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Geometrically formal 4-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature

Differential Geometry 2015-02-03 v3

Abstract

A Riemannian manifold is called geometrically formal if the wedge product of any two harmonic forms is again harmonic. We classify geometrically formal compact 4-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature. If the sectional curvature is strictly positive, the manifold must be homeomorphic to S^4 or diffeomorphic to CP^2. This conclusion stills holds true if the sectional curvature is strictly positive and we relax the condition of geometric formality to the requirement that the length of harmonic 2-forms is not too nonconstant. In particular, the Hopf conjecture on S^2 x S^2 holds in this class of manifolds.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.1325,
  title  = {Geometrically formal 4-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature},
  author = {Christian Baer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.1325},
  year   = {2015}
}

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