Monotonicity of eigenvalues of geometric operators along the Ricci-Bourguignon flow (Q1750823)

The Ricci-Bourguignon flow is a flow for the metrics \(g(t)\) on a closed Riemannian manifold \(M^n\) which satisfies \[ \frac{\partial }{\partial t}g=-2(\operatorname{Ric}-\rho Rg) \tag{1} \] where \(\operatorname{Ric},R\) are the Ricci curvature tensor and the scalar curvature of \(g(t)\) on \(M^n\), respectively, and \(\rho\) is a real constant. The flow (1) was introduced by \textit{J.-P. Bourguignon} [Lect. Notes Math. 838, 42--63 (1981; Zbl 0437.53029)] and can be viewed as a generalization of the Ricci flow and the Yamabe flow. The short-time existence of the flow (1) was proved by \textit{G. Catino} et al. [Pac. J. Math. 287, No. 2, 337--370 (2017; Zbl 1371.53061)] for \(\rho<\frac 1{2(n-1)}\). The purpose of this paper is to study the monotonicity of the lowest eigenvalue \(\lambda_0\) of the Schrödinger operator \(-\Delta+cR\) along the flow (1). For this, \textit{X. Cao} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 136, No. 11, 4075--4078 (2008; Zbl 1166.58007)] proved that if \(c\geq 1/4 \), the lowest eigenvalue \(\lambda_0(t)\) is non-decreasing along the Ricci flow. The first result of this paper is a result analoguous to that of Cao in the Ricci-Bourguignon flow case. Precisely: (i). If \(\rho\leq 0\), \[ c\in [\frac 14, \frac n{4(n-1)}]\cup [\frac {(1-(n-1)\rho)^2}{4(1-2(n-1)\rho)},\infty) \] and the initial scalar curvature is nonnegative, then \(\lambda_0(t)\) is non-decreasing along the flow (1). (ii). If \(0<\rho<\frac 1{2(n-1)}\) , \[ c\in [\frac 14+\frac{3(n-1)^2\sqrt{\rho}}{2(1-2(n-1)\rho)},\infty) \] and the initial curvature operator is nonnegative, then a rescaled quantity \((T'-t)^{-\alpha}\lambda_0(t)\) is increasing along flow (1), where \(T',\alpha\) are constants depending only on \(\rho\) and the initial data. As an application, the authors rule out nontrivial compact steady breathers in some cases. We remark that these results require some curvature assumption, while Cao's result holds without any curvature assumption. The second result of this paper is a generalization of \textit{L. Ma}'s result [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 29, No. 3, 287--292 (2006; Zbl 1099.53046)] on the monotonicity of \(\lambda_0(t)\) of the Laplacian operator (i.e., \(c=0\)) along the Ricci flow. Under some similar curvature assumption, the authors prove the monotonicity of \(\lambda_0(t)\) for the Laplacian operator along the flow (1).