of a Ricci flow with surgery with local topology change \mathbbCP^2\setminus\{ pt\} \rightarrow \mathbbR^4. The post surgery flow converges to the Taub-NUT metric on \mathbbR^4 in infinite time.
This paper attempts to construct monotonic entropy functionals for four-dimensional Lorentzian spacetime under physical boundary conditions, as an extension of Perelman's monotonic entropy functionals constructed for three-dimensional compact Riemannian manifolds. The monotonicity of these entropy functionals is utilized to prove the well-posedness of applying Ricci flow to four-dimensional Lorentzian spacetime for a long flow-time, particularly for the timelike modes which would seem blow up and ill-defined. The general idea is that the Ricci flow of a Lorentzian spacetime metric and the coupled conjugate heat flow of a density on the Lorentzian spacetime as a whole turns out to be the gradient flows of the monotonic functionals for a long flow-time, so the superficial "blow-up" in the individual Ricci flow system or the conjugate heat flow system contradicts the boundedness of the monotonic functionals within finite flow interval, which gives a semi-global control to the whole coupled system. The physical significance and applications of these monotonic entropy functionals in real gravitational systems are also discussed.
In this article we prove an ε-regularity theorem for non-collapsed Ricci flows, and use this to prove new estimates for singularity models of FanoKähler-Ricci flows. In the course of our proof, we find a criterion for uniform convergence of solutions to the heat equation along a sequence of F-converging Ricci flows, and apply this to new parabolic regularizations of some natural geometric quantities.
We investigate the properties of the renormalisation group (RG) flow of two-dimensional sigma models with a generic metric coupling by utilising known results for the Ricci flow. We point out that on many occasions the RG flow develops singularities, due to strong coupling behaviour, before it reaches a UV or an IR fixed point. We illustrate our analysis with several examples. We give particular emphasis to type I singularities, where the length of the curvature of the sigma model target space grows at most as ∣t−T∣−1 as the flow parameter t approaches the singularity at T. For these, the geometry near the singularity is described in terms of a shrinking Ricci soliton that exhibits a cosmological constant even though the original RG flow does not. Assuming that the spacetime satisfies an RG flow equation, we use the Ricci solitons to introduce a cosmological constant in a string theory setting. This can allow for different cosmological constants at different regions of spacetime. In particular, we point out how the de-Sitter space is a solution of the theory. We also raise the question on whether the techniques used to prove the geometrisation conjecture can be applied to prove the homogeneity and isotropy of the universe at large scales.
We prove that the four-dimensional blowdown shrinking Ricci soliton constructed by Feldman-Ilmanen-Knopf is strictly linearly stable in the sense of Cao-Hamilton-Ilmanen. This provides the first known example of a non-cylindrical linearly stable shrinking Ricci soliton. This offers new insights into the topological behavior of generic solutions to the Ricci flow in four dimensions: on top of reversing connected sums and handle surgeries, they should also undo complex blow-ups. The proof starts from an explicit description of the metric and develops a tensor harmonic analysis, adapted to its weighted Lichnerowicz Laplacian and based on its U(2)-invariance. It further exploits the Kähler structure of the blowdown shrinking soliton and insights from four-dimensional selfduality. The main difficulty is that the weighted Lichnerowicz Laplacian of the soliton admits a 9-dimensional set of eigentensors associated with nonnegative eigenvalues. We show that they correspond to the Ricci tensor and gauge transformations.
Recent works of Guo-Phong-Song-Sturm established for compact Kähler manifolds (even for Kähler spaces of specific singularities) a variety of geometric estimates depending on an upper bound of L1+ε or L1(logL)n+ε norms of the volume density but not on any curvature bound, in which a key ingredient is a uniform integral estimate for Green's function. Motivated by their results and further applications, in this paper we shall prove an improved (nearly optimal) integral estimate for Green's function under L1+ε volume density condition, and then apply it to obtain improved global geometric estimates. For instance, one of our results states that the kth eigenvalue of Laplacian operator λk≥c⋅kn1(logk)−3, where n is the complex dimension of the Kähler manifold and c depends on n and L1+ε norm of the volume density. Also, our results can be applied to the long-time or volume-noncollapsing finite-time Kähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler manifolds and to a general Kähler family to further extend previous works of Guo-Phong-Song-Sturm, Guedj-Tô and Vu.
We establish a short-time existence theory for complete Ricci flows under scaling-invariant curvature bounds, starting from rotationally symmetric metrics on Rn+1 that are noncollapsed at infinity, without assuming bounded curvature. As a consequence, we construct a complete Ricci flow solution coming out of a rotationally symmetric metric, which has a cone-like singularity at the origin and no minimal hypersphere centered at the origin, using an approximation method.
Bennett Chow, Michael H. Freedman, Henry Shin, Yongjia Zhang
This note corrects an error in the proof of Proposition 13 in arXiv:1903.09181 and simultaneously establishes a more general result. We prove that if M is a compact connected oriented 4-manifold with connected boundary ∂M, and if an unbounded number of disjoint copies of M embed topologically and locally flatly in the interior of a compact 4-manifold N, then TorH1(∂M;Z) is a direct double, i.e., TorH1(∂M;Z)≅A⊕A, with the linking pairing vanishing identically on the first summand, i.e., the linking pairing is split metabolic. This partially generalizes Hantzsche's theorem stating that the linking pairing for a closed 3-manifold that embeds in S4 is hyperbolic.
We study two different natural notions of singular Kähler-Einstein metrics on normal complex varieties. In the setting of singular Ricci flat Kähler cone metrics that arise as non-collapsed limits of sequences of Kähler-Einstein metrics or Kähler-Ricci flows, we show that an a priori weaker notion is equivalent to the stronger one introduced by Eyssidieux-Guedj-Zeriahi, and in particular the underlying variety has log terminal singularities in this case. Our method applies to more general singular Kähler-Einstein spaces as well, assuming that they define RCD spaces.
In this paper, we study gradient Ricci soitons on smooth orbifolds. We prove that the scalar curvature of a complete shrinking or steady gradient Ricci soliton on an orbifold is nonnegative. We also show that a complete κ-noncollapsed steady gradient Ricci soliton on a Riemannian orbifold with positive curvature operator, compact singularity and linear curvature decay must be a finite quotient of the Bryant soliton. Finally, we show that a complete steady gradient Ricci soliton on a Riemannian orbifold with positive sectional curvature must be a finite quotient of the Bryant soliton if it is asymptotically quotient cylindrical.
In this paper, we study the collpasing Kähler-Ricci flow on Hirzebruch surfaces, which develops finite time singularities. We show that any tangent flow based at a point in the singular time slice is the Kähler-Ricci flow associated with a nonflat gradient Kähler-Ricci shrinker with finitely many orbifold singularities .
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 Sn singularity converges at least at the rate (−t)n−1n+1.
Simply-connected four-dimensional gradient Ricci solitons that are invariant under a compact cohomogeneity one group action have been studied extensively. However, the special case where the group is SU(2) (the smallest possible example) has received comparatively little attention. The purpose of this article is to give a comprehensive study of simply-connected SU(2)-invariant expanding and shrinking cohomogeneity one gradient Ricci solitons. The first result is the construction of new 3-parameter families of complete SU(2)-invariant asymptotically conical expanding gradient Ricci solitons. New shrinking KählerU(2)-invariant gradient Ricci solitons in dimension 4 with orbifold singularities are also constructed, leading to a classification of such metrics when the base space of the orbifold is a simply-connected smooth manifold. Finally, we highlight numerical evidence that all the compact cohomogeneity one shrinking gradient Ricci solitons are known.
Thurston's triangulation conjecture asserts that every hyperbolic 3-manifold admits a geometric triangulation into hyper-ideal hyperbolic tetrahedra. So far, this conjecture had only been proven for a few special 3-manifolds. In this article, we confirm this conjecture for a class of 3-manifolds. To be precise, let M be an oriented compact 3-manifold with boundary, no component of which is a 2-sphere, and T is an ideal triangulation of M. If T satisfies properly gluing condition, and the valence is at least 6 at each ideal edge and 11 at each hyper-ideal edge, then M admits an unique complete hyperbolic metric with totally geodesic boundary, so that T is isotopic to a geometric ideal triangulation of M. We use analytical tools such as combinatorial Ricci flow (CRF, abbr.) to derive the conclusions. There are intrinsic difficulties in dealing with CRF. First, the CRF may collapse in a finite time, second, most of the smooth curvature flow methods are no longer applicable since there is no local coordinates in T, and third, the evolution of CRF is affected by certain combinatorial obstacles in addition to topology. To this end, we introduce the ideas as "extending CRF", "tetrahedral comparison principles", and "control CRF with edge valence" to solve the above difficulties. In addition, the presence of torus boundary adds substantial difficulties in this article, which we have solved by introducing the properly gluing conditions on T and reducing the ECRF to a flow relatively easy to handle.
We show that any non-collapsed finite time singularity of the Ricci flow on a compact Kähler surface is of Type I. Combined with a previous result of the first author, Cifarelli, and Deruelle, it follows that any such singularity is modeled on the shrinking Ricci soliton of Feldman-Ilmanen-Knopf on the total space of the line bundle OP1(−1)→P1.
In this paper, we study several properties of Sasaki-Ricci solitons as singularity models of the Sasaki-Ricci flow. First, we establish several fundamental equations for Sasaki-Ricci solitons, which enable us to derive potential estimates and prove the positivity of the scalar curvature. Then we present two criteria for the transverse rigidity of Sasaki-Ricci solitons. As essential applications, we prove that any low-dimensional Sasaki-Ricci soliton with constant scalar curvature must be Sasaki-Einstein, and that any Sasaki-Ricci soliton with harmonic Weyl tensor is a finite quotient of the sphere.
We demonstrate that any four-dimensional shrinking Ricci soliton(B×S2,g), where B is any two-dimensionalcomplete noncompact surface and g is a warped product metric over the base B, has to be isometric to the generalized cylinder R2×S2 equipped with the standard cylindrical metric. After completing this classification, we study Ricci flow solutions that are multiply warped products – but not products – and provide rigorous examples of the formation of generalized cylinder singularity models Rk×Sℓ.
We proved that on every Stiefel manifold V2Rn≅SO(n)/SO(n−2) with n≥3 the normalized Ricci flow preserves the positivity of the Ricci curvature of invariant Riemannian metrics with positive Ricci curvature. Moreover, the normalized Ricci flow evolves all metrics with mixed Ricci curvature into metrics with positive Ricci curvature in finite time. From the point of view of the theory of dynamical systems we proved that for every invariant set Σ of the normalized Ricci flow on V2Rn defined as x1n−2x2n−2x3=c, c>0, there exists a smaller invariant set Σ∩R+ for every n≥3, where R+ is the domain in R+3 responsible for parameters x1,x2,x3>0 of invariant Riemannian metrics on V2Rn admitting positive Ricci curvature.
This paper proposes a theoretical framework for modeling and optimizing the bounded functions based on the Fourier series approximation and Ricci flow. Specifically, the initial manifold, M0 is approximated using Fourier series approximation in conjunction with the center and boundary sampling procedure introduced in the paper. The manifold is iteratively evolved using an algorithm that involves sampling along geodesic hyper-sphere defined by the Riemannian metric tensor. Thus obtained surrogate manifold is optimized by applying inverse Ricci flow i.e. instead of regularizing the manifold, flow allows for the high curvature regions to blow into finite time singularities. This allows for the singularities to occur at potential global optima assuming the deviation of the manifold at any point is smaller than the optimum. In addition, the error bound is established on the accuracy of the surrogate manifold. Finally, the proposed method is tested on stochastic sampling from five benchmark functions to illustrate the utility of this method.
In stark contrast to lower dimensions, we produce a plethora of ancient and immortal Ricci flows in real dimension 4 with Einstein orbifolds as tangent flows at infinity. For instance, for any k∈N0, we obtain continuous families of non-isometric ancient Ricci flows on #k(S2×S2) depending on a number of parameters growing linearly in k, and a family of half-PIC ancient Ricci flows on CP2#CP2. The ancient/immortal dichotomy is determined by a notion of linear stability of orbifold singularities with respect to the expected way for them to appear along Ricci flow: by bubbling off Ricci-flat ALE metrics. We discuss the case of Ricci solitons orbifolds and motivate a conjecture that spherical and cylindrical solitons with orbifold singularities, which are unstable in our sense, should not appear along Ricci flow by bubbling off Ricci-flat ALE metrics.
In this paper, we build connections between Kähler-Ricci shrinkers, i.e., complete (possibly non-compact) shrinking gradient Kähler-Ricci solitons, and algebraic geometry. In particular, we (1). prove that a Kähler-Ricci shrinker is naturally a quasi-projective variety, using birational algebraic geometry; (2). formulate a conjecture relating the existence of Kähler-Ricci shrinkers and K-stability of polarized Fano fibrations, which unifies and extends the YTD type conjectures for Kähler-Einstein metrics, Ricci-flat Kähler cone metrics and compact Kähler-Ricci shrinkers; (3). formulate conjectures connecting tangent flows at singularities of Kähler-Ricci flows and algebraic geometry, via a 2-step degeneration for the weighted volume of a Fano fibration.
[Dedicated to Richard S. Hamilton on forty years of Ricci flow] Gradient Ricci solitons have garnered significant attention both as self-similar solutions and singularity models of the Ricci flow. This survey article starts with a list of examples; it also provides some geometric aspects of gradient Ricci solitons, including various asymptotic behaviors; finally, it discusses some recent results on classification and rigidity. In particular, this survey focuses on dimension four.
We consider the Kähler-Ricci flow(X,ω(t))t∈[0,T) on a compact manifold where the time of singularity, T, is finite. We assume the existence of a holomorphic map from the Kähler manifold X to some analytic variety Y which admits a Kähler metric on a neighbourhood of the image of X and that the pullback of this metric yields the limiting cohomology class along the flow. This is satisfied, for instance, by the assumption that the initial cohomology class is rational, i.e., [ω0]∈H1,1(X,Q). Under these assumptions we prove an L4-like estimate on the behaviour of the Ricci curvature and that the Riemannian curvature is Type I in the L2-sense.
We extend some results known for the Kähler-Ricci flow to the Chern-Ricci flow regarding the independence of singularity types for long-time solutions. Specifically, we show that if a solution to the Chern-Ricci flow exists with uniformly bounded torsion and curvature, then any other solution starting from an initial metric of the same ∂∂ˉ class will also exhibit uniform bounds on torsion and curvature.
In recent work of Chan-Huang-Lee, it is shown that if a manifold enjoys uniform bounds on (a) the negative part of the scalar curvature, (b) the local entropy, and (c) volume ratios up to a fixed scale, then there exists a Ricci flow for some definite time with estimates on the solution assuming that the local curvature concentration is small enough initially (depending only on these a priori bounds). In this work, we show that the bound on scalar curvature assumption (a) is redundant. We also give some applications of this quantitative short-time existence, including a Ricci flow smoothing result for measure space limits, a Gromov-Hausdorff compactness result, and a topological and geometric rigidity result in the case that the a priori local bounds are strengthened to be global.
In this paper we prove that there exists a compact perturbation of the Ricci flat Taub-Bolt metric that evolves under the Ricci flow into a finite time singularity modelled on the shrinking solition FIK [5]. Moreover, this perturbation can be made arbitrarily L^2-small with respect to the Taub-Bolt metric. The method of proof closely follows the strategy adopted in [14], where the author constructs, via a Ważewski box argument, Ricci flows on compact manifolds which encounter finite singularities modelled on a given asymptotically conicalshrinking soliton.
In this work, we study the short-time existence theory of Ricci-DeTurck flow starting from rough metrics which satisfy a Morrey-type integrability condition. Using the rough existence theory, we show the preservation and improvement of distributional scalar curvature lower bounds provided the singular set for such metrics is not too large. As an application, we use the Ricci flow smoothing to study the removable singularity for scalar curvature rigidity in the compact case under Morrey regularity conditions. Our result supplements those of Jiang-Sheng-Zhang.