Long-time analysis of 3 dimensional Ricci flow III

In this paper we analyze the long-time behavior of 3 dimensional Ricci flows with surgery. Our main result is that if the surgeries are performed correctly, then only finitely many surgeries occur and after some time the curvature is bounded by $C t^{-1}$. This result confirms a conjecture of Perelman. In the course of the proof, we also obtain a qualitative description of the geometry as $t \to \infty$. This paper is the third part of a series. Previously, we had to impose a certain topological condition $\mathcal{T}_2$ to establish the finiteness of the surgeries and the curvature control. The objective of this paper is to remove this condition and to generalize the result to arbitrary closed 3-manifolds. This goal is achieved by a new area evolution estimate for minimal simplicial complexes, which is of independent interest.Comment: 86 page

Uniqueness and stability of Ricci flow through singularities

We verify a conjecture of Perelman, which states that there exists a canonical Ricci flow through singularities starting from an arbitrary compact Riemannian 3-manifold. Our main result is a uniqueness theorem for such flows, which, together with an earlier existence theorem of Lott and the second named author, implies Perelman's conjecture. We also show that this flow through singularities depends continuously on its initial condition and that it may be obtained as a limit of Ricci flows with surgery. Our results have applications to the study of diffeomorphism groups of three manifolds --- in particular to the Generalized Smale Conjecture --- which will appear in a subsequent paper.Comment: 182 pages, 10 figures, minor correction

Almost-rigidity and the extinction time of positively curved Ricci flows

We prove that Ricci flows with almost maximal extinction time must be nearly round, provided that they have positive isotropic curvature when crossed with $\mathbb{R}^{2}$. As an application, we show that positively curved metrics on $S^{3}$ and $RP^{3}$ with almost maximal width must be nearly round