Classification of singularities in the complete conformally flat Yamabe flow

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 We show that the singularity the flow develops at time $T$ is always of type I.Comment: The paper has been withdrawn due to a crucial error in the argumen

The Yang-Mills flow near the boundary of Teichmueller space

We study the behavior of the Yang-Mills flow for unitary connections on compact and non-compact oriented surfaces with varying metrics. The flow can be used to define a one dimensional foliation on the space of SU(2) representations of a once punctured surface. This foliation universalizes over Teichm\"uller space and is equivariant with respect to the action of the mapping class group. It is shown how to extend the foliation as a singular foliation over the Strebel boundary of Teichm\"uller space, and continuity of this extension is the main result of the paper.Comment: 35 pages. Late

The classification of locally conformally flat Yamabe solitons

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

Type II extinction profile of maximal solutions to the Ricci flow in R2\R^2

We consider the initial value problem $u_t = \Delta \log u$, $u(x,0) = u_0(x)\ge 0$ in $\R^2$, corresponding to the Ricci flow, namely conformal evolution of the metric $u (dx_1^2 + dx_2^2)$ by Ricci curvature. It is well known that the maximal (complete) solution $u$ vanishes identically after time $T= \frac 1{4\pi} \int_{\R^2} u_0$. Assuming that $u_0$ is compactly supported we describe precisely the Type II vanishing behavior of $u$ at time $T$: we show the existence of an inner region with exponentially fast vanishing profile, which is, up to proper scaling, a {\em soliton cigar solution}, and the existence of an outer region of persistence of a logarithmic cusp. This is the only Type II singularity which has been shown to exist, so far, in the Ricci Flow in any dimension. It recovers rigorously formal asymptotics derived by J.R. King \cite{K}

Eternal Solutions to the Ricci Flow on R2\R^2

We provide the classification of eternal (or ancient) solutions of the two-dimensional Ricci flow, which is equivalent to the fast diffusion equation $\frac{\partial u}{\partial t} = \Delta \log u$ on $\R^2 \times \R.$ We show that, under the necessary assumption that for every $t \in \R$, the solution $u(\cdot, t)$ defines a complete metric of bounded curvature and bounded width, $u$ is a gradient soliton of the form $U(x,t) = \frac{2}{\beta (|x-x_0|^2 + \delta e^{2\beta t})}$, for some $x_0 \in \R^2$ and some constants $\beta >0$ and $\delta >0$

Classification of Weil-Petersson Isometries

This paper contains two main results. The first is the existence of an equivariant Weil-Petersson geodesic in Teichmueller space for any choice of pseudo-Anosov mapping class. As a consequence one obtains a classification of the elements of the mapping class group as Weil-Petersson isometries which is parallel to the Thurston classification. The second result concerns the asymptotic behavior of these geodesics. It is shown that geodesics that are equivariant with respect to independent pseudo-Anosov's diverge. It follows that subgroups of the mapping class group which contain independent pseudo-Anosov's act in a reductive manner with respect to the Weil-Petersson geometry. This implies an existence theorem for equivariant harmonic maps to the metric completion.Comment: 31 pages; to appear in the American Journal of Mathematic

On the Brill-Noether Problem for Vector Bundles

On an arbitrary compact Riemann surface, necessary and sufficient conditions are found for the existence of semistable vector bundles with slope between zero and one and a prescribed number of linearly independent holomorphic sections. Existence is achieved by minimizing the Yang-Mills-Higgs functional.Comment: LaTeX 2e (amsart

C^{1,\al} regularity of solutions to parabolic Monge-Amp\'ere equations

We study interior C^{1, \al} regularity of viscosity solutions of the parabolic Monge-Amp\'ere equation u_t = b(x,t) \ddua, with exponent $p >0$ and with coefficients $b$ which are bounded and measurable. We show that when $p$ is less than the critical power $\frac{1}{n-2}$ then solutions become instantly C^{1, \al} in the interior. Also, we prove the same result for any power $p>0$ at those points where either the solution separates from the initial data, or where the initial data is $C^{1, \beta}$

Evolution of non-compact hypersurfaces by inverse mean curvature

We study the evolution of complete non-compact convex hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ by the inverse mean curvature flow. We establish the long time existence of solutions and provide the characterization of the maximal time of existence in terms of the tangent cone at infinity of the initial hypersurface. Our proof is based on an a'priori pointwise estimate on the mean curvature of the solution from below in terms of the aperture of a supporting cone at infinity. The strict convexity of convex solutions is shown by means of viscosity solutions. Our methods also give an alternative proof of the result by Huisken and Ilmanen on compact start-shaped solutions, based on maximum principle argument.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure

On the extinction profile of solutions to fast-diffusion

We study the extinction behavior of solutions to the fast diffusion equation $u_t = \Delta u^m$ on $\R^N\times (0,T)$, in the range of exponents $m \in (0, \frac{N-2}{N})$, $N > 2$. We show that if the initial data $u_0$ is trapped in between two Barenblatt solutions vanishing at time $T$, then the vanishing behaviour of $u$ at $T$ is given by a Barenblatt solution. We also give an example showing that for such a behavior the bound from above by a Barenblatt solution $B$ (vanishing at $T$) is crucial: we construct a class of solutions $u$ with initial data $u_0 = B (1 + o(1))$, near $|x| >> 1$, which live longer than $B$ and change behaviour at $T$. The behavior of such solutions is governed by $B(\cdot,t)$ up to $T$, while for $t >T$ the solutions become integrable and exhibit a different vanishing profile. For the Yamabe flow ($m = \frac{N-2}{N+2}$) the above means that these solutions $u$ develop a singularity at time $T$, when the Barenblatt solution disappears, and at $t >T$ they immediately smoothen up and exhibit the vanishing profile of a sphere. In the appendix we show how to remove the assumption on the bound on $u_0$ from below by a Barenblatt