English

Singular sets in noncollapsed Ricci flow limit spaces

Differential Geometry 2026-04-10 v2

Abstract

In this paper, we study the singular set S\mathcal{S} of a noncollapsed Ricci flow limit space, arising as the pointed Gromov--Hausdorff limit of a sequence of closed Ricci flows with uniformly bounded entropy. The singular set S\mathcal{S} admits a natural stratification: \begin{equation*} \mathcal S^0 \subset \mathcal S^1 \subset \cdots \subset \mathcal S^{n-2}=\mathcal S, \end{equation*} where a point zSkz \in \mathcal S^k if and only if no tangent flow at zz is (k+1)(k+1)-symmetric. In general, the Minkowski dimension of Sk\mathcal S^k with respect to the spacetime distance is at most kk. We show that the subset SqckSk\mathcal{S}^k_{\mathrm{qc}} \subset \mathcal{S}^k, consisting of points where some tangent flow is given by a standard cylinder or its quotient, is parabolic kk-rectifiable. In dimension four, we prove the stronger statement that each stratum Sk\mathcal{S}^k is parabolic kk-rectifiable for k{0,1,2}k \in \{0, 1, 2\}. Furthermore, we establish a sharp uniform H2\mathscr{H}^2-volume bound for S\mathcal{S} and show that, up to a set of H2\mathscr{H}^2-measure zero, the tangent flow at any point in S\mathcal{S} is backward unique. In addition, we derive L1L^1-curvature bounds for four-dimensional closed Ricci flows. As an application, we resolve Perelman's bounded diameter conjecture for three-dimensional closed Ricci flows.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.26317,
  title  = {Singular sets in noncollapsed Ricci flow limit spaces},
  author = {Hanbing Fang and Yu Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.26317},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Minor updates. 139 pages. Comments are welcome!

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:13:32.112Z