Long time behaviour of Ricci flow on open 3-manifolds (Q2351855)

A \(3\)-manifold \(N\) with boundary is called hyperbolic if its interior \(M\) admits a hyperbolic metric, that is, a complete Riemannian metric whose constant sectional curvature is \(-1\). \(N\) is called irreducible if every embedded \(2\)-sphere in \(N\) bounds a \(3\)-ball, and it is called atoroidal if every incompressible embedded \(2\)-torus in \(N\) is parallel to a component of \(\partial N\) or bounds a product neighborhood \(T^2\times[0,1)\) of an end of \(N\). A metric \(g\) on \(M\) has a cusp-like structure, or is a cusp-like metric, if \(M\) has finitely many ends, and each end has a neighborhood which admits a metric \(g_{\text{cusp}}\) homothetic to a rank two cusp neighborhood of a hyperbolic manifold such that \(g-g_{\text{cusp}}\) goes to zero at infinity in \(C^k\)-norm for all positive integers \(k\). If \(M\) is closed, then any metric is cusp-like. If \(M\) is an \(n\)-manifold and \(I\subset\mathbb R\) is an interval, then a map \(t\mapsto g(t)\) from \(I\) to the space of smooth Riemannian metrics on \(M\) is called an evolving metric on \(M\) defined on \(I\). A value of \(t\) such that this map is \(C^1\)-smooth in a neighborhood of \(t\) is called a regular time. If \(t\) is not regular, then it is singular. \(g_+(t)\) is the right limit of \(g\) at \(t\), when it exists. If \(g\) is a Riemannian metric, then \(R_{\text{min}}\) (\(R_{\text{max}}\)) is the infimum (supremum) of the scalar curvature of \(g\). For any \(x\in M\), the curvature operator \(\text{Rm}(x):\Lambda^2T_xM\to\Lambda^2T_xM\) is defined as \(g(\text{Rm}(X\wedge Y),Z\wedge T)=R(X,Y,Z,T)\), where \(R\) is the Riemann curvature tensor. A piecewise \(C^1\) evolving metric \(t\mapsto g(t)\) on \(M\) defined on \(I\) is called a Ricci flow with bubbling-off if the Ricci flow equation \(\partial g/\partial t=-2\text{Ric}\) is satisfied at all regular times, and for every singular time \(t\in I\), \(R_{\text{min}}(g_+(t))\geq g_+(t)\) and \(g_+(t)\leq g(t)\). Thurston's conjecture states that if \(N\) is compact, connected, orientable, irreducible, and \(\pi_1N\) is infinite and does not have any subgroup isomorphic to \(\mathbb Z^2\), then \(N\) is hyperbolic. If the hypotheses on the fundamental group is replaced by the assumption that \(N\) is atoroidal then \(N\) is hyperbolic or Seifert fibered. The problem arises when \(\partial N\) is non-empty, that is, the existence of hyperbolic metric when the interior \(M\) of \(N\) is noncompact. In [\textit{L. Bessières} et al., Geometrisation of 3-manifolds. EMS Tracts in Mathematics 13. Zürich: European Mathematical Society (EMS) (2010; Zbl 1244.57003)], the present authors initiated the study on this problem by using Ricci flow with bubbling-off. In this paper, the authors study the long time behavior of the Ricci flow with bubbling-off on a possibly noncompact \(3\)-manifold of finite volume whose universal cover has bounded geometry, in the situation where the initial metric has a cusp-like structure. They prove that if \(M\) is a connected, orientable, irreducible, atoroidal \(3\)-manifold and \(g_{_0}\) is a cusp-like metric on \(M\), then \(M\) is Seifert-fibered, or there exists a Ricci flow with bubbling-off \(g(\cdot)\) on \(M\) defined on \([0,\infty)\), such that \(g(0)=g_{_0}\), and as \(t\) goes to infinity, \((4t)^{-1}g(t)\) converges smoothly in the pointed topology for appropriate base points to some finite volume hyperbolic metric on \(M\). Moreover, \(g(\cdot)\) has finitely many singular times, and there are positive constants \(T\), \(C\) such that \(|\text{Rm}|<Ct^{-1}\) for all \(t\geq T\). If \(N\) is a compact, connected, orientable \(3\)-manifold such that \(N\) is empty or a union of \(2\)-tori, then \(M=\text{int}(N)\) always carries a cusp-like metric. Thus the authors obtain Thurston's theorem stating that if \(N\) is a compact, connected, orientable \(3\)-manifold-with-boundary such that \(\partial N\) is empty or a union of \(2\)-tori, and if \(N\) is irreducible and atoroidal, then \(N\) is Seifert-fibered or hyperbolic. Finally, the authors show that for each end \(E\) of \(M\), \(\lambda_E(t)g(t)-g_c\) goes to zero at infinity in this end, in \(C^k\)-norm for each integer \(k\), uniformly for \(t\in[0,T]\), where the metric \(g_c\) on \(M\) is hyperbolic on the complement of some compact subset of \(M\), and such that, for each end \(E\) of \(M\) there is a factor \(\lambda_E>0\) such that \(\lambda_E(t)=\frac{\lambda_E}{1+4\lambda_Et}\).