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In this paper we study 4d gradient steady Ricci solitons, which are weak $\kappa$-solutions, and admit O(3)-symmetry. Under a weak curvature decay condition, we find precise geometric asymptotics of such solitons, which are similar to those for 3d compact $\kappa$-solutions found in [ABDS22]. This is the first step towards the classification of 4d gradient steady Ricci solitons and more general ancient Ricci flows.

There is an extensive and growing body of work analyzing convex ancient solutions to Mean Curvature Flow (MCF), or equivalently of Rescaled Mean Curvature Flow (RMCF). The goal of this paper is to complement the existing literature, which analyzes ancient solutions one at a time, by considering the space X of all convex hypersurfaces M, regard RMCF as a semiflow on this space, and study the dynamics of this semiflow. To this end, we first extend the well known existence and uniqueness of solutions to MCF with smooth compact convex initial data to include the case of arbitrary non compact and non smooth initial convex hypersurfaces. We identify a suitable weak topology with good compactness properties on the space X of convex hypersurfaces and show that RMCF defines a continuous local semiflow on X whose fixed points are the shrinking cylinder solitons, and for which the Huisken energy is a Lyapunov function. Ancient solutions to MCF are then complete orbits of the RMCF semiflow on X. We consider the set of all hypersurfaces that lie on an ancient solution that in backward time is asymptotic to one of the shrinking cylinder solitons and prove various topological properties of this set. We show that this space is a path connected, compact subset of X, and, considering only point symmetric hypersurfaces, that it is topologically trivial in the sense of Cech cohomology. We also give a strong evidence in support of the conjecture that the space of all convex ancient solutions with a point symmetry is homeomorphic to an n-1 dimensional simplex.

We estimate from above the rate at which a solution to the rescaled mean curvature flow on a closed hypersurface may converge to a limit self-similar solution, i.e. a shrinker. Our main result implies that any solution which converges to a shrinker faster than any fixed exponential rate must itself be shrinker itself.

In this paper, we prove that any bubble-sheet oval for the mean curvature flow in $\mathbb{R}^4$, up to scaling and rigid motion, either is the $\textrm{O}(2)\times \textrm{O}(2)$-symmetric ancient oval constructed by Hershkovits and the fourth author, or belongs to the one-parameter family of $\mathbb{Z}_2^2\times \textrm{O}(2)$-symmetric ancient ovals constructed by the third and fourth author. In particular, this seems to be the first instance of a classification result for geometric flows that are neither cohomogeneity-one nor selfsimilar., Comment: 88 pages. In v2, we added details to the proof of Corollary 1.5. In v3, minor corrections are made following referee's suggestion. The paper will appear in Geom. Topol

In 1994 Velazquez constructed a smooth \(O(4)\times O(4)\) invariant Mean Curvature Flow that forms a type-II singularity at the origin in space-time. Stolarski very recently showed that the mean curvature on this solution is uniformly bounded. Earlier, Velazquez also provided formal asymptotic expansions for a possible smooth continuation of the solution after the singularity. Here we prove short time existence of Velazquez formal continuation, and we verify that the mean curvature is also uniformly bounded on the continuation. Combined with the earlier results of Velazquez-Stolarski we therefore show that there exists a solution \(\{M_t^7\subset\R^8 \mid -t_0

In this paper, we study the classification of $\kappa$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to n-dimensional Ricci flow on $S^n$, extending the result in [13] to higher dimensions. We prove that such a solution is either isometric to a family of shrinking round spheres, or the Type II ancient solution constructed by Perelman., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2002.12240

In this paper, we study the stability of neckpinch singularities. We show that if a mean curvature flow $\{M_t\}$ develops only finitely many neckpinch singularities at the first singular time, then the mean curvature flow starting at any sufficiently small perturbation of $M_0$ can also develop only neckpinch type singularities at the first singular time. We also show stability of nondegenerate neckpinch singularities in the above sense, which speaks in favor of stability of Type I singularities., Comment: 14 pages

In this paper, we study the classification of $\kappa$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to three-dimensional Ricci flow on $S^3$. We prove that such a solution is either isometric to a family of shrinking round spheres, or the Type II ancient solution constructed by Perelman., Comment: This paper supersedes the paper arXiv:1904.07835 by Brendle and the paper arXiv:1907.01928 by Daskalopoulos and Sesum. We also remove the assumption on reflection symmetry that was present in the latter paper

We study singularity formation of complete Ricci flow solutions, motivated by two applications: (a) improving the understanding of the behavior of the essential blowup sequences of Enders-Muller-Topping on noncompact manifolds, and (b) obtaining further evidence in favor of the conjectured stability of generalized cylinders as Ricci flow singularity models.

We consider compact ancient solutions to the three-dimensional Ricci flow which are noncollapsed. We prove that such a solutions is either a family of shrinking round spheres, or it has a unique asymptotic behavior as $t \to -\infty$ which we describe. This analysis applies in particular to the ancient solution constructed by Perelman.

In this paper we study the classification of compact $\kappa$-noncollapsed ancient solutions to the 3-dimensional Ricci flow which are rotationally and reflection symmetric. We prove that any such solution is isometric to the sphere or the type II ancient solution constructed by G. Perelman., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1804.07230

We consider compact noncollapsed ancient solutions to the 3-dimensional Ricci flow that are rotationally and reflection symmetric. We prove that these solutions are either the spheres or they all have unique asymptotic behavior as $t\to-\infty$ and we give their precise asymptotic description. This description applies in particular to the solution constructed by G.Perelman

In this paper we consider closed non-collapsed ancient solutions to the mean curvature flow ($n \ge 2$) which are uniformly two-convex. We prove that any two such ancient solutions are the same up to translations and scaling. In particular, they must coincide up to translations and scaling with the rotationally symmetric closed ancient non-collapsed solution constructed by Brian White in (2000), and by Robert Haslhofer and Or Hershkovits in (2016)., Comment: 74 pages, 5 figures

The intent of this short note is to provide context for and an independent proof of the discovery of Klaus Kroencke that complex projective space with its canonical Fubini--Study metric is dynamically unstable under Ricci flow in all complex dimensions N>1. The unstable perturbation is not Kaehler. This provides a counterexample to a well known conjecture widely attributed to Hamilton. Moreover, it shows that the expected stability of the subspace of Kaehler metrics under Ricci flow, another conjecture believed by several experts, needs to be interpreted in a more nuanced way than some may have expected., Comment: Corrected an error in what had been Lemma 5. Revised version to appear in The Journal of Geometric Analysis

We provide sufficient conditions on an initial curve for the area preserving and the length preserving curvature flows of curves in a plane, to develop a singularity at some finite time or converge to an $m$-fold circle as time goes to infinity. For the area-preserving flow, the positivity of the enclosed algebraic area determines whether the curvature blows up in finite time or not, while for the length-preserving flow, it is the positivity of an energy associated with initial curve that plays such a role.

We investigate Riemannian (non-Kahler) Ricci flow solutions that develop finite-time Type-I singularities and present evidence in favor of a conjecture that parabolic rescalings at the singularities converge to singularity models that are shrinking Kahler-Ricci solitons. Specifically, the singularity model for these solutions is expected to be the "blowdown soliton" discovered in [FIK03]. Our partial results support the conjecture that the blowdown soliton is stable under Ricci flow, as well as the conjectured stability of the subspace of Kahler metrics under Ricci flow., Comment: Revised to indicate dependence on two technical conjectures for which we present formal arguments

J.J.L. Vel$\acute{a}$zquez in 1994 used the degree theory to show that there is a perturbation of Simons' cone, starting from which the mean curvature flow develops a type $\mathrm{II}$ singularity at the origin. He also showed that under a proper time-dependent rescaling of the solution around the origin, the rescaled flow converges in the $C^{0}$ sense to a minimal hypersurface which is tangent to Simons' cone at infinity. In this paper, we prove that the rescaled flow actually converges locally smoothly to the minimal hypersurface, which appears to be the singularity model of the type $\mathrm{II}$ singularity. In addition, we show that the mean curvature of the solution blows up near the origin at a rate which is smaller than that of the second fundamental form., Comment: Added a footnote

We construct new ancient compact solutions to the Yamabe flow. Our solutions are rotationally symmetric and converge, as $t \to -\infty$, to two self-similar complete non-compact solutions to the Yamabe flow moving in opposite directions. They are type I ancient solutions., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1509.08803

We construct new ancient compact solutions to the Yamabe flow. Our solutions are rotationally symmetric and converge, as $t \to -\infty$, to two self-similar complete non-compact solutions to the Yamabe flow moving in opposite directions. They are type I ancient solutions.

We study the compact noncollapsed ancient convex solutions to Mean Curvature Flow in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with $O(1)\times O(n)$ symmetry. We show they all have unique asymptotics as $t\to -\infty$ and we give precise asymptotic description of these solutions. In particular, solutions constructed by White, and Haslhofer and Hershkovits have those asymptotics (in the case of those particular solutions the asymptotics was predicted and formally computed by Angenent).

In this paper, we introduce a monotonicity formula for the mean curvature flow which is related to self-expanders. Then we use the monotonicity to study the asymptotic behavior of Type III mean curvature flow on noncompact hypersurfaces., Comment: 10 pages, a global version of functional is introduced, more applications are found

We study "warped Berger" solutions $\big(\mc S^1\times\mc S^3,G(t)\big)$ of Ricci flow: generalized warped products with the metric induced on each fiber $\{s\}\times\mathrm{SU}(2)$ a left-invariant Berger metric. We prove that this structure is preserved by the flow, that these solutions develop finite-time neckpinch singularities, and that they asymptotically approach round product metrics in space-time neighborhoods of their singular sets, in precise senses. These are the first examples of Ricci flow solutions without rotational symmetry that become asymptotically rotationally symmetric locally as they develop local finite-time singularities., Comment: We correct a miscalculation of some terms in equation (22) and its subsequent uses. The main results of the paper are unchanged, because the methods employed in the proofs are robust enough to give the needed estimates, with only insignificant changes of constants

We establish the short-time existence of the Ricci flow on surfaces with a finite number of conic points, all with cone angle between 0 and $2\pi$, where the cone angles remain fixed or change in some smooth prescribed way. For the angle-preserving flow we prove long-time existence and convergence. When the Troyanov angle condition is satisfied (equivalently, when the data is logarithmically K-stable), the flow converges to the unique constant curvature metric with the given cone angles; if this condition is not satisfied, the flow converges subsequentially to a soliton. This is the one-dimensional version of the Hamilton--Tian conjecture., Comment: v1: 38 pages v2: 39 pages, restructured Sections 1 and 2, and added references and Subsection 5.4. v3-v4: 41 pages, revised to address referee comments; original proof of Proposition 5.3 had an error pointed out to us by a referee. We fix this by invoking Chow and Hamilton's original arguments instead of the Hamilton compactness theorem. Final version. To appear in Analysis and PDE

This work addresses the {\em singularity formation} of complete non-compact solutions to the conformally flat Yamabe flow whose conformal factors have {\em cylindrical behavior at infinity}. Their singularity profiles happen to be {\em Yamabe solitons}, which are {\em self-similar solutions} to the fast diffusion equation satisfied by the conformal factor of the evolving metric. The self-similar profile is determined by the second order asymptotics at infinity of the initial data which is matched with that of the corresponding self-similar solution. Solutions may become extinct at the extinction time $T$ of the cylindrical tail or may live longer than $T$. In the first case the singularity profile is described by a {\em Yamabe shrinker} that becomes extinct at time $T$. In the second case, the singularity profile is described by a {\em singular} Yamabe shrinker slightly before $T$ and by a matching {\em Yamabe expander} slightly after $T$ .

It is conjectured that the mean curvature blows up at the first singular time of the mean curvature flow in Euclidean space, at least in dimensions less or equal to 7. We show that the mean curvature blows up at the singularities of the mean curvature flow starting from an immersed closed hypersurface with small L^2-norm of the traceless second fundamental form (observe that the initial hypersurface is not necessarily convex). As a consequence of the proof of this result we also obtain the dynamic stability of a sphere along the mean curvature flow with respect to the L^2-norm., Comment: 13 pages

We construct new type II ancient compact solutions to the Yamabe flow. Our solutions are rotationally symmetric and converge, as $t \to -\infty$, to a tower of two spheres. Their curvature operator changes sign. We allow two time-dependent parameters in our ansatz. We use perturbation theory, via fixed point arguments, based on sharp estimates on ancient solutions of the approximated linear equation and careful estimation of the error terms which allow us to make the right choice of parameters. Our technique may be viewed as a parabolic analogue of gluing two exact solutions to the rescaled equation, that is the spheres, with narrow cylindrical necks to obtain a new ancient solution to the Yamabe flow. The techniques in this article may be generalized to the gluing of $n$ spheres.

We provide the classification of locally conformally flat gradient Yamabe solitons with positive sectional curvature. We first show that locally conformally flat gradient Yamabe solitons with positive sectional curvature have to be rotationally symmetric and then give the classification and asymptotic behavior of all radially symmetric gradient Yamabe solitons. We also show that any eternal solutions to the Yamabe flow with positive Ricci curvature and with the scalar curvature attaining an interior space-time maximum must be a steady Yamabe soliton.

Ricci flow on two dimensional surfaces is far simpler than in the higher dimensional cases. This presents an opportunity to obtain much more detailed and comprehensive results. We review the basic facts about this flow, including the original results by Hamilton and Chow concerning Ricci flow on compact surfaces. The rationale for this paper, however, is especially to survey recent work concerning this flow on open surfaces, including various classes of both complete and incomplete surfaces, where a number of striking new phenomena have been observed., Comment: 22 pages. To appear in the volume "Surveys in Geometric Analysis and Relativity celebrating Richard Schoen's 60th birthday."

We describe the Ricci flow on two classes of compact three-dimensional manifolds: 1. Warped products with a circle fiber over a two-dimensional base. 2. Manifolds with a free local isometric U(1) x U(1) action., Comment: final version

In this paper, we prove that the mean curvature blows up at the same rate as the second fundamental form at the first singular time $T$ of any compact, Type I mean curvature flow. For the mean curvature flow of surfaces, we obtain similar result provided that the Gaussian density is less than two. Our proofs are based on continuous rescaling and the classification of self-shrinkers. We show that all notions of singular sets defined in \cite{St} coincide for any Type I mean curvature flow, thus generalizing the result of Stone who established that for any mean convex Type I Mean curvature flow. We also establish a gap theorem for self-shrinkers., Comment: 21 pages

In this paper, we study curvature behavior at the first singular time of solution to the Ricci flow on a smooth, compact n-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$, $\frac{\partial}{\partial t}g_{ij} = -2R_{ij}$ for $t\in [0,T)$. If the flow has uniformly bounded scalar curvature and develops Type I singularities at $T$, using Perelman's $\mathcal{W}$-functional, we show that suitable blow-ups of our evolving metrics converge in the pointed Cheeger-Gromov sense to a Gaussian shrinker. If the flow has uniformly bounded scalar curvature and develops Type II singularities at $T$, we show that suitable scalings of the potential functions in Perelman's entropy functional converge to a positive constant on a complete, Ricci flat manifold. We also show that if the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded along the flow in certain integral sense then the flow either develops a type II singularity at $T$ or it can be smoothly extended past time $T$.

As part of the general investigation of Ricci flow on complete surfaces with finite total curvature, we study this flow for surfaces with asymptotically conical (which includes as a special case asymptotically Euclidean) geometries. After establishing long-time existence, and in particular the fact that the flow preserves the asymptotically conic geometry, we prove that the solution metric $g(t)$ expands at a locally uniform linear rate; moreover, the rescaled family of metrics $t^{-1}g(t)$ exhibits a transition at infinite time inasmuch as it converges locally uniformly to a complete, finite area hyperbolic metric which is the unique uniformizing metric in the conformal class of the initial metric $g_0$.

Consider a family of smooth immersions $F(\cdot,t): M^n\to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ of closed hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ moving by the mean curvature flow $\frac{\partial F(p,t)}{\partial t} = -H(p,t)\cdot \nu(p,t)$, for $t\in [0,T)$. We prove that the mean curvature blows up at the first singular time $T$ if all singularities are of type I. In the case $n = 2$, regardless of the type of a possibly forming singularity, we show that at the first singular time the mean curvature necessarily blows up provided that either the Multiplicity One Conjecture holds or the Gaussian density is less than two. We also establish and give several applications of a local regularity theorem which is a parabolic analogue of Choi-Schoen estimate for minimal submanifolds.

In the first part of the paper we derive integral curvature estimates for complete gradient shrinking Ricci solitons. Our results and the recent work of Lopez-Rio imply rigidity of gradient shrinking Ricci solitons with harmonic Weyl tensor. In the second part of the paper we address the issue of existence of harmonic functions on gradient shrinking K\"{a}hler and gradient steady Ricci solitons and show that if the total energy of a harmonic function on such a manifold is finite then the function is constant. Consequences to the structure of the manifold at infinity are also discussed., Comment: to appear in J. Geom. Anal

Consider a family of smooth immersions $F(\cdot,t): M^n\to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ of closed hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ moving by the mean curvature flow $\frac{\partial F(p,t)}{\partial t} = -H(p,t)\cdot \nu(p,t)$, for $t\in [0,T)$. In \cite{Cooper} Cooper has recently proved that the mean curvature blows up at the singular time $T$. We show that if the second fundamental form stays bounded from below all the way to $T$, then the scaling invariant mean curvature integral bound is enough to extend the flow past time $T$, and this integral bound is optimal in some sense explained below., Comment: 21 pages, presented self-contained proof of the main theorem

We prove the existence and uniqueness of a $C^{1,1}$ solution of the $Q_k$ flow in the viscosity sense for compact convex hypersurfaces $\Sigma_t$ embedded in $R^{n+1}$ ($n \geq 2$) . In particular, for compact convex hypersurfaces with flat sides we show that, under a certain non-degeneracy initial condition, the interface separating the flat from the strictly convex side, becomes smooth, and it moves by the $Q_{k-1}$ flow at least for a short time.

We consider an ancient solution $g(\cdot,t)$ of the Ricci flow on a compact surface that exists for $t\in (-\infty,T)$ and becomes spherical at time $t=T$. We prove that the metric $g(\cdot,t)$ is either a family of contracting spheres, which is a type I ancient solution, or a Rosenau solution, which is a type II ancient solution.

In this paper we investigate the existence of a solution to the Poisson equation on complete manifolds with positive spectrum and Ricci curvature bounded from below. We show that if a function $f$ has decay $f=O(r^{-1-\varepsilon}) $ for some $\varepsilon >0,$ where $r$ is the distance function to a fixed point, then the Poisson equation $\Delta u=f$ has a solution $u$ with at most exponential growth. We apply this result on the Poisson equation to study the existence of harmonic maps between complete manifolds and also existence of Hermitian Einstein metrics on holomorphic vector bundles over complete manifolds, thus extending some results of Li-Tam and Ni. Assuming that the manifold is simply connected and of Ricci curvature between two negative constants, we can prove that in fact the Poisson equation has a bounded solution and we apply this result to the Ricci flow on complete surfaces.

We consider an embedded convex ancient solution $\Gamma_t$ to the curve shortening flow in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We prove that there are only two possibilities: the family $\Gamma_t$ is either the family of contracting circles, which is a type I ancient solution, or the family of evolving Angenent ovals, which correspond to a type II ancient solution to the curve shortening flow. We also give a necessary and sufficient curvature condition for an embedded, closed ancient solution to the curve shortening flow to be convex.

We consider a compact, star-shaped, mean convex hypersurface $\Sigma^2\subset \mathbb{R}^3$. We prove that in some cases the flow exists until it shrinks to a point in a spherical manner, which is very typical for convex surfaces as well (see \cite{An1}). We also prove that in the case we have a surface of revolution which is star-shaped and mean convex, a smooth solution always exists up to some finite time $T < \infty$ at which the flow shrinks to a point asymptotically spherically.

We consider the K\"ahler-Ricci flow $\frac{\partial}{\partial t}g_{i\bar{j}} = g_{i\bar{j}} - R_{i\bar{j}}$ on a compact K\"ahler manifold $M$ with $c_1(M) > 0$, of complex dimension $k$. We prove the $\epsilon$-regularity lemma for the K\"ahler-Ricci flow, based on Moser's iteration. Assume that the Ricci curvature and $\int_M |\rem|^k dV_t$ are uniformly bounded along the flow. Using the $\epsilon$-regularity lemma we derive the compactness result for the K\"ahler-Ricci flow. Under our assumptions, if $k \ge 3$ in addition, using the compactness result we show that $|\rem| \le C$ holds uniformly along the flow. This means the flow does not develop any singularities at infinity. We use some ideas of Tian from \cite{Ti} to prove the smoothing property in that case.

We show that an eternal solution to a complete, locally conformally flat Yamabe flow, $\frac{\partial}{\partial t} g = -Rg$, with uniformly bounded scalar curvature and positive Ricci curvature at $t = 0$, where the scalar curvature assumes its maximum is a gradient steady soliton. As an application of that, we study the blow up behavior of $g(t)$ at the maximal time of existence, $T < \infty$. We assume that $(M,g(\cdot, t))$ satisfies (i) the injectivity radius bound {\bf or} (ii) the Schouten tensor is positive at time $t = 0$ and the scalar curvature bounded at each time-slice. We show that the singularity the flow develops at time $T$ is always of type I., Comment: The paper has been withdrawn due to a crucial error in the argument

We consider the normalized Ricci flow $\del_t g = (\rho - R)g$ with initial condition a complete metric $g_0$ on an open surface $M$ where $M$ is conformal to a punctured compact Riemann surface and $g_0$ has ends which are asymptotic to hyperbolic cusps. We prove that when $\chi(M) < 0$ and $\rho < 0$, the flow $g(t)$ converges exponentially to the unique complete metric of constant Gauss curvature $\rho$ in the conformal class.