Precompactness of solutions to the Ricci flow in the absence of injectivity radius estimates (Q1426834): Difference between revisions

In 1995, \textit{R.~S.~Hamilton} proved that given a sequence of pointed \(n\)-dimensional complete Riemannian manifolds \({(M_{i},g_{i}(t),O_{i})}\) with \(t\in [0,T]\), where \(g_{i}(t)\) is a solution of the Ricci flow, if one has uniform bounds on the curvature and its derivatives and a uniform lower bound on the injectivity radius, then there exists a subsequence that converges to an \(n\)-dimensional solution to the Ricci flow [Am. J. Math. 117, 545--572 (1995; Zbl 0840.53029)]. Here the author proves a generalization of this theorem in which he assumes no injectivity radius bounds (so the metrics are allowed to collapse). Hamilton's theorem follows as a corollary. In particular, he shows that with the other assumptions as above, there exists a subsequence that converges to a metric space, which notably may not be a manifold. He then gives examples to study the geometry of the limit space; on a manifold, the limit metric may not be a solution to Ricci flow. The proof in part uses the work of \textit{K. Fukaya}, who obtained an unparametrized version of the result [cf. J. Differ. Geom. 28, 1--21 (1988; Zbl 0652.53031)].