Rotational symmetry of Ricci solitons in higher dimensions (Q2509565)

The Bryant soliton is the unique steady gradient Ricci soliton in dimension \(3\), which is rotationally symmetric. In a previous work, it was shown that a \(3\)-dimensional complete steady gradient Ricci soliton which is non-flat and \(\kappa\)-noncolapsed is rotationally symmetric and hence isometric to the Bryant soliton, up to a scaling. This result was inspired by a problem formulated by Perelman. In the present paper, steady gradient Ricci solitons with positive sectional curvature in dimensions \(n\geq 4\) are considered. The problem was inspired by the results of Simon and Solomon, working with minimal surfaces with prescribed tangent cones at infinity. In dimension \(3\), the results by Perelman imply that a complete steady gradient Ricci soliton which is non-flat and \(\kappa\)-noncollapsed is asymptotically cylindrical. Hence, the following result can be considered as a generalization of the previous work: In dimension \(n\geq 4\), a steady, asymptotically cylindrical gradient Ricci soliton with positive sectional curvature is rotationally symmetric and hence it is isometric to the \(n\)-dimensional Bryant soliton, up to a scaling. In particular, in dimension \(4\), a steady gradient Ricci soliton which is non-flat, \(\kappa\)-noncollapsed and satisfies the pointwise pinching condition in the sense of Hamilton is shown to be also asymptotically cylindrical. Hence, it is also rotationally symmetric.