Yamabe flow on nilpotent Lie groups (Q2196432)

Geometric flows are evolution flows of geometric structures, constructed for metrics on manifolds. These flows are used to modify and usually to improve the properties of metrics. In this paper, the Yamabe flow (based on the scalar curvature) on Lie groups with left-invariant metrics are investigated in some particular cases -- for the higher-dimensional Heisenberg nilpotent Lie groups and for the higher-dimensional nilpotent quaternion Lie groups. An explicit solution of the Yamabe flow on each of these (and some other) Lie groups is found. Then, some properties of metrics on these Lie groups under the Yamabe flow are considered. It is proved that on the aforementioned Lie groups the property of Riemann metrics to be of Heisenberg type is not preserved under Yamabe flow. Also, the deformation of some characteristics (the spectrum of the associated Laplace-Beltrami operator and the length spectrum -- the set of lengths of closed geodesics, counted with multiplicity) of compact nilmanifolds \(N/\Gamma\) (where \(N\) is a simply connected two-step nilpotent Lie group -- in particular, Heisenberg and quaternion Lie group -- with a left-invariant metric, and \(\Gamma\) is a lattice in \(N\)) under the Yamabe flow are considered. It is proved that the spectrum and the marked length spectrum on such compact nilmanifolds are preserved under the Yamabe flow.