Uniqueness of instantaneously complete Ricci flows (Q2346441)

The paper under review concerns the Ricci flow equation, \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t} g(t) = - 2 \mathrm{Ric}_{g(t)}, \] for an evolving smooth Riemannian metric \(g(t)\) on a two-dimensional manifold \(M\). The main attention is paid to a particular class of solutions called \textit{instantaneously complete Ricci flows}, whose existence allows to deal with quite general initial data \((M, g(0))\) without assumptions of compactness, completeness, boundedness of curvature, etc. (see the author [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 12, No. 6, 1429--1451 (2010; Zbl 1202.53067); \textit{G. Giesen} and the author, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 38, No. 3--4, 357--367 (2010; Zbl 1244.53076)]). Continuing previous studies, the author solves the uniqueness problem for instantaneously complete Ricci flows. { Theorem.} Let \(g(t)\) and \(\bar g(t)\) be instantaneously complete Ricci flows on any surface \(M\), defined for \(t\in [0,T]\), with \(g(0) = \bar g(0)\). Then \(g(t) = \bar g(t)\) for all \(t\in [0,T]\). Combined with the author's existence results for instantaneously complete Ricci flows, this leads to the following general statement. { Theorem.} Let \(( M,g_0 )\) be any smooth (connected) Riemannian surface, possibly incomplete and/or with unbounded curvature. Depending on the conformal type, define \(T\in (0,\infty ]\) by \[ T=\frac{1}{4\pi\chi (M)}\mathrm{Vol}_{g_0} (M), \] where \(\chi (M)\) is the Euler characteristic and \(T=\infty\), if \(M\cong S^2\), \(\mathbb C\), \(\mathbb RP^2\). Then there exists a unique smooth Ricci flow \(g(t)\) on \(M\), defined for \(t\in [0,T)\), such that \(g(0)=g_0\) and \(g(t)\) is instantaneously complete. If \(T<\infty\), then \(\mathrm{Vol}_{g(t)}(M) = 4\pi\chi(M) (T-t)\to 0\) as \(t\to T\), and, in particular, \(T\) is the maximal existence time. Besides, it is discussed that instantaneously complete Ricci flows enjoy an extremal property of maximal stretchiness, cf. [Giesen and Topping, loc. cit.].