arXiv2024
In $1996$, H.-D. Cao constructed a $U(n)$-invariant steady gradient K\"ahler-Ricci soliton on $\mathbb{C}^{n}$ and asked whether every steady gradient K\"ahler-Ricci soliton of positive curvature on $\mathbb{C}^{n}$ is necessarily $U(n)$-invariant (and hence unique up to scaling). Recently, Apostolov-Cifarelli answered this question in the negative for $n=2$. Here, we construct a family of $U(1)\times U(n-1)$-invariant, but not $U(n)$-invariant, complete steady gradient K\"ahler-Ricci solitons with strictly positive curvature operator on real $(1,\,1)$-forms (in particular, with strictly positive sectional curvature) on $\mathbb{C}^{n}$ for $n\geq3$, thereby answering Cao's question in the negative for $n\geq3$. This family of steady Ricci solitons interpolates between Cao's $U(n)$-invariant steady K\"ahler-Ricci soliton and the product of the cigar soliton and Cao's $U(n-1)$-invariant steady K\"ahler-Ricci soliton. This provides the K\"ahler analog of the Riemannian flying wings construction of Lai. In the process of the proof, we also demonstrate that the almost diameter rigidity of $\mathbb{P}^{n}$ endowed with the Fubini-Study metric does not hold even if the curvature operator is bounded below by $2$ on real $(1,\,1)$-forms.