Loss of initial data under limits of Ricci flows

We construct a sequence of smooth Ricci flows on $T^2$, with standard uniform $C/t$ curvature decay, and with initial metrics converging to the standard flat unit-area square torus $g_0$ in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense, with the property that the flows themselves converge not to the static Ricci flow $g(t)\equiv g_0$, but to the static Ricci flow $g(t)\equiv 2g_0$ of twice the area.Comment: 4 page

Ricci flows with unbounded curvature

Until recently, Ricci flow was viewed almost exclusively as a way of deforming Riemannian metrics of bounded curvature. Unfortunately, the bounded curvature hypothesis is unnatural for many applications, but is hard to drop because so many new phenomena can occur in the general case. This article surveys some of the theory from the past few years that has sought to rectify the situation in different ways.Comment: appears in Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Seoul 201

A uniform Poincar\'e estimate for quadratic differentials on closed surfaces

We prove a uniform estimate, valid for every closed Riemann surface of genus at least two, that bounds the distance of any quadratic differential to the finite dimensional space of holomorphic quadratic differentials in terms of its antiholomorphic derivative

Local mollification of Riemannian metrics using Ricci flow, and Ricci limit spaces

We use Ricci flow to obtain a local bi-Holder correspondence between Ricci limit spaces in three dimensions and smooth manifolds. This is more than a complete resolution of the three-dimensional case of the conjecture of Anderson-Cheeger-Colding-Tian, describing how Ricci limit spaces in three dimensions must be homeomorphic to manifolds, and we obtain this in the most general, locally non-collapsed case. The proofs build on results and ideas from recent papers of Hochard and the current authors.Comment: To appear, Geometry and Topolog

Global weak solutions of the Teichm\"uller harmonic map flow into general targets

We analyse finite-time singularities of the Teichm\"uller harmonic map flow -- a natural gradient flow of the harmonic map energy -- and find a canonical way of flowing beyond them in order to construct global solutions in full generality. Moreover, we prove a no-loss-of-topology result at finite time, which completes the proof that this flow decomposes an arbitrary map into a collection of branched minimal immersions connected by curves

The Canonical Expanding Soliton and Harnack inequalities for Ricci flow

We introduce the notion of Canonical Expanding Ricci Soliton, and use it to derive new Harnack inequalities for Ricci flow. This viewpoint also gives geometric insight into the existing Harnack inequalities of Hamilton and Brendle

Ricci flow and Ricci Limit Spaces

I survey some of the developments in the theory of Ricci flow and its applications from the past decade. I focus mainly on the understanding of Ricci flows that are permitted to have unbounded curvature in the sense that the curvature can blow up as we wander off to spatial infinity and/or as we decrease time to some singular time. Applications to the study of Ricci limit spaces are surveyed. I emphasise the intuition behind the subject.Comment: Lectures given at the summer school on "Geometric Analysis" at Cetraro in June 2018. To appear in Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematics, CIME subseries. Numbering of theorems etc has changed in v2 in an attempt to match Springer styl

Asymptotics of the Teichm\"uller harmonic map flow

The Teichm\"uller harmonic map flow, introduced in [9], evolves both a map from a closed Riemann surface to an arbitrary compact Riemannian manifold, and a constant curvature metric on the domain, in order to reduce its harmonic map energy as quickly as possible. In this paper, we develop the geometric analysis of holomorphic quadratic differentials in order to explain what happens in the case that the domain metric of the flow degenerates at infinite time. We obtain a branched minimal immersion from the degenerate domain

Rate of curvature decay for the contracting cusp Ricci flow

We prove that the Ricci flow that contracts a hyperbolic cusp has curvature decay like one over time squared. In order to do this, we prove a new Li-Yau type differential Harnack inequality for Ricci flow on surfaces

Sharp decay estimates for the logarithmic fast diffusion equation and the Ricci flow on surfaces

We prove the sharp local L^1 - L^\infty smoothing estimate for the logarithmic fast diffusion equation, or equivalently, for the Ricci flow on surfaces. Our estimate almost instantly implies an improvement of the known L^p - L^\infty estimate for p larger than 1. It also has several applications in geometry, providing the missing step in order to pose the Ricci flow with rough initial data in the noncompact case, for example starting with a general noncompact Alexandrov surface, and giving the sharp asymptotics for the contracting cusp Ricci flow, as we show elsewhere.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure