Ricci flow of warped Berger metrics on \(\mathbb{R}^4 \) (Q2204081)

Given a smooth Riemannian manifold \((M,g_0)\), Hamilton's Ricci flow starting at \(g_0\) is defined to be the geometric heat-type evolution equation \[ \frac{\partial g}{\partial t}=-2\mbox{Ric}_{g(t)},\quad g(0)=g_0. \] A solution to the Ricci flow encounters a finite-time singularity at some \(T<\infty\) if and only if \[ \underset{t\nearrow T}{\limsup}\underset{M}{\sup},\vert\mbox{Rm}_{g(t)}\vert_{g(t)}=\infty. \] Finite-time singularities of the Ricci flow are classified as follows: \begin{align*} \text{Type-I}: \,& \underset{t\nearrow T}{\limsup} (T-t) \underset{M}{\sup},\vert\mbox{Rm}_{g(t)}\vert_{g(t)}<\infty,\\ \text{Type-II}: \,& \underset{t\nearrow T}{\limsup} (T-t) \underset{M}{\sup},\vert\mbox{Rm}_{g(t)}\vert_{g(t)}=\infty. \end{align*} In this paper, the author studies the Ricci flow on \(\mathbb{R}^4\) starting at an \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\)-cohomogeneity 1 metric \(g_0\) whose restriction to any hypersphere is a Berger metric. He proves that if \(g_0\) has no necks and is bounded by a cylinder, then the solution develops a global Type-II singularity and converges to the Bryant soliton when suitably dilated at the origin. This is the first example in dimension \(n>3\) of a non-rotationally symmetric Type-II flow converging to a rotationally symmetric singularity model. Next, he shows that if instead \(g_0\) has no necks, its curvature decays and the Hopf fibres are not collapsed, then the solution is immortal. Finally, he proves that if the flow is Type-I, then there exist minimal 3-spheres for times close to the maximal time.