Concavity and rigidity in non-negative curvature (Q2509569)

Manifolds with positive sectional curvature are important objects in the study of differential geometry. In [\textit{K. Grove} et al., J. Differ. Geom. 78, No. 1, 33--111 (2008; Zbl 1145.53023)], a class of new candidates from cohomogeneity-one manifolds of dimension seven are provided: they are two infinite families, \(P_k , Q_k , k \geq 1\), which are universal covers of the seven-manifolds \(H_l\), corresponding to \(l\) even or odd, that are the Konishi bundles of Hitchin's positive self-dual Einstein orbifold metrics on \(S^4\) [\textit{N. J. Hitchin}, in: Manifolds and geometry. Proceedings of a conference, held in Pisa, Italy, September 1993. de Bartolomeis, Paolo (ed.) et al., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Symp. Math. 36, 190--222 (1996; Zbl 0858.53038)], and one exceptional manifold \(R\). These candidates are included in two much larger classes of cohomogeneity-one manifolds with subscripts of four integers depending on descriptions of the isotropy groups: \(P_{(p, q) ,(p+,q+)}\) with \(P_k = P_{(1,1),(1+2k,1-2k)}; Q_{(p, q) ,(p+,q+)}\) with \(Q_k = Q_{(1,1),(k,k+1)}\) and \(R = Q_{(3,1),(1,2)}\). In the present paper, the authors show that for an element of type \(Q_{(p, q) ,(p+,q+)}\) different from \(Q_k\), with its cohomogeneity-one action by \(G = \mathrm{SO}(4)\), there exists no analytic metric with non-negative sectional curvature invariant under G. In particular, they exclude \(R\) from the list which admit an invariant metric with positive sectional curvature. The proof uses a new concavity property of Jacobi fields in positive curvature, which extends the concavity of the length of a Jacobi field in dimension 2. The general form of this concavity is further used to show the non-existence of invariant metrics with 2-positive Ricci curvature for the family of seven-dimensional manifolds \(N_{p,q}\) on which \(G = S^3 \times S^3\) acts by cohomogeneity-one.