Sphere theorems

We construct and prove the transversal invariance of two families of pinching cones for the Hamilton ODE $\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}R=Q(R)$ in dimensions $n=7,8$, thereby extending the pinching estimate established by Brendle for $n\ge 12$ and by Chen for $9\le n\le 11$. 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 $n\ge 12$. Together with curvature-improvement and classification results of Cho–Li and Brendle–Naff, it also yields the classification of noncompact $\kappa$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to the Ricci flow with uniformly PIC, extending a theorem of Cho–Li from $n=4$ or $n\ge 12$.

For $m=2,3$, we prove that every smooth immersion $F:\mathbb{R}{\mathbb{P}}^m\looparrowright {\overline{\mathbb{B}}}^{,N}(1)$ satisfies $\kappa (F{)}^2\ge 2m/(m+1)$, 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 $\kappa (F)\le \sqrt{3/2}$ is diffeomorphic to $S^3$, $\mathbb{R}{\mathbb{P}}^3$, or $S^2\times S^1$. All three possibilities occur, while $\kappa (F)<\sqrt{3/2}$ forces $X\cong S^3$. 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 $$(\underset{Y}{\min }{R}_g)\text{sys}(g{)}^2<6{\pi }^2$$ for every spherical three-space form $Y$ with $|{\pi }_1(Y)|>2$. Its proof uses systolic monotonicity along Ricci flow with surgery. This strict inequality complements the sharp scalar–systolic inequality for $\mathbb{R}{\mathbb{P}}^3$ of Bray–Brendle–Eichmair–Neves.

We obtain the unique asymptotics of $SO(k)\times SO(n-k+1)$-invariant, compact, simply-connected, factorwisely non-self-similar $n$-dimensional $\kappa$-solutions of the Ricci flow $(M^n,g(t))$, where $n\ge 4$ and $2\le k\le n-2$. More precisely, these $\kappa$-solutions are either ancient ovals of the Ricci flow that are diffeomorphic to the standard sphere $S^n$, having a positive curvature operator metric $g(t)$ and a cylindrical tangent flow at $-\infty$, or they are a Riemannian product of a Perelman's ancient oval and a shrinking round sphere. The metric $g(t)$ of every $SO(k)\times SO(n-k+1)$-invariant ancient oval is represented in the form $g(t)=dz\otimes dz+F^2(z,t)g_{S^{k-1}}+G^2(z,t)g_{S^{n-k}}$ (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 $\kappa$-solutions of the Ricci flow.

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 $\ast -$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.

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.

We show that $\kappa$-solutions to the Ricci flow in dimensions $n\ge 4$ whose asymptotic shrinking Ricci soliton is the round cylinder ${\mathbb{S}}^{n-1}\times \mathbb{R}$ must be uniformly PIC. Combined with earlier classification results, this implies that any such noncompact solution is either the round shrinking cylinder or the Bryant steady soliton, and any such compact solution is Perelman's ancient solution.

Hamilton's pinching conjecture, that three-dimensional complete non-compact manifolds with pinched Ricci curvature are flat, has recently been resolved using Ricci flow. In this paper we prove a direct analogue of that result in all dimensions. In order to do so we develop a lifting technique that allows us to handle manifolds that are collapsed at infinity. This new method also gives an alternative way of handling collapsed manifolds in the known three-dimensional case. As part of this approach, we prove a Ricci flow curvature estimate of a type that would normally be derived from the Harnack inequality, but without requiring the strong curvature positivity hypothesis demanded by Harnack. We give an improved gap theorem as a further application.

In this paper, we investigate curvature pinching phenomena in complete non-compact asymptotically conical gradient expanding Ricci solitons and establish several Hamilton-Ivey type curvature pinching estimates. These results are parallel to those known for shrinking and steady Ricci solitons. In particular, we prove a three-dimensional Hamilton-Ivey type curvature pinching theorem: any three-dimensional non-compact gradient Ricci expander, which is asymptotic to a cone with positive scalar curvature, must have positive sectional curvature. Furthermore, we formulate a general method and apply it to obtain analogues of several additional known generalized Hamilton-Ivey type curvature pinching results for ancient solutions. Among these is a curvature pinching estimate for four-dimensional asymptotically conical Ricci expanders with uniformly positive isotropic curvature, analogous to a result for four-dimensional gradient steady solitons due to Brendle [8].

We find new examples of steady gradient Ricci solitons with positive curvature operator in dimensions four and above. Utilising a procedure first introduced by Lai, we construct examples with $O(p)\times O(q)$ symmetry in dimension $p+q$ for any pair of integers $p,q\ge 2$ and discuss their asymptotic geometry.

Lorantzian trans-Sasakian space form is a special type of space form in which the nature of even and odd dimensional space form both exist. Various curvature tensors with respect to Levi-Civita connection on the space form are derived in this paper. We have shown that if an odd-dimensional Lorentzian trans-Sasakian space form admits a hyperbolic Ricci soliton and hyperbolic conformal Ricci soliton then they will be $\eta$-Einstein. We also obtained the conditions for the solitons to be expanding, steady or shrinking. Finally, an example has been constructed which justifies the results obtained.

For all dimensions $n\ge 5$, let $(M,g,f)$ be a $n-$dimensional shrinking gradient Ricci soliton with strictly positive isotropic curvature (PIC). Suppose furthermore that ${\nabla }^{2}f$ is $2-$nonnegative and the curvature tensor is WPIC1 at some point $\bar{x}\in M$. Then $(M,g)$ must be a quotient of either $S^n$ or $S^{n-1}\times \mathbb{R}$. Our result partially extends the classification result for 4-dimensional PIC shrinking Ricci solitons established in [LNW16] to highter dimensions. Combining the pinching estimates deduced in [Chen24] we also extend the result in [CL23] to dimensions $n\ge 9$. Namely that a complete ancient solution to the Ricci flow of dimension $n\ge 9$ with uniformly PIC must be weakly PIC2.

This paper studies minimal surface entropy (the exponential asymptotic growth of the number of minimal surfaces up to a given value of area) for negatively curved metrics on hyperbolic $3$-manifolds of finite volume, particularly its comparison to the hyperbolic minimal surface entropy in terms of sectional and scalar curvature. On one hand, for metrics that are bilipschitz equivalent to the hyperbolic metric and have sectional curvature bounded above by $-1$ and uniformly bounded below, we show that the entropy achieves its minimum if and only if the metric is hyperbolic. On the other hand, by analyzing the convergence rate of the Ricci flow toward the hyperbolic metric, we prove that among all metrics with scalar curvature bounded below by $-6$ and with non-positive sectional curvature on the cusps, the entropy is maximized at the hyperbolic metric, provided that it is infinitesimally rigid. Furthermore, if the metrics are uniformly $C^0$-close to the hyperbolic metric and asymptotically cusped, then the entropy associated with the Lebesgue measure is uniquely maximized at the hyperbolic metric.

In this paper, we study the geometry and topology of complete gradient shrinking Sasaki-Ricci solitons. We first prove that they must be connected at infinity. This is a Sasaki analogue of gradient shrinking Kähler-Ricci solitons. Secondly, with the positive sectional curvature or positive transverse holomorphic bisectional curvature, we show that they must be compact. All results are served as a generalization of Perelman in dimension three, of Naber in dimension four, and of Munteanu-Wang in all dimensions, respectively.

In this paper, we study hypersurfaces in the product spaces ${\mathbb{Q}}_{\epsilon }^3\times \mathbb{R}$ for which the tangential component $T$ of the vector field $\frac{\partial }{\partial t}$ is a principal direction, where ${\mathbb{Q}}_{\epsilon }^3$ denotes the three-dimensional non-flat Riemannian space form with sectional curvature $\epsilon =\pm 1$, and $\frac{\partial }{\partial t}$ is the unit vector field tangent to the $\mathbb{R}$-factor. We obtain a local classification of hypersurfaces with three distinct principal curvatures satisfying specific functional relations. Then, we determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for such hypersurfaces to admit an almost Ricci soliton structure with potential vector field $T$. Finally, we prove that the only hypersurfaces admitting such solitons are rotational, by showing that the constructed examples with three distinct principal curvatures do not admit almost Ricci solitons.

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 $\kappa$-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 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 $k\in {\mathbb{N}}_0$, we obtain continuous families of non-isometric ancient Ricci flows on $\#k({\mathbb{S}}^2\times {\mathbb{S}}^2)$ depending on a number of parameters growing linearly in $k$, and a family of half-PIC ancient Ricci flows on ${\mathbb{CP}}^2\#{\mathbb{CP}}^2$. 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.

Motivated by recent work of Deruelle-Schulze-Simon, we study complete weakly PIC1 Ricci flows with Euclidean volume growth coming out of metric cones. We show that such a Ricci flow must be an expanding gradient Ricci soliton, and as a consequence, any metric cone at infinity of a complete weakly PIC1 Kähler manifold with Euclidean volume growth is biholomorphic to complex Euclidean space in a canonical way.

This is a sequel to our paper [24], in which we investigated the geometry of 4-dimensional gradient shrinking Ricci solitons with half positive (nonnegative) isotropic curvature. In this paper, we mainly focus on 4-dimensional gradient steady Ricci solitons with nonnegative isotropic curvature (WPIC) or half nonnegative isotropic curvature (half WPIC). In particular, for 4D complete ancient solutions with WPIC, we are able to prove the 2-nonnegativity of the Ricci curvature and bound the curvature tensor Rm by |Rm|\leq R. For 4D gradient steady solitons with WPIC, we obtain a classification result. We also give a partial classification of 4D gradient steady Ricci solitons with half WPIC. Moreover, we obtain a preliminary classification result for 4D complete gradient expanding Ricci solitons with WPIC. Finally, motivated by the recent work [59], we improve our earlier results in [24] on 4D gradient shrinking Ricci solitons with half PIC or half WPIC, and also provide a characterization of complete gradient Kaehler-Ricci shrinkers in complex dimension two among 4-dimensional gradient Ricci shrinkers.

We prove that there exist ${\mathsf{SU}}_3$-invariant metrics on Aloff-Wallach spaces $W_{k_1,k_2}^7$, as well as ${\mathsf{SU}}_5$-invariant metrics on the Berger space $B^{13}$, which have positive sectional curvature and evolve under the Ricci flow to metrics with non-positively curved planes.

In $1996$, H.-D. Cao constructed a $U(n)$-invariant steady gradient Kähler-Ricci soliton on ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ and asked whether every steady gradient Kähler-Ricci soliton of positive curvature on ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ is necessarily $U(n)$-invariant (and hence unique up to scaling). Recently, Apostolov-Cifarelli answered this question in the negative for $n=2$. Here, we construct a family of $U(1)\times U(n-1)$-invariant, but not $U(n)$-invariant, complete steady gradient Kähler-Ricci solitons with strictly positive curvature operator on real $(1,1)$-forms (in particular, with strictly positive sectional curvature) on ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ for $n\ge 3$, thereby answering Cao's question in the negative for $n\ge 3$. This family of steady Ricci solitons interpolates between Cao's $U(n)$-invariant steady Kähler-Ricci soliton and the product of the cigar soliton and Cao's $U(n-1)$-invariant steady Kähler-Ricci soliton. This provides the Kähler analog of the Riemannian flying wings construction of Lai. In the process of the proof, we also demonstrate that the almost diameter rigidity of ${\mathbb{P}}^n$ endowed with the Fubini-Study metric does not hold even if the curvature operator is bounded below by $2$ on real $(1,1)$-forms.

We study $n$-dimensional Ricci flows with non-negative Ricci curvature where the curvature is pointwise controlled by the scalar curvature and bounded by $C/t$, starting at metric cones which are Reifenberg outside the tip. We show that any such flow behaves like a self-similar solution up to an exponential error in time. As an application, we show that smooth $n$-dimensional complete non-compact Riemannian manifolds which are uniformly PIC1-pinched, with positive asymptotic volume ratio, are Euclidean. This confirms a higher dimensional version of a conjecture of Hamilton and Lott under the assumption of non-collapsing. It also yields a new and more direct proof of the original conjecture of Hamilton and Lott in three dimensions.

Sets related to positively curved invariant Riemannian metrics on generalized Wallach spaces are considered. The problem arises in studying of the evolution of such metrics under the normalized Ricci flow equation. For Riemannian metrics of the Wallach spaces $\mathrm{SU}(3)/T_{\max }$, $Sp(3)/{\left(Sp(1)\right)}^3$ and $F_4/Spin(8)$ which admit positive sectional curvature and belong to a given invariant surface $\Sigma$ of the normalized Ricci flow we established that they form a set bounded by three connected and pairwise disjoint regular space curves such that each of them approaches two others asymptotically at infinity. Analogously, for all generalized Wallach spaces the set of Riemannian metrics which belong to $\Sigma$ and admit positive Ricci curvature is bounded by three curves each consisting of two connected components as regular curves. Intersections and asymptotical behaviors of these components were studied as well.

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

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

We prove the following result: Let $(M,g_0)$ be a complete noncompact manifold of dimension $n\ge 12$ with isotropic curvature bounded below by a positive constant, with scalar curvature bounded above, and with injectivity radius bounded below. Then there is a finite collection $\mathcal{X}$ of spherical $n$-manifolds and manifolds of the form ${\mathbb{S}}^{n-1}\times \mathbb{R}/G$, where $G$ is a discrete subgroup of the isometry group of the round cylinder ${\mathbb{S}}^{n-1}\times \mathbb{R}$, such that $M$ is diffeomorphic to a (possible infinite) connected sum of members of $\mathcal{X}$. This extends a recent work of Huang. The proof uses Ricci flow with surgery on open orbifolds with isolated singularities.

We survey several problems concerning Riemannian manifolds with positive curvature of one form or another. We describe the PIC1 notion of positive curvature and argue that it is often the sharp notion of positive curvature to consider. Finally we explain how recent Ricci flow theory is particularly well adapted to solve these problems.

We introduce a large class of canonical Kähler metrics, called in this paper well-behaved, extending metrics induced by complex space forms. We study Kähler–Ricci iterations of well-behaved metrics on compact and non-compact Kähler manifolds. That is, we are interested in well-behaved metrics for which the iteration of the Ricci operator is a multiple of a Kähler metric, i.e., ${\rho }_{\omega }^k=\lambda \Omega$. In particular, when $k=1$, under some condition on the maximal domain of definition of canonical coordinates, we show that $\lambda$ is forced to be positive. Moreover, for arbitrary $k$, we prove two additional results. Namely, if $\omega$ and $\Omega$ are induced by a flat metric, then $\omega$ is Ricci-flat. Finally, if a Kähler-Ricci soliton $\Omega$ arises as Kähler–Ricci iteration of a metric $\omega$ induced by a complex space form, then the Kähler–Ricci soliton is forced to be trivial, that is, Kähler–Einstein. These three theorems extend well known results on Kähler–Einstein metrics to higher iterations of the Ricci operator and a larger class of metrics.

The family of invariant Riemannian manifolds in the Wallach flag manifold $\mathrm{SU}(3)/{\mathrm{T}}^2$ is described by three parameters $(x,y,z)$ of positive real numbers. By restricting such a family of metrics in the tetrahedron $\mathcal{T}:=x+y+z=1$, in this paper, we describe all regions $\mathcal{R}\subset \mathcal{T}$ admitting metrics with curvature properties varying from positive sectional curvature to positive scalar curvature, including positive intermediate curvature notion's. We study the dynamics of such regions under the projected Ricci flow in the plane $(x,y)$, concluding sign curvature maintenance and escaping. In addition, we obtain some results for positive intermediate Ricci curvature for a path of metrics on fiber bundles over $\mathrm{SU}(3)/{\mathrm{T}}^2$, further studying its evolution under the Ricci flow on the base.

We discuss local Sasakian immersion of Sasaki-Ricci solitons (SRS) into fiber products of homogeneous Sasakian manifolds. In particular, we prove that SRS locally induced by a large class of fiber products of homogeneous Sasakian manifolds are, in fact, $\eta$-Einstein. The results are stronger for immersions into Sasakian space forms. Moreover, we show an example of a Kähler-Ricci soliton on ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ which admits no local holomorphic isometry into products of homogeneous bounded domains with flat Kähler manifolds and generalized flag manifolds.