seminar

Let M be a compact manifold without boundary. One can define a smooth real valued function of the space of Riemannian metrics of M by taking Lp-norm of Riemannian curvature for p ≥ 2. Compact irreducible locally symmetric spaces are critical metrics for this functional. I will show that rank 1 symmetric spaces are local minima for this functional by studying stability of the same at those metrics. I will also exhibit examples of symmetric metrics which are not local minima for it. In the 2nd part of my talk I will talk about Wilking’s criterion for Ricci Flow. B Wilking has recently shown that one can associate a Ricci flow invariant cone of curvature operators C(S), which are nonnegative in a suitable sense, to every AdSO(n,C) invariant subset S ⊂ so(n,C). We show that if S is an AdSO(n,C) invariant subset of so(n, C) such that S ∪ {0} is closed and C+(S) ⊂ C(S) denotes the cone of curvature operators which are positive in the appropriate sense then one of the two possibilities holds: (a) The connected sum of any two Riemannian manifolds with curvature operators in C+(S) also admits a metric with curvature operator in C+(S) (b) The normalized Ricci flow on any compact Riemannian manifold M with curvature operator in C+(S) converges to a metric of constant positive sectional curvature.