No Arabic abstract
This is a survey of our work on spacelike graphic submanifolds in pseudo-Riemannian products, namely on Heinz-Chern and Bernstein-Calabi results and on the mean curvature flow, with applications to the homotopy of maps between Riemannian manifolds.
We prove the mean curvature flow of a spacelike graph in $(Sigma_1times Sigma_2, g_1-g_2)$ of a map $f:Sigma_1to Sigma_2$ from a closed Riemannian manifold $(Sigma_1,g_1)$ with $Ricci_1> 0$ to a complete Riemannian manifold $(Sigma_2,g_2)$ with bounded curvature tensor and derivatives, and with sectional curvatures satisfying $K_2leq K_1$, remains a spacelike graph, exists for all time, and converges to a slice at infinity. We also show, with no need of the assumption $K_2leq K_1$, that if $K_1>0$, or if $Ricci_1>0$ and $K_2leq -c$, $c>0$ constant, any map $f:Sigma_1to Sigma_2$ is trivially homotopic provided $f^*g_2<rho g_1$ where $rho=min_{Sigma_1}K_1/sup_{Sigma_2}K_2^+geq 0$, in case $K_1>0$, and $rho=+infty$ in case $K_2leq 0$. This largely extends some known results for $K_i$ constant and $Sigma_2$ compact, obtained using the Riemannian structure of $Sigma_1times Sigma_2$, and also shows how regularity theory on the mean curvature flow is simpler and more natural in pseudo-Riemannian setting then in the Riemannian one.
In this paper, we consider the evolution of spacelike graphic curves defined over a piece of hyperbola $mathscr{H}^{1}(1)$, of center at origin and radius $1$, in the $2$ dimensional Lorentz-Minkowski plane $mathbb{R}^{2}_{1}$ along an anisotropic inverse mean curvature flow with the vanishing Neumann boundary condition, and prove that this flow exists for all the time. Moreover, we can show that, after suitable rescaling, the evolving spacelike graphic curves converge smoothly to a piece of hyperbola of center at origin and prescribed radius, which actually corresponds to a constant function defined over the piece of $mathscr{H}^{1}(1)$, as time tends to infinity.
In the last 15 years, White and Huisken-Sinestrari developed a far-reaching structure theory for the mean curvature flow of mean convex hypersurfaces. Their papers provide a package of estimates and structural results that yield a precise description of singularities and of high curvature regions in a mean convex flow. In the present paper, we give a new treatment of the theory of mean convex (and k-convex) flows. This includes: (1) an estimate for derivatives of curvatures, (2) a convexity estimate, (3) a cylindrical estimate, (4) a global convergence theorem, (5) a structure theorem for ancient solutions, and (6) a partial regularity theorem. Our new proofs are both more elementary and substantially shorter than the original arguments. Our estimates are local and universal. A key ingredient in our new approach is the new non- collapsing result of Andrews. Some parts are also inspired by the work of Perelman. In a forthcoming paper, we will give a new construction of mean curvature flow with surgery based on the theorems established in the present paper.
A submanifold in space forms is isoparametric if the normal bundle is flat and principal curvatures along any parallel normal fields are constant. We study the mean curvature flow with initial data an isoparametric submanifold in Euclidean space and sphere. We show that the mean curvature flow preserves the isoparametric condition, develops singularities in finite time, and converges in finite time to a smooth submanifold of lower dimension. We also give a precise description of the collapsing.
In this article, we will use the harmonic mean curvature flow to prove a new class of Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities for strictly convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space in terms of total curvature, which is the integral of Gaussian curvature on the hypersurface. We will also use the harmonic mean curvature flow to prove a new class of geometric inequalities for horospherically convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space. Using these new Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities and the inverse mean curvature flow, we obtain an Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality for strictly convex hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space, which was previously proved for horospherically convex hypersurfaces by Wang and Xia [44]. Finally, we use the mean curvature flow to prove a new Heintze-Karcher type inequality for hypersurfaces with positive Ricci curvature in hyperbolic space.