arXiv research

The (Fefferman-Graham) ambient obstruction tensor is a conformally invariant symmetric trace-free 2-tensor on even-dimensional Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. The conformal deformation complex is a differential complex related to infinitesimal deformations of conformal structure. We construct a conformally …

Defines and proves properties of weighted renormalized volume coefficients.

It is shown that the variational derivative of the integral of Branson's Q-curvature is the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman-Graham. A classification of irreducible conformally invariant tensors modulo quadratic and higher degree terms in curvature is established.

On pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of even dimension $n\geq 4$, with everywhere vanishing (Fefferman-Graham) obstruction tensor, we construct a complex of conformally invariant differential operators. The complex controls the infinitesimal deformations of obstruction-flat structures, and, in the case of Riemannian signatur…

Study of conformally compact metrics and Lovelock tensors in even dimensions.

For a conformal manifold, we describe a new relation between the ambient obstruction tensor of Fefferman and Graham and the holonomy of the normal conformal Cartan connection. This relation allows us to prove several results on the vanishing and the rank of the obstruction tensor, for example for conformal structures a…

The study finds obstructions for certain Weyl curvature tensors on manifolds.

The behavior under conformal change of the renormalized volume coefficients associated to a pseudo-Riemannian metric is investigated. It is shown that they define second order fully nonlinear operators in the conformal factor whose algebraic structure is elucidated via the introduction of "extended obstruction tensors"…

The equation determining whether a projective structure admits a connection in its given projective class that has skew-symmetric Ricci tensor is an overdetermined system of semi-linear partial differential equations which we call the projective Einstein-Weyl (pEW) equation. In 2-dimensions, we give local obstructions …

On any manifold, any non-degenerate symmetric 2-form (metric) and any skew-symmetric (differential) form W can be reduced to a canonical form at any point, but not in any neighborhood: the respective obstructions being the Riemannian tensor and dW. The obstructions to flatness (to reducibility to a canonical form) are …

New curvature equations obstruct integrability of complex structures.

We extend the notions of CR GJMS operators and Q-curvature to the case of partially integrable CR structures. The total integral of the CR Q-curvature turns out to be a global invariant of compact nondegenerate partially integrable CR manifolds equipped with an orientation of the bundle of contact forms, which is nontr…

This paper studies torsion obstructions to complex sections on manifolds.

We study the boundary asymptotics of ACH metrics which are formally Einstein. In terms of the partially integrable almost CR structure induced on the boundary at infinity, existence and uniqueness of such formal asymptotic expansions are studied. It is shown that there always exist formal solutions to the Einstein equa…

In this paper we consider the geodesic X-ray transform with attenuation coefficient as a combination of smooth complex function and 1-form. We show that attenuated X-ray transform applied to the pair of tensors is injective modulo the natural obstruction.

The study finds obstructions to certain Riemannian metrics using Lorentzian geometry.

We establish fundamental results for a parabolic flow of Riemannian metrics introduced by Bahuaud-Helliwell in arXiv:1010:4287v1 which is based on the Fefferman-Graham ambient obstruction tensor. First, we obtain local $L^2$ smoothing estimates for the curvature tensor and use them to prove pointwise smoothing estimate…

Given a projective structure on a three-dimensional manifold, we find explicit obstructions to the local existence of a Levi-Civita connection in the projective class. These obstructions are given by projectively invariant tensors algebraically constructed from the projective Weyl curvature. We show, by examples, that …

The paper constructs metrics on compact manifolds using Aubin's deformations.

Using the tractor calculus to study smooth metric measure spaces, we adapt results of Gover and Nurowski to give sharp metric obstructions to the existence of quasi-Einstein metrics on suitably generic manifolds. We do this by introducing an analogue of the Weyl tractor $W$ to the setting of smooth metric measure space…

Study of group orderability using tensor and exterior squares.

Study Yang-Mills connections on four-manifolds, derive obstructions to bubbling.

Defines a new conformally invariant Yang-Mills type energy for 6-manifolds.

Local invertibility of ray transforms on convex manifolds.

Solves modified Schouten tensor problems in conformal metric classes.

We study the Riemann curvature tensor of (κ,μ,ν)-spaces when they have almost cosymplectic and almost Kenmotsu structures, giving its writing explicitly. This leads to the definition and study of a natural generalisation of the contact metric (κ,μ,ν)-spaces. We present examples or obstruction results of these spaces in…

Researchers solve metric curvature equations on manifolds with boundary.

Researchers study solitons on homogeneous manifolds, proving properties of specific types of solitons.

We establish short-time existence and regularity for higher-order flows generated by a class of polynomial natural tensors that, after an adjustment by the Lie derivative of the metric with respect to a suitable vector field, have strongly parabolic linearizations. We apply this theorem to flows by powers of the Laplac…

Compact formulas for Yang-Mills conditions on conformal manifolds.

Extends Weyl geometry from conformal to Weyl manifolds using ambient metrics.

We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a Riemannian four-dimensional manifold $(M, g)$ with anti-self-dual Weyl tensor to be locally conformal to a Ricci--flat manifold. These conditions are expressed as the vanishing of scalar and tensor conformal invariants. The invariants obstruct the existence of parallel …

In this article we introduce local gauge conditions under which many curvature tensors appearing in conformal geometry, such as the Weyl, Cotton, Bach, and Fefferman-Graham obstruction tensors, become elliptic operators. The gauge conditions amount to fixing an $n$-harmonic coordinate system and normalizing the determi…

We construct a series of conformally invariant differential operators acting on weighted trace-free symmetric 2-tensors by a method similar to Graham-Jenne-Mason-Sparling's. For compact conformal manifolds of dimension even and greater than or equal to four with vanishing ambient obstruction tensor, one of these operat…

Chern-Simons invariants of closed oriented Riemannian $3$-manifolds are introduced and studied from the basics. Their first-order variation is the Cotton tensor. The properties of the Cotton tensor: symmetry, conformal covariance, trace- and divergence-freedom, are recovered as corollaries of the Chern-Simons invariant…

For a manifold with an affine connection, we prove formulas which infinitesimally quantify the gap in a certain naturally defined open geodesic quadrilateral associated to a pair of tangent vectors $u$, $v$ at a point of the manifold. We show that the 1st order infinitesimal obstruction to the quadrilateral to close is…

On a Möbius surface, as defined by D. Calderbank, we study a variant of the Einstein-Weyl (EW) equation which we call scalar-flat Möbius EW (sf-MEW). This is a conformally invariant, finite type, overdetermined system of semi-linear partial differential equations. We derive local algebraic constraints for this equation…

We show that if H is a cocommutative Hopf algebra, then there is a natural action of Aut(F_n) on the nth tensor power of H which induces an Out(F_n) action on a quotient \overline{H^{\otimes n}}. In the case when H=T(V) is the tensor algebra, we show that the invariant Tr^C of the cokernel of the Johnson homomorphism s…

In this paper we study the local magnetic ray transform of symmetric tensor fields up to rank two on a Riemannian manifold of dimension $\geq 3$ with boundary. In particular, we consider the magnetic ray transform of the combinations of tensors of different orders due to the nature of magnetic flows. We show that such …

Study uncovers complex critical points in tensor decomposition.

We study Riemannian foliations with complex leaves on Kaehler manifolds. The tensor T, the obstruction to the foliation be totally geodesic, is interpreted as a holomorphic section of a certain vector bundle. This enables us to give classification results when the manifold is compact.

We establish Carleman inequalities for the weighted laplacian associated to an expanding gradient Ricci soliton. As a consequence, a unique continuation at infinity is proved for asymptotically Ricci flat Ricci expanders. The obstruction at infinity is a symmetric 2-tensor defined on the link of the corresponding asymp…

We show that solutions to certain higher-order intrinsic geometric flows on a compact manifold, including some flows generated by the ambient obstruction tensor, are unique. With the goal of providing a complete self-contained proof, details surrounding map covariant derivatives and a careful application of the DeTurck…

Two obstructions found to keep a foliation transverse.

We consider integral geometry inverse problems for unitary connections and skew-Hermitian Higgs fields on manifolds with negative sectional curvature. The results apply to manifolds in any dimension, with or without boundary, and also in the presence of trapped geodesics. In the boundary case, we show injectivity of th…

A unified framework for Poisson and Jacobi structures from 2-covariant tensors

We find obstructions to the existence of Einstein metrics of non-negative sectional curvature on a smooth closed simply connected manifold of any dimension. The results are achieved by combining the classical Morse theory of the loop space with a new upper bound for the topological entropy of the geodesic flow in terms…

We address the integrability conditions of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations for time-dependent SODE using the Spencer version of the Cartan-Kähler theorem. We consider a linear partial differential operator $P$ given by the two Helmholtz conditions expressed in terms of semi-basic 1-forms and study its…