Related papers: 1/4-Pinched Contact Sphere Theorem

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical points of the total scalar curvature functional restricted to space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unitary volume, for simplicity CPE metrics. It was conjectured in…

Given a contact 3-manifold we consider the problem of when a given function can be realized as the Ricci curvature of a Reeb vector field for the contact structure. We will use topological tools to show that every admissible function can be…

We study the property of spectral-tightness of Riemannian manifolds, which means that the bottom of the spectrum of the Laplacian separates the universal covering space from any other normal covering space of a Riemannian manifold. We prove…

We show that the 2-jet bundle of local Riemannian metrics on an arbitrary differentiable manifold admits a section which pointwise fulfills the curvature relation sec(g)=a for any real number a. It follows by Gromov's h-principle for open,…

We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…

We provide a general contractibility criterion for subsets of Riemannian metrics on the disc. For instance, this result applies to the space of metrics that have positive Gauss curvature and make the boundary circle convex (or geodesic).…

In this paper, we prove that a Riemannian $n$-manifold $M$ with sectional curvature bounded above by $1$ that contains a minimal $2$-sphere of area $4\pi$ which has index at least $n-2$ has constant sectional curvature $1$. The proof uses…

In this paper, for any compact Lie group $G$, we show that the space of $G$-invariant Riemannian metrics with positive scalar curvature (PSC) on any closed three-manifold is either empty or contractible. In particular, we prove the…

We show that the CR structure on the twistor space of a quaternionic contact structure described by Biquard is normal if and only if the Ricci curvature of the Biquard connection commutes with the endomorphisms in the quaternionic structure…

A real 3-manifold is a smooth 3-manifold together with an orientation preserving smooth involution, which is called a real structure. A real contact 3-manifold is a real 3-manifold with a contact distribution that is antisymmetric with…

This is a survey on known results and open problems about closed aspherical manifolds, i.e., connected closed manifolds whose universal coverings are contractible. Many examples come from certain kinds of non-positive curvature conditions.…

We classify tight contact structures on the small Seifert fibered 3--manifold M(-1; r_1, r_2, r_3) with r_i in (0,1) and r_1, r_2 \geq 1/2. The result is obtained by combining convex surface theory with computations of contact…

We construct a simple topological invariant of certain 3-manifolds, including quotients of the 3-sphere by finite groups, based on the fact that the tangent bundle of an orientable 3-manifold is trivialisable. This invariant is strong…

We study 5-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that admit an almost contact metric structure. We classify these structures by their intrinsic torsion and review the literature in terms of this scheme. Moreover, we determine necessary and…

In this article, we are interested in the question whether any complete contractible $3$-manifold of positive scalar curvature is homeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. We study the fundamental group at infinity, $\pi_{1}^{\infty}$, and its…

In this note we consider versions of both Ricci and sectional curvature pinching for Riemannian manifold with density. In the Ricci curvature case the main result implies a diameter estimate that is new even for compact shrinking Ricci…

We investigate the geometry and topology of compact submanifolds of arbitrary codimension in space forms satisfying a certain pinching condition involving the length of the second fundamental form and the mean curvature. We prove that this…

Liebmann's Theorem asserts that a compact, connected, convex surface with constant mean curvature (CMC) in the Euclidean space must be a totally umbilical sphere. In this article we extend Liebmann's result to hypersurfaces with boundary.…

Contact structures on 3-manifolds are analyzed by decomposing the manifold along convex surfaces. Background results of Giroux, Eliashberg, Colin, and Honda are discussed with an emphasis on examples. Convex decompositions are then used to…

We examine homogeneous metrics on spheres and determine which ones have positive sectional curvature. The answer is subtle and surprisingly difficult to prove. In some cases we also determine their pinching constants. This completes the…