Questions tagged [riemannian-geometry]
Riemannian Geometry is a subfield of Differential Geometry, which specifically studies "Riemannian Manifolds", manifolds with "Riemannian Metrics", which means that they are equipped with continuous inner products.
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Averaging maps of Riemannian manifolds
Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold. We know how to average functions $f\colon M\to {\mathbb R}$; the integral $\frac{\int_M f}{\int_M 1}$ returns a value in ${\mathbb R}$. If intead $f\colon M\...
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Bi-Lipschitz classification of germs of conformal metrics at a singularity
First let me introduce some definitions.
By a germ of conformal metrics at a singularity, or simply a germ, I mean a conformal Riemannian metric $g$ defined on a punctured neighborhood $U$ of $0$ in $...
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Divergence invariant lifting of a vector field via a submersion
What is an example of a smooth submersion $P:S^{3}\to S^{2}$ for which the following statment is Not true:
For every vector field $X$ on $S^{2}$ there is a non vanishing vector field $\tilde{X}$...
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Green's function and eigenvalues with multiplicity
Green's function of a differential operator contains a lot of information of that operator. In particular, if we have a differential operator on a compact manifold with discrete spectrum, then Green's ...
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Number of disjoint simple closed geodesics
According to Jairo comment on the first version of this question I revise the question as follows;
Let $g$ be a real analytic Riemannan metric on $S^{2}$. Is it true to say that:
There are at most a ...
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Thurston geometries in dimension 4
In the sense of W. Thurston here, there is 3 geometries in dimension 2 and there is 8 geometries in dimension 3.
Question: How many different geometries (in the sense of Thurston) do we have in ...
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Can simply or not simply connected maximally symmetric (Semi-)Riemannian manifold be completely classified?
A m-dimensional completed and connected (Semi-)Riemannian manifold which has $m(m+1)/2$ independent global Killing vector fields is called maximally symmetric space.
Then what are all possibilities ...
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Does this squared distance functional have a unique critical point on geodesically convex manifolds?
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold with distance function $d$, $C \subset M$ a geodesically convex set, $a=(a_i)_{i=1}^n \in C^n$, $W \in \mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}^{n \times n}$ and $J\colon C^n \rightarrow \...
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Question on a paper of Schoen and Yau
I am trying to understand the paper "Conformally flat manifolds, Kleinian groups and scalar curvature" by Schoen and Yau. In P.56, it says:
This implies that $\partial M$ has a zero $q$-capacity, ...
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Is there some Riemannian manifold's version of Whitney theorem?
Given any Riemannian or Semi-Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, does there exist a Eucildean space $(E,g^\prime)$ of enough high dimension with metric $g^\prime=diag\{-1,-1,...,+1,+1,...\}$ with any n ...
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When is the Riemannian manifold $\mathbb{R}^n$ complete as a metric space with respect to the Riemannian distance?
Consider the Riemannian manifold $\mathbb{R}^n$ and a smooth Riemannian metric $G:\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^{n\times{n}}$. What is the minimum assumption on $G$ such that the manifold $\mathbb{...
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Surface with bounded torsion propery [closed]
Let $S$ be a surface in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ with the following property:
There is a uniform constant $M$ such that for every Frenet curve $\gamma(t)$, contained in $S$, $| \tau(t) | \leq M$, for all ...
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Uniqueness of scalar curvature
I'm reading Gromov's notes
http://www.ihes.fr/~gromov/topics/SpacesandQuestions.pdf
and at page 7 they say that there is a unique second order differential operator $S$ from the space of Riemannian ...
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What is the expression of first eigen function of Laplacian on Hyperbolic plane?
Let $\Delta$ be the Laplacian (a positive operator) on $H^2$ the hyperbolic plane. My question is what is the expression of the eigenfunction $\Delta f= f/4$? (say in the ploar coordiante)
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Is there any progress on Problem 13 (from Schoen and Yau)?
This is closed related to the question asked here. I wonder if there is any progress on Problem 13 from the "Problem Section" in Schoen and Yau, page 281, problem 13, which asks:
Let $M_1$ and $M_2$ ...
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The complex heat kernel on a Riemann manifold
There is a vast literature available for the heat kernel. Nevertheless, I haven't been able to find almost anything useful about the kernel of the equation $\frac{1}{\mathbb{i}} \frac{\partial u}{\...
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Generalized metric on spacetimes
I read many articles about space-times. Most authors consider these spaces as warped product manifolds $I\times M$ where $I$ is an open connected interval of the real line and $M$ is a Riemannian ...
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Has uniform ellipticity implications on the spectrum?
Let $X$ be a complete Riemann surface with a smooth metric, and $L$ a line bundle on it also equipped with a smooth metric; associated to this data there is a Laplace-Beltrami operator $D_L$ acting on ...
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Does local reducibility imply global reducibility of universal covering?
Let $M$ be a locally reducible complete Riemannian manifold, that is, for any $p \in M$, we can find an open set $U$ around $p$ and two Riemannian manifolds $X$ and $Y$ such that $U$ is isometric to $...
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Harmonic maps and centers of mass in Riemannian manifolds
Consider a smooth map $f : M \to N$ between two Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ and $(N,h)$. I would like to think of the tension field of $f$ and the harmonicity of $f$ in terms of centers of mass.
I ...
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Horizontal lift of differential operator
On a Riemannian manifold $M$, there is a canonical horizontal lift $X^{\mathrm{hor}}$ of vector fields $X$ to $TM$, which is characterized by the two properties that
$X^{\mathrm{hor}}$ is a ...
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Hilbert's Theorem relevance to positive curvature
In differential geometry, Hilbert's theorem (1901) states that there exists no complete regular surface S of constant negative Gaussian curvature K immersed in $ R^3 $. This theorem answers the ...
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Intuition for Levi-Civita connection?
Levi-Civita connection is usually defined as the unique connection which is torsion free and preserves metric.
Question Is there some intuitively transparent constructive way to define it (or ...
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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 ...
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Is the identification between symmetric tensors and homogeneous polynomials useful?
The general question:
Given an $n$-dimensional vector space $V$ over a field $k$, there exists an identification
$$\mathrm{Sym}^d(V) \sim k[x_1, \dots, x_n]_d$$
between the space of symmetric order $...
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The unit tangent bundle of 2- or 4-manifolds as a principal $S^{1}$- or $S^{3}$-bundle
What type of obstructions have been studied so that the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian 2-(4-)manifold have a structure of a principal $S^{1}$-($S^{3}$-)bundle?
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Is it possible to make the principal bundle projection map totally geodesic?
Let $G$ be a compact (connected) Lie group. Suppose that a $G$-principal bundle $\pi:P\rightarrow Q$ is given.
Is it always possible to equip $P$ and $Q$ with Riemannian metrics, s.t. $\pi$ is ...
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Examples of non isometric surfaces having the same curvature function
I think it is really natural to believe, after doing Riemannian geometry for a little time, that sectional curvature encodes the all local geometry of a Riemannian manifold. One of the first thing one ...
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The limit of a sequence of embedded minimal disks in $\mathbb{R}^3$
Let $\Sigma_n,n\ge 1$ be a sequence of embedded minimal disks in $\mathbb{R}^3$ such that:
(1) $0\in\Sigma_n\subset B(0,r_n)$ with $r_n\to\infty$ as $n$ tend to $\infty$,
(2) $\partial\Sigma_n\...
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Nonpositive curvature of Stein manifolds
It is a theorem of Greene and Wu that a complete, simply-connected Kaehler manifold of everywhere nonpositive sectional curvature is a Stein manifold. I am curious about what kinds of additional ...
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Normal-like coordinates for weakly differentiable metrics
Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian $W^{2,p}$ metric, with $p>n/2$. Thus $g$ is at least continuous. At any point $P\in M$, do there exist local coordinates $x^i$ such that $g$ can be decomposed as $g_{ij} ...
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Approximation theorem for Anti-Self-Dual Metrics
Rounge's Theorem states that any meromorphic function on a domain inside $\mathbb{C}$ can be approximated (over compact subsets) by a sequence of rational functions (meromorphic functions on $\mathbb{...
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The necessary and sufficient condition for $\textbf{global}$ conformal flatness of a n-dim (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold
There is a theorem :
1) 2-dim (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold must be local conformal flat;
2) 3-dim (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold is local conformal flat iff the Cotton tensor vanishes.
3) n-dim (n>3) ...
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How is the metric tensor related to the Hessian of the first fundamental form?
I know that the metric tensor can not always be formulated as a Hessian, but sometimes it can. Can you help me to understand what the special conditions are under which the metric tensor is a Hessian ...
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Totally Geodesic Submanifolds
Suppose that $N$ is a totally geodesic submanifold of a complete Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$. Is it the case that a geodesic segment that minimizes length in the submanifold $N$ also minimizes length ...
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Behavior of the spectrum of the Laplacian under pointed smooth convergence
The Laplacian on a compact Riemannian manifold has a discrete spectrum. For example on a circle of perimeter $L$ the $n$-th eigenvalue starting at $0$ is $-\lambda_n = -(2\pi/L)^2 n^2$.
On the other ...
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Can the graph Laplacian be well approximated by a Laplace-Beltrami operator?
It seems rather well known that given a Laplace-Beltrami operator $\mathcal{L}_{M}$ on a manifold $M$ we can approximate its spectrum by that of a graph Laplacian $L_{G}$ for some $G$ (where $G$ is ...
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Parallel transport along a reparametrized geodesic
Let $M$ denote a Riemannian manifold, $\gamma$ a geodesic of $M$ defined on $\mathbb{R}$. Let $t_{0} \in \mathbb{R}$ and $(\alpha,\beta) \in \mathbb{R}^{2}$. I define the reparametrized geodesic $\...
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Does there exist this special kind of homeomorphism?
Let $A,B\subset\mathbb{R}^n, n\geq 2,$ are two different shaped spindles. One is thick and one is thin. (Sorry for my unprofessional statements. Unsure about how to say it rigorously.) So there are ...
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Focal points for the exponential map and Jacobi fields
It is known that in a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, if there is a closed geodesic and a non-zero, periodic, non-constant Jacobi field along it, then M has a focal point. Is the converse true? That is ...
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riemannian length of an element of the fundamental group of a manifold
It is a stupid question i guess but like they say if you ask you are stupid for 5 minutes and if you don't ask you are stupid forever . here is the question given a closed manifold $(M,g)$ and $\alpha$...
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Is it true that the geodesics on SO(n) and SU(n) are closed?
I mean for the bi-invariant metric (but actually any metric would work). In this metric geodesics are translates of 1-parameter subgroups so we need only to show that $exp(t X)$ for any X in the lie ...
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connections and curvature
Let $(M, g)$ be a Riemannian manifold. Is it possible to construct two different affine (or metric) connections, say $\nabla$ and $\nabla'$, which induce the SAME curvature tensor, i.e. $R(X, Y)Z=R'(...
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Local geodesics in uniquely geodesic spaces
A while ago I asked this
question in Math Stackexchange. Since I didn't receive an answer so far, I thought I'd ask it here.
Suppose $Y$ is a proper length space, where every pair of points $x,y\in Y$...
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Laplace-Beltrami operator on a Lie group
For an arbitrary Lie group, is it always possible to chose a left-invariant Riemannian metric such that the Laplace-Beltrami operator $\Delta$ is given by
$$\Delta f = \delta^{i j} X_i X_j f$$
for ...
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Smoothness of the exponential map at the origin
Let $(M, g)$ be a smooth Riemannian manifold, $p \in M$, and $\exp_P$ the exponential map at the point $P$:
$\exp_P: T(P) \to M$
It seems clear to me that $\exp_P$ is smooth on $U \setminus \{0\}$, ...
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Regularity of Patterson-Sullivan Length function
Let $(M,g)$ be a negatively curved, closed Riemannian manifold. I'll ask the question first, then explain the involved players. This data defines the Patterson-Sullivan length function,
\begin{align}...
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Spectral multipliers vis-a-vis Differential geometry
Let us mention two papers for examples: this one by Seeger and Sogge and this by Cheeger, Gromov and Taylor. One can also mention papers by Stein, for example, this one. There are also many others of ...
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Yang-Mills equations are not elliptic [closed]
How does one prove that the Yang-Mills equations (from classical Yang-Mills theory) are not elliptic?
Alternatively, how does one calculate the principal symbol of the Yang-Mills equations?
Can ...
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'Convex' slices of proper actions
Consider a Lie group $G$ acting properly on a manifold $M$. Then by the slice theorem we can find for any point $m\in M$ a submanifold transverse to the orbit $\mathcal{O}$ through $m$ and which is (...
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