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44 votes
5 answers
6k views

Finding a 1-form adapted to a smooth flow

Let $M$ be a smooth compact manifold, and let $X$ be a smooth vector field of $M$ that is nowhere vanishing, thus one can think of the pair $(M,X)$ as a smooth flow with no fixed points. Let us say ...
Terry Tao's user avatar
  • 114k
36 votes
3 answers
3k views

When is a closed differential form harmonic relative to some metric?

Let $\omega$ be a closed non-exact differential $k$-form ($k \geq 1$) on a closed orientable manifold $M$. Question: Is there always a Riemannian metric $g$ on $M$ such that $\omega$ is $g$-harmonic,...
Slobodan Simić's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
4k views

Questions on J. F. Nash's answer about his errors in the proof of embedding theorem

In the interview of John Nash taken by Christian Skau and Martin Gaussen, in EMS Newsletter, September, 2015 when asked Is it true, as rumours have it, that you started to work on the embedding ...
trequartista's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
2k views

Ellipses on spheres (and other surfaces)

Define an ellipse $E$ on a sphere as the locus of points whose sum of shortest geodesic distances to two foci $p_1$ and $p_2$ is a constant $d$. There are conditions on $\{ p_1, p_2, d \}$ for this ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
20 votes
5 answers
2k views

Smoothness of the closest point on a submanifold

Let $(M,g)$ be a smooth Riemannian manifold, and let $S \subseteq M$ be a compact submanifold. Assume that for each $p \in M$, there exist a unique closest point on $S$, i.e a unique point $\tilde s(...
Asaf Shachar's user avatar
  • 6,741
18 votes
3 answers
2k views

Can the Laplace operator on $n-$ manifolds be represented as a sum of $n$ second order derivational operators

EDIT: According to some comments on this post I revise the title to remove the misunderestanding. Assume that $M$ is a Riemannian manifold of dimension $n$. The natural Laplace operator associated ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
2k views

Characterizing Hessians among symmetric bilinear tensors

I apologize in advance if this is somewhat elementary, but: Let $(M,g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold. Is there a "characterization" of which symmetric bilinear tensors $B\in Sym^2(M)$ ...
Renato G. Bettiol's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
654 views

Are there examples of Einstein manifolds with unbounded curvature?

Are there any known examples of Einstein manifolds $(M, g)$ such that $$\sup_{x \in M} \|\text{Rm}(x) \| = \infty$$ I'm looking for these examples because they might provide a counter-example to a ...
Matheus Andrade's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
2k views

Ricci Curvature in infinite dimensions?

Is there a good notion of "Ricci curvature" in infinite dimensions? My intuitive understanding of Ricci curvature is that it is some kind of an "average" of the curvature tensor over "different ...
BrainDead's user avatar
  • 245
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does the gluing procedure in Robert Wald’s book *General Relativity* yield a Hausdorff spacetime?

Before I state my problem, let me provide some definitions pertaining to the Cauchy Problem in General Relativity. Definition 1: A triplet $ (\Sigma,h,k) $ is called an initial data set if $ (\Sigma,...
Leonard's user avatar
  • 307
10 votes
2 answers
767 views

Intuition for the Drift Term of the Laplace-Beltrami Operator

In coordinates, the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ can be written as: $$ \Delta_g = g^{ij}\partial_{ij} - g^{jk}\Gamma^\ell_{jk}\partial_\ell $$ The second term: $$ \mu^\...
user3658307's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
752 views

Non-Kahler manifolds where the different Laplacians are compatible

On a Kahler manifold, the different Laplacians are compatible: $\Delta_d=2\Delta_{\bar{\partial}}=2\Delta_{\partial}$. Are there non-Kahler Hermitian manifolds where the above identity holds?
user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
336 views

Nash embedding for 3 manifolds

The Nash embedding theorem tells us that every smooth Riemannian m-manifold can be embedded in $R^n$ for, say, $n = m^2 + 5m + 3$ (edit: 14 is a better bound for compact 3 manifolds thanks @mme). What ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
696 views

Geodesics on manifolds with boundary

Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifold with non-empty boundary. Is there any notion of injectivity radius on $(M,g)$ in points away from the boundary? By this I mean points lying in $M- \partial M$. ...
Phillip's user avatar
  • 131
8 votes
1 answer
230 views

The closure of the space of Riemannian metrics with a fixed isometry class

Let $M$ be a closed manifold, and let $\mathscr{M}$ be the space of all Riemannian metrics over $M$. It is known that this is a Fréchet manifold. Consider also $\mathscr{D}$ the diffeomorphisms group ...
MyShepherd's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
599 views

Exact condition for smooth homogeneous to imply Riemannian homogeneous for compact manifolds

Let $ (M,g) $ be a homogeneous Riemannian manifold. That is, the isometry group $ Iso(M,g) $ acts transitively on $ M $. Let $ \pi_1(M) $ be the fundamental group of $ M $. Then $ \pi_1(M) $ has ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
259 views

Harmonic function with injective boundary conditions is an immersion?

Let $(M,g)$ be an $n$-dimensional, connected, compact Riemannian manifold with boundary. Assume we are given an immersion $f:M \to \mathbb{R}^n$. (i.e $df$ is invertible at every point $p \in M$, note ...
user234026's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
435 views

The convex hull of a manifold whose cobordism class is trivial

Let $M$ be a compact orientable $n$ dimensional manifold. Assume that $M$ has trivial cobordism class. Is there an embedding of $M$ in some Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^m$ such that the convex ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
428 views

An abstract characterization of line integrals

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold (endowed with a Riemann structure, if useful). If $\omega \in \Omega^1 (M)$ is a smooth $1$-form and $c : [0,1] \to M$ is a smooth curve, one defines the line integral of $...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Riemannian metrics preserved by diffeomorphisms

Let $f \neq Id$ be a diffeomorphism (of a smooth manifold $M$) which admits some Riemannain metric on $M$ making it an isometry. How many different metrics are preserved by $f$? Note that $Met(f)=\{g|...
Asaf Shachar's user avatar
  • 6,741
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Holonomy of a Kähler manifold

Hi, I have the following question: Let $(M,J, \omega)$ be a Kähler manifold (not necessary compact). We know that the holonomy group is a subgroup of $U_{n}$. Let $\Omega$ be a constant ($\nabla \...
Mina's user avatar
  • 93
6 votes
1 answer
423 views

Difference between parallel transport and ambient projection

Consider a $d$-dimensional complete embedded Riemannian submanifold $(M,g)$ of a Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^D$ (The major examples we consider are sphere and Stiefel manifold). Assume the sectional ...
Jason Li's user avatar
  • 125
6 votes
1 answer
338 views

Is Gauss map of a free boundary convex disk a diffeomorphism?

I asked this question on MSE, but obtained no answer. Maybe this is the right place to post it. Let $D$ be a properly embedded free boundary disk in the closed unit ball $\mathbb{B}^3$ of $\mathbb{R}^...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
310 views

Asymptotic bound on minimum epsilon cover of arbitrary manifolds

Let $M \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ be a compact smooth $k$-dimensional manifold embedded in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Let $\mathcal{N}(\varepsilon)$ denote the minimal cardinal of an $\varepsilon$-cover $P$ of $M$; ...
user141213's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
377 views

Existence of an isotopy in Riemannian manifold

Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifold, and $p,q\in M$ be two fixed points. We assume $p,q$ are close enough. Say, we assume $p$ and $q$ are in the same normal coordinate chart. It is clear that there ...
Hang's user avatar
  • 2,789
5 votes
2 answers
7k views

Inner products on differential forms

Given a Riemannian metric $g$ on a smooth manifold $M$, one defines an $L^2$-inner product on the space $\bigwedge^\ast(M)$ of differential forms by $$ \langle \alpha, \beta \rangle_g = \int_M \...
Slobodan Simić's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
620 views

Poisson equation on manifolds

Let $(\mathcal{M},g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold with Levi-Civita connection $\nabla$. It is well-known that the Poisson equation $$\Delta u=f$$ does have a solution on $C^{\infty}(\mathcal{M})$ ...
B.Hueber's user avatar
  • 1,171
5 votes
1 answer
343 views

Clarifying a result of Klingenberg

I am looking for some clarification on a result of Klingenberg. For context, I have a complete Riemannian manifold for which I would like to compute a lower bound on the injectivity radius at each ...
E G's user avatar
  • 163
5 votes
1 answer
264 views

What are the minimal local models for Riemannian manifolds? A local question about isometric embeddings

There are many results about isometric embeddings of Riemannian manifolds but I haven't been able to find one that quite answers this question (which I believe must have some kind answer in the ...
Saal Hardali's user avatar
  • 7,789
5 votes
1 answer
495 views

Volume comparison on Grassmannian

Let $G(r,n-r)$ be the Grassmannian, which can be identified with the space of all rank $r$ projection matrices in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Let $\mu$ be the uniform measure on $G(r,n-r)$. For any $\lambda_1,......
neverevernever's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
444 views

heat kernel on closed manifolds - error in Chavel's book?

first of all, I am not sure if this question fits here. I asked this question on math.stackexchange also but didn't get an answer so far. In Isaac Chavel's book Eigenvalues in Riemannian Geometry, ...
heatoperator's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
817 views

Partitions of Unity

Fix a metric $g$ on a smooth, closed manifold $\mathcal{M}$. Take a finite subcover of the manifold from its atlas. Is it true that any smooth partition of unity subordinate to this cover has ...
Michael Coffey's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
278 views

Levi-Civita connection from idempotents

Let $(M,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold. Let $V$ be a smooth complex vector bundle over $M$. We can write $V$ as the range of an idempotent $E$ in a matrix algebra $M_n(C^\infty(M))$ acting on a ...
geometricK's user avatar
  • 1,903
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Orthogonal complements in Hilbert bundles

It's a standard fact that for a finite-dimensional vector bundle with an inner product, the othogonal complement of any subbundle is itself a locally trivial vector bundle. What is known about the ...
Dan Ramras's user avatar
  • 8,803
5 votes
0 answers
219 views

Is the volume functional analytic in the space of embeddings? What about locally?

Let $(M^{n+1},g)$ be an analytic Riemannian manifold and let $\Sigma^n$ be a closed analytic manifold. Denote by $\operatorname{Emb}(\Sigma, M)$ the space of all smooth (or maybe analytic) two-sided ...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
101 views

How is this product of tensors defined?

I am reading the paper “ The first eigenvalue of a small geodesic ball in a riemannian manifold”, by Karp and Pinsky, from where I took the following: Here, $\Delta_{-2}$ denotes the usual Laplacian ...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
395 views

Embedding round manifolds into low dimensional spheres

Robert Bryant's answer to Isometric embedding of SO(3) into an euclidean space mentions that there is an isometric embedding of the round tetrahedral space $ SO_3/A_4 $ into the round sphere $ S^6 $. ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
3k views

space of geodesics

hallo, i have the following problem: Let $(M,g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold with metric $g$ and $\nabla$ be the Levi-Civita Connection. Denote by $G(M) =${$\gamma: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow M | \...
william's user avatar
  • 213
4 votes
2 answers
575 views

Do transvers foliations induce complex structure?

Hallo, I have the following question: Let $M$ smooth analytic manifold of dimension 4n. Assume furthermore that $M$ admits two foliations $A$, $B$, both with leaves of dimension 2n such that the ...
Marin's user avatar
  • 41
4 votes
1 answer
249 views

A question on null geodesics in Lorentzian geometry

Suppose that $(M,g)$ is a smooth Lorentzian manifold, that $I\subset \mathbb R$ is a closed finite interval and that $\gamma: I \to M$ is a smooth null geodesic on $M$, that is to say, it satisfies $$ ...
Ali's user avatar
  • 4,143
4 votes
2 answers
666 views

Unique Kahler-Einstein metric $g$ with $\mathrm{Ricc}(g)=-g$ when first Chern class $C_1(M)<0$: $\mathrm{Ricc}(h)=-g\,\Rightarrow\,h=cg$ for $c>0$?

On a compact Kahler manifold, let $g$ be the unique Kahler-Einstein metric with $\mathrm{Ricc}(g)=-g$, proved to exist by Yau and Aubin when the first Chern class $C_1(M)<0$. Question: Does $g$ ...
mdg's user avatar
  • 376
4 votes
1 answer
797 views

The heat kernel as an exponential of an integral

In $\mathbb{R}^n$, if $\gamma$ is a line segment between $x_0 = \gamma (0)$ and $x = \gamma (t)$, one has the following formula: $$\frac {\mathbb{e}^{- \frac{1}{4} \int_0^t <\dot{\gamma}, \dot{\...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
4 votes
1 answer
137 views

Geodesic-like curves stemming from the heat kernel on a manifold

Consider a smooth $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ with sufficiently nice geometric and topological properties such that there exist a unique heat kernel $(t,x,y) \mapsto p(t,x,y)$ on it ($t>...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Geodesic convexity and the Geometric Hessian

This is an elementary question in differential geometry. We know that for a smooth real-valued function $f$ defined on an open geodesically convex set of a Riemannian manifold $ \mathcal{X} \subset \...
user1952770's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
334 views

Hodge decomposition on non-compact manifolds

Let $(\mathcal{M},g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold without boundary. Then we have the well-known Hodge decomposition $$\Omega^{k}(\mathcal{M})\cong\mathcal{H}^{k}(\mathcal{M})\oplus\mathrm{ran}(\...
B.Hueber's user avatar
  • 1,171
4 votes
0 answers
196 views

Let $p : \tilde{M} \to M$ be the universal cover. Can we ever deduce curvature properties of $M$ from the curvature of $\tilde{M}$?

Let $M$ be a $C^{\infty}$-smooth, connected, paracompact manifold with universal cover $\tilde{M}$. Assume $M$ is not simply connected, so that the covering map $p : \tilde{M} \to M$ is not the ...
AmorFati's user avatar
  • 1,379
4 votes
0 answers
195 views

Classifying singularities of the Ricci flow

Context: A solution $(M^n, g(t))$ of the Ricci flow is said to encounter a Type III Singularity if $g(t)$ is defined for all $t \geq 0$ and: $$ \sup _{\mathcal{M}^{n} \times[0, \infty)} \|\...
Matheus Andrade's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
116 views

$\ell_p$ geodesic distance on smooth Riemannian manifold and Logarithmic Sobolev Inequalities

Bear with me, I'm not a professional geometer. Recently, I've been studying Logarithmic Sobolev Inequalities (LSI) for probability distributions on manifolds (e.g as done in works of Bobkvo et al. ...
dohmatob's user avatar
  • 6,853
4 votes
0 answers
191 views

A quantity associated with a Riemannian surface

Assume that $E$ is a Riemannian vector bundle, then its structure group is reduced to $O(n)$. Then the structure group of $E \oplus E$ is reduced to $D(O(n) \oplus O(n)) \subset Sp(2n)$ ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
778 views

Conformally-flat

Assume given a smooth manifold $(\mathbb{R}^n, g)$, where the metric is a scaled identity $g = e^{2f}I$. Is there a way to know if this is always a non-positive (sectional) curvature manifold? Note ...
Guillermozo's user avatar