Questions tagged [dg.differential-geometry]
Complex, contact, Riemannian, pseudo-Riemannian and Finsler geometry, relativity, gauge theory, global analysis.
65
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2k views
Converse to Euclid's fifth postulate
There is a fascinating open problem in Riemannian Geometry which I would like to advertise here because I do not think that it is as well-known as it deserves to be. Euclid's famous fifth postulate, ...
48
votes
0answers
1k views
Are there periodicity phenomena in manifold topology with odd period?
The study of $n$-manifolds has some well-known periodicities in $n$ with period a power of $2$:
$n \bmod 2$ is important. Poincaré duality implies that odd-dimensional compact oriented manifolds ...
47
votes
0answers
12k views
Atiyah's May 2018 paper on the 6-sphere
A couple years ago Atiyah published a claimed proof that $S^6$ has no complex structure. I've heard murmurs and rumors that there are problems with the argument, but just a couple months ago he ...
45
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0answers
10k views
Atiyah's paper on complex structures on $S^6$
M. Atiyah has posted a preprint on arXiv on the non-existence of complex structure on the sphere $S^6$.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.09366
It relies on the topological $K$-theory $KR$ and in ...
41
votes
0answers
15k views
What is the current understanding regarding complex structures on the 6-sphere?
In October 2016, Atiyah famously posted a preprint to the arXiv, "The Non-Existent Complex 6-Sphere" containing a very brief proof $S^6$ admits no complex structure, which I immediately read and ...
38
votes
0answers
2k views
Minimal volume of 4-manifolds
This question came up in a talk of Dieter Kotschick yesterday. The minimal volume of a manifold is the infimum of volumes of Riemannian metrics on the manifold with sectional curvatures bounded in ...
32
votes
0answers
936 views
Converse of the Archimedean property of the sphere
In his remarkable book On the Sphere and Cylinder, where he came tantalizingly close to discovering calculus, Archimedes showed that the area of the portion of the sphere contained between a pair of ...
27
votes
0answers
9k views
Research situation in the field of Information Geometry
I am now doing an article survey on the field of information geometry started by S.Amari and Barndorff-Nielson. I want to know some research situation in this field.
I have read (4) and parts of (3). ...
25
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0answers
2k views
24
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0answers
1k views
Nontrivial tangent bundle that is diffeomorphic to the trivial bundle
Is there an example of a smooth $n$-manifold $M$ whose tangent bundle is nontrivial as a bundle but is nonetheless (abstractly) diffeomorphic to the trivial bundle $M \times \mathbb{R}^n$?
(This ...
21
votes
0answers
1k views
Milnor's cartography problem
Let $\Omega$ be a round disc of radius $\alpha<\pi/2$ on the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$.
It is easy to construct a $(1,\tfrac{\alpha}{\sin\alpha})$-bi-Lipschitz map from $\Omega$ to the plane.
Is ...
19
votes
0answers
235 views
The de Rham complex of the octonionic projective spaces
The complex projective space $\mathbb{CP}^n$ is a complex manifold, and hence its de Rham complex carries a representation of the complex numbers in the form of its complex structure. The quaternionic ...
19
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0answers
663 views
Is the determinant of cohomology a TQFT?
If $M$ is an oriented $d$-manifold, let $D(M)$ denote the top exterior power of $H^*(M,\mathbf{C})$. Then $D(M_1 \amalg M_2) = D(M_1) \otimes D(M_2)$. Is there a good recipe for a map $D(M) \to D(N)$...
19
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0answers
762 views
Are the eigenvalues of the Laplacian of a generic Kähler metric simple?
It is a theorem of Uhlenbeck that for a generic Riemannian metric, the Laplacian acting on functions has simple eigenvalues, i.e., all the eigenspaces are 1-dimensional. (Here "generic" means the set ...
18
votes
0answers
440 views
Lipschitz constant of a homotopy
Let $n>0$, $\mathbb S^n$ be $n$-sphere and $1\in \mathbb S^n$ be its north pole.
A am looking for an example of compact manifold $M$ with a continuous $n$-parameter family of maps $h_x\colon M\to ...
17
votes
0answers
510 views
Is there an Infinite dimensional sheaf theory for analysis on manifolds?
I apologize if this question is slightly vague but I don't know how to ask it non-vaguely. Moreover, my question is about an ideal situation. If there's a close answer which doesn't satisfy all the ...
17
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0answers
196 views
Modified Willmore energy and surfaces with infinitesimally narrow necks
Disclaimer: This is a copy of a question that I asked on the Mathematics Stack Exchange. It was suggested to me there that the question was worth asking over here.
There is an open problem in ...
17
votes
0answers
329 views
Is there a useful theory of D-modules on smooth (non-analytic) manifolds?
D-modules are related to flat connections on vector bundles, end hence local systems. The theory of D-modules (and related notions such as crystals etc.) seems to be very popular in complex analytic ...
16
votes
0answers
427 views
What are hyperkähler metrics used for?
It seems that a lot of effort has been devoted to endow holomorphic-symplectic manifolds with hyperkähler metrics. It started with Calabi [4] with $T^*\mathbb{CP}^n$. Other examples include coadjoint ...
16
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0answers
455 views
Does the Gauss-Bonnet theorem apply to non-orientable surfaces?
I hesitated for a long time to ask such an elementary-seeming question on Math Overflow, but when I asked and bountied it on Math SE, I found that a few experts seem to disagree on the answer, and I ...
16
votes
0answers
335 views
Relationship between the twistor spaces due to Penrose and Salamon
In Penrose's construction of the twistor space of Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb R^{1,3}$, we first complexify $\mathbb R^{1,3}$ to $\mathbb C^4$ and then think of points in it as matrices acting on $\...
16
votes
0answers
315 views
Relationship between the signs of different notions of curvature in complex geometry
Let $(X,\omega)$ be a complex hermitian manifold, and call $\Theta$ its Chern curvature tensor. Out of this we can consider different notions of curvature, namely the holomorphic bisectional curvature ...
16
votes
0answers
622 views
Vector field built from connection and metric
Consider a smooth finite-dimensional manifold $M$ with metric $g$ and connection $\nabla$. For some local coordinate system, denote by $g^{\alpha \beta}$ the inverse of the metric tensor and by $\...
16
votes
0answers
394 views
Does $S^4$ have a “symplecto-homeomorphic” structure?
The 4-sphere cannot be a symplectic manifold. In particular, it does not admit an atlas whose transition maps are symplectomorphisms $(\mathbb{R}^4,\omega_\text{std})\to(\mathbb{R}^4,\omega_\text{std})...
16
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0answers
547 views
Does the Ricci flow approach shed light on Poincare conjecture in higher dimension?
I know that the Poincaré conjecture was first proved in dimension ≥ 5, then dimension 4, and finally 3. I'm just curious, does the Ricci flow approach by Perelman shed any light on the high dimension ...
15
votes
0answers
273 views
Extending Kahler metric from a neighborhood of a divisor to the whole manifold
Let $X$ be a smooth complex projective variety with an ample line bundle $L$, and let $D\subset X$ be a smooth divisor. Suppose in an analytic neighborhood $U$ of $D$ there is a Kahler form $\omega$ ...
15
votes
0answers
811 views
Homotopy equivalence vs weak homotopy equivalence in Gromov's h-principle
My question concerns Gromov's h-principle for open diffeomorphism-invariant partial differential relations on open manifolds; see e.g. Eliashberg/Mishachev: Introduction to the h-principle, §6.2.A and ...
15
votes
0answers
675 views
Applications of Berger's Curvature Estimate
I'm interested in applications of the following estimate of Berger on the Riemann curvature tensor:
Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifold of dimension $n \geq 4$, let $p \in M$, and assume that the ...
14
votes
0answers
398 views
How to compute the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between spheres $S_n$ and $S_m$?
There is the question, because when we consider the Gromov-Hausdorff distance, we must fix the metric, so we use the natural metric induced from the embedding $\mathbb{S}_n \to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. Is ...
14
votes
0answers
540 views
Gromov's quick “proof” of Lefchetz Hyperplane Theorem
I'd say I'm fairly comfortable with standard proofs of the Lefschetz Hyperplane theorem (e.g. lefschetz pencils, morse theory, etc.). However, in the first chapter of Gromov's Partial Differential ...
14
votes
0answers
687 views
How does duality of symmetric spaces explain the hyperbolic cosine theorem?
There is a well-known duality between compact symmetric spaces and symmetric spaces of noncompact type. Basically it goes as follows: If $$G/K$$ is a symmetric space of noncompact type, $$g=k+p$$ the ...
13
votes
0answers
268 views
Covering S2 with great circles
Let $S_2$ be the unit 2-dimensional sphere. Is there a way to cover it with great circles such that each point on $S_2$ has 1 or 2 great circles that go through it?
13
votes
0answers
177 views
Do eigenfunctions determine the geometry of a manifold? If so, do finitely many suffice?
Let $X$ be a smooth, Riemannian manifold. It is known that the geometry of $X$ can be recovered from its heat kernel $k_{t}(x,y)$, using Varadhan's Lemma: $\displaystyle\lim_{t \to 0} t \log k_{t}(x,y)...
13
votes
0answers
217 views
Lorentzian analogue to Thurston geometries
Is there an analogue to the eight Thurston geometries for Lorentz metrics?
If so, how many "disctinct" geometries are there in the Lorentzian case?
And which closed 3-manifolds admit metrics which ...
13
votes
0answers
263 views
Log symplectic vortex equations in Hamiltonian log GW theory
Hamiltonian Gromov-Witten theory(see Mundet-Tian paper) corresponds to a new type of Symplectic vortex equations: Such type of models gives a connection to Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence and Floer ...
13
votes
0answers
232 views
What is an example of a non-abelian gerbe with connection?
Abelian gerbes can arise from obstructions to lifting a principal $C$-bundle to a principal $B$-bundle given some central extension $0\to A \to B \to C \to 0$ or as a representative of a cohomology ...
13
votes
0answers
913 views
reference - Grothendieck on Thurston's work
In his 'dernières' years Grothendieck gets "interested" in Thurston's work.
"[...] je me suis intéressé ces dernières années - la géométrie hyperbolique à la Thurston et ses relations au groupe de ...
13
votes
0answers
375 views
Aspherical manifold and non-positive curvature
If the fundamental group of a smooth closed aspherical manifold is a hyperbolic group, does that manifold admit a metric with non-positive sectional curvature?
If not, what's the obstruction to ...
13
votes
0answers
536 views
Invariant definition of the space of symbols on a vector bundle (pseudo-differential operators)
Normally, in the context of pseudo-differential operators, a symbol on a vector bundle $E$ is defined as a smooth function on $E$ which in each trivializing chart fulfills the usual symbol estimates
\...
13
votes
0answers
358 views
Has Cheeger's 'de Rham cohomology' of metric measure spaces been studied beyond its definition?
In J. Cheeger's 'Differentiability of Lipschitz Functions on Metric Measure Spaces' (Geometric and Functional Analysis, 1999, Vol. 9 pp 428-517, see here), a 'de Rham cohomology group' $H_{dR}^1(Z,\mu)...
13
votes
0answers
462 views
Examples of Clifford Modules
For a Riemannian manifold $M$, a Clifford module is a bundle over $M$ that is, fiberwise, a representation of the Clifford algebra bundle $Cl(TM)$ and has a connection compatible with this action. ...
12
votes
0answers
226 views
Finite dimensional approximation of Donaldson theory
In addition to the Seiberg-Witten invariant there has been further success with "finite dimensional approximations" of the Seiberg-Witten theory: Bauer-Furuta's stable (co)homotopy invariants, and ...
12
votes
0answers
534 views
Kähler-Ricci flow approach for Beauville-Bogomolov type decomposition?
Is there any Kähler Ricci flow method for solving structure theorems in Algebraic geometry
In fact If $X$ be a Calabi-Yau manifold then we can descend the Kähler Ricci flow to its finite etale ...
12
votes
0answers
335 views
Artin L-function and Zeta function of twisted Dirac operator
If one thinks of a Frobenius as an element in the fundamental group of an arithmetic curve and of a Galois representation $\sigma$ as a flat connection on the curve, then the definition of the Artin L-...
12
votes
0answers
701 views
Egg-ovoid rolling down an inclined plane
I am seeking a mathematical analysis of an egg-ovoid rolling down an inclined plane,
for pedagogical reasons.
It is well-known folk lore that the shape of an egg prevents it from rolling away from
...
12
votes
0answers
380 views
What is known about the Yang-Mills stratification over 3-manifolds?
Rade proved in his thesis (Crelle's Journal, 1992, available here: digizeitschriften.de/dms/toc/?PPN=PPN243919689) that if $E\rightarrow M$ is a $U(n)$-bundle over a 3-manifold, then the gradient flow ...
12
votes
0answers
460 views
Exotic smoothness and Parallelizability
Regarding the parallelizability of the Milnor's seven dimensional exotic spheres:
Parallelizability of the Milnor's exotic spheres in dimension 7
The following question naturally arises:
Suppose ...
11
votes
0answers
165 views
How much smoothness does the tennis ball theorem need?
The tennis ball theorem states that a smooth-enough curve that bisects the surface area of a sphere must have at least four inflection points. There are plenty of sources on this but most of them are ...
11
votes
0answers
277 views
Computing $h^1$ of dual of graph of central fibre of the degeneration of Kaehler-Einstein manifolds
Consider a Kaehler degeneration $\mathcal X\to \Delta$ of smooth manifolds: Here $\Delta$ is the unit disc, $\pi$ a proper flat map, smooth over $\Delta^∗=\Delta−\{0\}$. The general fibres are $X_t=\...
11
votes
0answers
155 views
Euler characteristic of *hyperbolic* orbifolds
This is a follow-up to this question. Which rational numbers arise as Euler characteristics of orbifold quotients of $\mathbb{H}^n?$ The answer is not even clear for $n=2.$ It is clear that the Euler ...