arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Dan Knopf.
Regarding Ricci flow as a dynamical system, we derive sufficient conditions for noncompact stationary (Ricci-flat) solutions to possess infinite-dimensional unstable manifolds, and provide examples satisfying those criteria that have uncountably many unstable perturbations.
We demonstrate that any four-dimensional shrinking Ricci soliton $(\mathcal B \times {\mathbb S^2}, g)$, where $\mathcal B$ is any two-dimensional complete noncompact surface and $g$ is a warped product metric over the base $\mathcal B$, has to be isometric to the generalized cylinder $\mathbb R^2\times\mathbb S^2$ equipped with the standard cylindrical metric. After completing this classification, we study Ricci flow solutions that are multiply warped products -- but not products -- and provide rigorous examples of the formation of generalized cylinder singularity models $\mathbb R^k\times\mathbb S^\ell$.
Kr\"oncke has shown that the Fubini-Study metric is an unstable generalized stationary solution of Ricci flow [Kr\"o20]. In this paper, we carry out numerical simulations which indicate that Ricci flow solutions originating at unstable perturbations of the Fubini-Study metric develop local singularities modeled by the blowdown soliton discovered in [FIK03].
In previous work [GIKW21], we have presented evidence from numerical simulations that the Type-II singularities of mean curvature flow (MCF) of rotationally-symmetric, complete, noncompact embedded hypersurfaces constructed in [IW19, IWZ21] are stable. More precisely, it is shown in that paper that for small rotationally-symmetric perturbations of initial embeddings near the "tip", numerical simulations of MCF of such initial embeddings develop the same Type-II singularities with the same "bowl soliton" blowup behaviors in a neighborhood of the singularity. It is also shown in that work that for small rotationally-symmetric perturbations of the initial embeddings that are sufficiently far away from the tip, MCF develops Type-I "neckpinch" singularities. In this work, we again use numerical simulations to show that MCF subject to initial perturbations that are not rotationally symmetric behaves asymptotically like it does for rotationally-symmetric perturbations. In particular, if we impose sinusoidal angular dependence on the initial embeddings, we find that for perturbations near the tip, evolutions by MCF asymptotically lose their angular dependence -- becoming round -- and develop Type-II bowl soliton singularities. As well, if we impose sinusoidal angular dependence on the initial embeddings for perturbations sufficiently far from the tip, the angular dependence again disappears as Type-I neckpinch singularities develop. The numerical analysis carried out in this work is an adaptation of the "overlap" method introduced in [GIKW21] and permits angular dependence.
We present a numerical study of the local stability of mean curvature flow of rotationally symmetric, complete noncompact hypersurfaces with Type-II curvature blowup. Our numerical analysis employs a novel overlap method that constructs "numerically global" (i.e., with spatial domain arbitrarily large but finite) flow solutions with initial data covering analytically distinct regions. Our numerical results show that for certain prescribed families of perturbations, there are two classes of initial data that lead to distinct behaviors under mean curvature flow. Firstly, there is a "near" class of initial data which lead to the same singular behaviour as an unperturbed solution; in particular, the curvature at the tip of the hypersurface blows up at a Type-II rate no slower than $(T-t)^{-1}$. Secondly, there is a "far" class of initial data which lead to solutions developing a local Type-I nondegenerate neckpinch under mean curvature flow. These numerical findings further suggest the existence of a "critical" class of initial data which conjecturally lead to mean curvature flow of noncompact hypersurfaces forming local Type-II degenerate neckpinches with the highest curvature blowup rate strictly slower than $(T-t)^{-1}$.
We study singularity formation of complete Ricci flow solutions, motivated by two applications: (a) improving the understanding of the behavior of the essential blowup sequences of Enders-Muller-Topping on noncompact manifolds, and (b) obtaining further evidence in favor of the conjectured stability of generalized cylinders as Ricci flow singularity models.
In dimension $n=3$, there is a complete theory of weak solutions of Ricci flow - the singular Ricci flows introduced by Kleiner and Lott - which are unique across singularities, as was proved by Bamler and Kleiner. We show that uniqueness should not be expected to hold for Ricci flow weak solutions in dimensions $n\geq5$. Specifically, we exhibit a discrete family of asymptotically conical gradient shrinking solitons, each of which admits non-unique forward continuations by gradient expanding solitons. (v2) We recast the Main Theorem in the language of Kleiner and Lott's Ricci Flow spacetimes and in addition show that topological nonuniqueness is possible for the solutions we construct.
We investigate Riemannian (non-Kahler) Ricci flow solutions that develop finite-time Type-I singularities and present evidence in favor of a conjecture that parabolic rescalings at the singularities converge to singularity models that are shrinking Kahler-Ricci solitons. Specifically, the singularity model for these solutions is expected to be the "blowdown soliton" discovered in [FIK03]. Our partial results support the conjecture that the blowdown soliton is stable under Ricci flow, as well as the conjectured stability of the subspace of Kahler metrics under Ricci flow.
The intent of this short note is to provide context for and an independent proof of the discovery of Klaus Kroencke that complex projective space with its canonical Fubini--Study metric is dynamically unstable under Ricci flow in all complex dimensions N>1. The unstable perturbation is not Kaehler. This provides a counterexample to a well known conjecture widely attributed to Hamilton. Moreover, it shows that the expected stability of the subspace of Kaehler metrics under Ricci flow, another conjecture believed by several experts, needs to be interpreted in a more nuanced way than some may have expected.
We prove that all smooth sphere bundles that admit fiberwise 1/4-pinched metrics are induced bundles of vector bundles, so their structure groups reduce from the diffeomorphism group of the sphere to the orthogonal group. This result implies the existence of many smooth n-sphere bundles over a k-sphere that do not support strictly 1/4-pinched positively curved Riemannian metrics on their fibers.
We study "warped Berger" solutions $\big(\mc S^1\times\mc S^3,G(t)\big)$ of Ricci flow: generalized warped products with the metric induced on each fiber $\{s\}\times\mathrm{SU}(2)$ a left-invariant Berger metric. We prove that this structure is preserved by the flow, that these solutions develop finite-time neckpinch singularities, and that they asymptotically approach round product metrics in space-time neighborhoods of their singular sets, in precise senses. These are the first examples of Ricci flow solutions without rotational symmetry that become asymptotically rotationally symmetric locally as they develop local finite-time singularities.
We study noncompact surfaces evolving by mean curvature flow. Without any symmetry assumptions, we prove that any solution that is $C^3$-close at some time to a standard neck will develop a neckpinch singularity in finite time, will become asymptotically rotationally symmetric in a space-time neighborhood of its singular set, and will have a unique tangent flow.
We study surfaces evolving by mean curvature flow (MCF). For an open set of initial data that are $C^3$-close to round, but without assuming rotational symmetry or positive mean curvature, we show that MCF solutions become singular in finite time by forming neckpinches, and we obtain detailed asymptotics of that singularity formation. Our results show in a precise way that MCF solutions become asymptotically rotationally symmetric near a neckpinch singularity.
In earlier work, we derived formal matched asymptotic profiles for families of Ricci flow solutions developing Type-II degenerate neckpinches. In the present work, we prove that there do exist Ricci flow solutions that develop singularities modeled on each such profile. In particular, we show that for each positive integer $k\geq3$, there exist compact solutions in all dimensions $m\geq3$ that become singular at the rate (T-t)^{-2+2/k}$.
Gu and Zhu have shown that Type-II Ricci flow singularities develop from nongeneric rotationally symmetric Riemannian metrics on $S^m$, for all $m\geq 3$. In this paper, we describe and provide plausibility arguments for a detailed asymptotic profile and rate of curvature blow-up that we predict such solutions exhibit.
In this paper, we construct smooth forward Ricci flow evolutions of singular initial metrics resulting from rotationally symmetric neckpinches on S^(n+1), without performing an intervening surgery. In the restrictive context of rotational symmetry, this construction gives evidence in favor of Perelman's hope for a "canonically defined Ricci flow through singularities".
The classic 2pi-Theorem of Gromov and Thurston constructs a negatively curved metric on certain 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn filling. By Geometrization, any such manifold admits a hyperbolic metric. We outline a program using cross curvature flow to construct a smooth one-parameter family of metrics between the "2pi-metric" and the hyperbolic metric. We make partial progress in the program, proving long-time existence, preservation of negative sectional curvature, curvature bounds, and integral convergence to hyperbolic for the metrics under consideration.
Important models for immortal solutions of Ricci flow that collapse with bounded curvature come from locally G-invariant solutions on principal bundles, where G is a nilpotent Lie group. In this paper, we establish convergence and asymptotic stability, modulo smooth finite-dimensional center manifolds, of certain R^{N}-invariant solutions. When the dimension of the total space is three, these results are relevant to work of Lott classifying the asymptotic behavior of all 3-dimensional Ricci flow solutions whose sectional curvatures and diameters are respectively O(t^{-1}) and O(t^{1/2}).