The conjugate heat equation and ancient solutions of the Ricci flow (Q645227)

An interesting estimate for the fundamental solution of the conjugate heat equation evolving under Ricci flow is obtained. An application is that in dimension 4 and higher, any type I \(\kappa\)-solution of the Ricci flow has an asymptotic soliton, i.e., a backward limit which is a non-flat gradient shrinking soliton. This extends important results of Perelman in dimension 3 which are used in his solution to the geometrization conjecture. The difficulty in higher dimensions is that the solution need not have nonnegative curvature operator.