No Arabic abstract
Given a fixed closed manifold M, we exhibit an explicit formula for the distance function of the canonical L^2 Riemannian metric on the manifold of all smooth Riemannian metrics on M. Additionally, we examine the (metric) completion of the manifold of metrics with respect to the L^2 metric and show that there exists a unique minimal path between any two points. This path is also given explicitly. As an application of these formulas, we show that the metric completion of the manifold of metrics is a CAT(0) space.
We consider a closed three-dimensional contact sub-Riemannian manifold. The objective of this note is to provide a precise description of the sub-Riemannian geodesics with large initial momenta: we prove that they spiral around the Reeb orbits, not only in the phase space but also in the configuration space. Our analysis is based on a normal form along any Reeb orbit due to Melrose.
We prove that a minimal disc in a CAT(0) space is a local embedding away from a finite set of branch points. On the way we establish several basic properties of minimal surfaces: monotonicity of area densities, density bounds, limit theorems and the existence of tangent maps. As an application, we prove Fary-Milnors theorem in the CAT(0) setting.
We show that the class of CAT(0) spaces is closed under suitable conformal changes. In particular, any CAT(0) space admits a large variety of non-trivial deformations.
Let $M^n$ be a closed convex hypersurface lying in a convex ball $B(p,R)$ of the ambient $(n+1)$-manifold $N^{n+1}$. We prove that, by pinching Heintze-Reillys inequality via sectional curvature upper bound of $B(p,R)$, 1st eigenvalue and mean curvature of $M$, not only $M$ is Hausdorff close and almost isometric to a geodesic sphere $S(p_0,R_0)$ in $N$, but also its enclosed domain is $C^{1,alpha}$-close to a geodesic ball of constant curvature.
Metrics on Lie groupoids and differentiable stacks have been introduced recently, extending the Riemannian geometry of manifolds and orbifolds to more general singular spaces. Here we continue that theory, studying stacky curves on Riemannian stacks, measuring their length using stacky metrics, and introducing stacky geodesics. Our main results show that the length of stacky curves measure distances on the orbit space, characterize stacky geodesics as locally minimizing curves, and establish a stacky version of Hopf-Rinow Theorem. We include a concise overview that bypasses nonessential technicalities, and we lay stress on the examples of orbit spaces of isometric actions and leaf spaces of Riemannian foliations.