The conjugate heat equation and ancient solutions of the Ricci flow (Q645227): Difference between revisions

An interesting estimate for the fundamental solution of the conjugate heat equation evolving under Ricci flow is obtained. An application is that in dimension 4 and higher, any type I \(\kappa\)-solution of the Ricci flow has an asymptotic soliton, i.e., a backward limit which is a non-flat gradient shrinking soliton. This extends important results of Perelman in dimension 3 which are used in his solution to the geometrization conjecture. The difficulty in higher dimensions is that the solution need not have nonnegative curvature operator.