Differential Geometry

It is shown that there are infinitely many compact orientable smooth 4-manifolds which do not admit Einstein metrics, but nevertheless satisfy the strict Hitchin-Thorpe inequality 2 chi > 3 |tau|. The examples in question arise as non-minimal complex algebraic surfaces of general type, and the method of proof stems from Seiberg-Witten theory.

We obtain a gradient estimate for the Gauss maps from complete spacelike constant mean curvature hypersurfaces in Minkowski space into the hyperbolic space. As applications, we prove a Bernstein theorem which says that if the image of the Gauss map is bounded from one side, then the spacelike constant mean curvature hypersurface must be linear. This result extends the previous theorems obtained by B. Palmer and Y.L. Xin where they assume that the image of the Gauss map is bounded. We also proved a Bernstein theorem for spacelike complete surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector in four-dimensional spaces.

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the Palais-Smale Condition C to hold for the Yang-Mills functional for invariant connections on a principal bundle over a compact manifold of any dimension. It is assumed that the connections are invariant under the action of a compact Lie group on the manifold, and that all orbits of the action have codimension three or less.

We prove that any two smooth h-cobordant simply-connected 4-manifolds can be obtained by taking two manifolds with boundary, one of which is contractible, and gluing them along the boundary via two different attaching maps.

In a complete Riemannian manifold (M,g) if the hessian of a real valued function satisfies some suitable conditions then it restricts the geometry of (M,g) . In this paper we characterize all compact rank-1 symmetric spaces, as those Riemannian manifolds (M,g) admitting a real valued function u such that the hessian of u has atmost two eigenvalues −u and − u+1 2 , under some mild hypothesis on (M,g) . This generalises a well known result of Obata which characterizes all round spheres.

We prove that there does not exist a nontrivial quantization of the Poisson algebra of the symplectic manifold S^2 which is irreducible on the subalgebra generated by the components {S_1,S_2,S_3} of the spin vector. We also show that there does not exist such a quantization of the Poisson subalgebra P consisting of polynomials in {S_1,S_2,S_3}. Furthermore, we show that the maximal Poisson subalgebra of P containing {1,S_1,S_2,S_3} that can be so quantized is just that generated by {1,S_1,S_2,S_3}.

For the geodesic flow of an odd dimensional hyperbolic manifold we prove a Lefschetz type formula. The local terms are Fuller indices of the closed orbits. The global "Frobenius operator" is the generator of the flow and its action on tangential cohomology.

In this note we shall show that the sectional curvature of a harmonic manifold is bounded on both sides. In fact we shall give a pinching constant for all harmonic manifolds. We shall use the imbedding theorem for harmonic manifolds proved by Z.I.Szabo and the description of screw lines in hilbert spaces to prove the result.

In 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry, the classical Schlafli formula expresses the variation of the volume of a hyperbolic polyhedron in terms of the length of its edges and of the variation of its dihedral angles. We prove a similar formula for the variation of the volume of the convex core of a geometrically finite hyperbolic 3--manifold M, as we vary the hyperbolic metric of M. In this case, the pleating locus of the boundary of the convex core is not constant any more, but we showed in an earlier paper that the variation of the bending of the boundary of the convex core is described by a geodesic lamination with a certain transverse distribution. We prove that the variation of the volume of the convex core is then equal to 1/2 the length of this transverse distribution.

For SU(2) (or SO(3) ) Donaldson theory on a 4-manifold X , we construct a simple geometric representative for μ of a point. Let p be a generic point in X . Then the set {[A]| F − A (p) is reducible } , with coefficient -1/4 and appropriate orientation, is our desired geometric representative.