Compact asymptotically harmonic manifolds

DOI10.3934/JMD.2012.6.377MaRDI QIDQ692770zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Andrew M. Zimmer

Publication date 6 December 2012

Published in Journal of Modern Dynamics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2271

zbMATH Keywords

asymptotically harmonic manifoldsgeodesic flowharmonic manifoldhorospheressymmetric spaces

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dynamical systems of geometric origin and hyperbolicity (geodesic and horocycle flows, etc.) (37D40) Rigidity results (53C24) Differential geometry of symmetric spaces (53C35)

Abstract: A complete Riemannian manifold without conjugate points is called asymptotically harmonic if the mean curvature of its horospheres is a universal constant. Examples of asymptotically harmonic manifolds include flat spaces and rank one locally symmetric spaces of noncompact type. In this paper we show that this list exhausts the compact asymptotically harmonic manifolds under a variety of assumptions including nonpositive curvature or Gromov hyperbolic fundamental group. We then present a new characterization of symmetric spaces amongst the set of all visibility manifolds

Review text

The author endeavours to characterize the compact asymptotically harmonic manifolds. A complete Riemannian manifold is said to be harmonic if about any point, the mean curvature of sufficiently small geodesic spheres is constant. A complete Riemannian manifold without conjugate points such that the mean curvature of its horospheres is a universal constant is said to be asymptotically harmonic. Flat spaces and rank-1 locally symmetric spaces of noncompact type are examples of asymptotically harmonic manifolds. It is known [\textit{Z. I. Szabó}, J. Differ. Geom. 31, No. 1, 1--28 (1990; Zbl 0686.53042)] that any harmonic manifold with a conjugate point is a rank-1 locally symmetric space of compact type. Furthermore, Szabó observed that if \(X\) is a simply connected harmonic manifold without conjugate points then the mean curvature of any geodesic sphere is a constant that depends only on the radius of the sphere. From this, one concludes that every harmonic manifold without conjugate points is asymptotically harmonic. The question is then whether one can characterize asymptotically harmonic manifolds. In terms of its universal Riemannian cover \(X\), a complete Riemannian manifold \(M\) is asymptotically harmonic if there exists \(\alpha\in\mathbb R\) such that for all \(v\) in the tangent bundle \(SX\), the horofunction \(b_v\) is \(C^2\) and satisfies \(\Delta b_v=\alpha\). Under different sets of conditions, the universal cover of an asymptotically harmonic compact manifold is shown to be a rank-1 locally symmetric space of noncompact type. In a sense, flat spaces and rank one locally symmetric spaces of noncompact type are the main representatives of asymptotically harmonic manifolds. Another important result of the paper is `a new characterization of symmetric spaces among the so-called ``visiblity manifolds'.

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Cited in

(13)

• On compact asymptotically harmonic manifolds
• Characteristic function of Cayley projective plane as a harmonic manifold
• Geometric properties of rank one asymptotically harmonic manifolds
• On 3-dimensional asymptotically harmonic manifolds
• On harmonic and asymptotically harmonic homogeneous spaces
• 3-dimensional asymptotically harmonic manifolds with minimal horospheres
• Harmonic functions on rank one asymptotically harmonic manifolds
• Asymptotically harmonic spaces in dimension 3
• A Heat Kernel Characterization of Asymptotic Harmonicity
• Harmonic Finsler manifolds with minimal horospheres
• Entropy rigidity of symmetric spaces without focal points
• Asymptotic harmonicity of negatively curved homogeneous spaces and their measures at infinity
• Volume asymptotics, Margulis function and rigidity beyond nonpositive curvature

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