arXiv research

We provide techniques for studying the nonnegatively curved left-invariant metrics on a compact Lie group. For "straight" paths of left-invariant metrics starting at bi-invariant metrics and ending at nonnegatively curved metrics, we deduce a nonnegativity property of the initial derivative of curvature. We apply this …

Let V be an open manifold with complete nonnegatively curved metric such that the normal sphere bundle to a soul has no section. We prove that the souls of nearby nonnegatively curved metrics on V are smoothly close. Combining this result with some topological properties of pseudoisotopies we show that for many V the s…

New examples show nonnegatively curved metrics with same soul but different moduli space components.

Given compact Lie groups H\subset G, we study the space of G-invariant metrics on G/H with nonnegative sectional curvature. For an intermediate subgroup K between H and G, we derive conditions under which enlarging the Lie algebra of K maintains nonnegative curvature on G/H. Such an enlarging is possible if (K,H) is a …

We study nonnegatively curved metrics on S^2xR^4. First, we prove rigidity theorems for connection metrics; for example, the holonomy group of the normal bundle of the soul must lie in a maximal torus of SO(4). Next, we prove that Wilking's almost-positively curved metric on S2xS3 extends to a nonnegatively curved metr…

Study shows infinitely many nonnegatively curved metrics on quotient spaces.

Study shows infinitely many nonnegatively curved metric spaces on exotic 7-manifolds.

We study topological properties of the Gromov-Hausdorff metric on the set of isometry classes of nonnegatively curved $2$-spheres.

We establish a link between rational homotopy theory and the problem which vector bundles admit complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature. As an application, we show for a large class of simply-connected nonnegatively curved manifolds that, if C lies in the class and T is a torus of positive dimensi…

We classify the complete metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on M^2xR^2, where M^2 is any compact 2-manifold.

We find new obstructions to the existence of complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature on manifolds with infinite fundamental groups. In particular, we construct many examples of vector bundles whose total spaces admit no nonnegatively curved metric.

We derive a curvature-variation formula for a path of left-invariant metrics on a compact Lie group, beginning at a bi-invariant metric. We prove rigidity theorems for paths which remain nonnegatively curved, and we make progress towards a classification of the left-invariant metrics with nonnegative curvature on SO(4)…

We apply various topological methods to distinguish connected components of moduli spaces of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on open manifolds. The new geometric ingredient is that souls of nearby nonnegatively curved metrics are ambiently isotopic.

B. Wilking introduced the dual foliation associated to a metric foliation in a Riemannian manifold with nonnegative sectional curvature, and proved that when the curvature is strictly positive, the dual foliation contains a single leaf, so that any two points in the ambient space can be joined by a horizontal curve. We…

Condition for embedding metric spaces into curved manifolds.

We develop techniques for classifying the nonnegatively curved left-invariant metrics on a compact Lie group G. We prove rigidity theorems for general G and a partial classification for G=SO(4). Our approach is to reduce the general question to an infinitesimal version; namely, to classify the directions one can move a…

We classify nonnegatively curved simply connected 4-manifolds with circle symmetry up to equivariant diffeomorphisms. The main problem is rule out knotted curves in the singular set of the orbit space. As an extension of this work we classify all knots in S^3 which can be realized as an extremal set with respect to an …

We address the question: how large is the family of complete metrics with nonnegative sectional curvature on S^2xR^3? We classify the connection metrics, and give several examples of non-connection metrics. We provide evidence that the family is small by proving some rigidity results for metrics more general than conne…

We consider invariant Riemannian metrics on compact homogeneous spaces $G/H$ where an intermediate subgroup $K$ between $G$ and $H$ exists. In this case, the homogeneous space $G/H$ is the total space of a Riemannian submersion. The metrics constructed by shrinking the fibers in this way can be interpreted as metrics o…

We describe a construction of Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on a closed smooth nonorientable 4-manifold with fundamental group of order two that realizes a homotopy class that was not previously known to contain nonnegatively curved manifolds. The procedure yields new metrics of nonnegative sect…

In this note, we answer positively a question by Belegradek and Kapovitch about the relation between rational homotopy theory and a problem in Riemannian geometry which asks that total spaces of which vector bundles over compact nonnegative curved manifolds admit (complete) metrics with nonnegative curvature.

We determine the homeomorphism type of the space of smooth complete nonnegatively curved metrics on surfaces of positive Euler characteristic equipped with the topology of $C^γ$ uniform convergence on compact sets, when $γ$ is infinite or is not an integer. If $γ=\infty$, the space of metrics is homeomorphic to the sep…

This is a slightly altered version of the authors thesis from 2014. In the first main part we show that the quotient space of a compact, simply connected and nonnegatively curved Riemannian 4-manifold by an effective, isometric circle-action admits an approximation in Gromov-Hausdorff topology by smooth, positively cur…

Study shows infinite families of manifolds with nonnegative curvature.

The Kreck-Stolz s invariant is used to distinguish connected components of the moduli space of positive scalar curvature metrics. We use a formula of Kreck and Stolz to calculate the s invariant for metrics on S^n bundles with nonnegative sectional curvature. We then apply it to show that the moduli spaces of metrics w…

We show that a certain family of cohomogeneity one manifolds does not admit an invariant metric of nonnegative sectional curvature, unless it admits one with positive curvature. As a consequence, the classification of nonnegatively curved cohomogeneity one manifolds in dimension 7 is reduced to only one further family …

We use an index-theoretic technique of Hitchin to show that the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on certain open spin manifolds has nontrivial homotopy groups in infinitely many degrees. A new ingredient of independent interest is homotopy density of the subspace of metrics with c…

Let $M$ be a Milnor sphere or, more generally, the total space of a linear $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$ with $H^4(M;\mathbb{Q})=0$. We show that the moduli space of metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on $M$ has infinitely many path components. The same holds true for the moduli space of metrics of positive Ricci cur…

We prove that certain involutions defined by Vogell and Burghelea-Fiedorowicz on the rational algebraic $K$-theory of spaces coincide. This gives a way to compute the positive and negative eigenspaces of the involution on rational homotopy groups of pseudoisotopy spaces from the involution on rational $S^{1}$-equivaria…

We study the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative curvature on the plane equipped with the C^k topology. If k is infinite, we show that the space is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space. For any k we prove that the space cannot be made disconnected by removing a finite dimensional subset. A simila…

Let $M$ be a compact nonnegatively curved Riemannian manifold admitting an isometric action by a compact Lie group $\mathsf G$ in a way that the quotient space $M/\mathsf G$ has nonempty boundary. Let $π: M \to M/\mathsf G$ denote the quotient map and $B$ be any boundary stratum of $M/\mathsf G$. Via a specific soul co…

Totally geodesic dual leaves on curved manifolds are also curved.

We consider invariant Riemannian metrics on compact homogeneous spaces G/H where an intermediate subgroup K between G and H exists, so that the homogeneous space G/H is the total space of a Riemannian submersion. We study the question as to whether enlarging the fibers of the submersion by a constant scaling factor ret…

We show that all vector bundles over CP^2 which are not spin admit a complete metric with nonnegative sectional curvature. In the proof we construct a nonnegatively curved metric on the corresponding principle bundle by showing that it admits a cohomogeneity one action with singular orbits of codimension 2. This is clo…

Sharp estimate shown to be rigid on curved surfaces.

New rigidity theorem for sharp spectral gap in nonnegatively curved spaces.

We construct the first examples of manifolds, the simplest one being the product of S^3, S^4, and R^5, which admit infinitely many complete nonnegatively curved metrics with pairwise nonhomeomorphic souls.

Study Kähler geometry on vector bundles over elliptic curves.

Study shows unbounded Pontryagin numbers on curved manifolds.

For each nonnegative integer we find an open (4m+9)-dimensional simply-connected manifold admitting complete nonnegatively curved metrics whose souls are non-diffeomorphic, homeomorphic, and have codimension 2. We give a diffeomorphism classification of the pairs (N, soul) when N is a nontrivial complex line bundle ove…

We show that almost nonnegatively curved m-dimensional manifolds are, up to finite cover, nilpotent spaces in the sense of homotopy theory and have C(m)-nilpotent fundamental groups. We also show that up to a finite cover almost nonnegatively curved manifolds are fiber bundles with simply connected fibers over nilmanif…

We prove that a class of asymptotically nonnegatively curved manifolds (in the sense of Abresch) satisfying some uniform Euclidean type volume growth conditions contains only finitely many homeomorphism types.

Log Sobolev and Michael Simon inequalities for tensor fields on curved manifolds.

We prove several finiteness theorems for the normal bundles to souls in nonnegatively curved manifolds. More generally, we obtain finiteness results for open Riemannian manifolds whose topology is concentrated on compact domains of ``bounded geometry''.

Study proves inequalities for mass-capacity on curved spaces.

We classify compact simply-connected 5-dimensional manifolds which admit a metric of nonnegative curvature with a connected non-abelian group acting by isometries. We show that they are diffeomorphic to either S^5, S^3 x S^2, the nontrivial S^3-bundle over S^2 or the Wu-manifold, SU(3)/SO(3). This result is a consequen…

We give new counterexamples to a question of Karsten Grove, whether there are only finitely many rational homotopy types among simply connected manifolds satisfying the assumptions of Gromov's Betti number theorem. Our counterexamples are homogeneous Riemannian manifolds, in contrast to previous ones. They consist of t…

In this paper we prove the conjecture of Alexander and Currier that states, except for covering maps of equidistant surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space, a complete, nonnegatively curved immersed hypersurface in hyperbolic space is necessarily properly embedded.