Differential Harnack estimates for positive solutions to heat equation under Finsler-Ricci flow (Q745097)

A Finsler norm \(F:TM\to [0,+\infty)\) on an \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) defines for each nonzero \(y\in T_xM\) a positive definite symmetric bilinear form \(g_y(u,v)= \frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2}{\partial s\partial t}F^2(x,y+su +tv)|_{s=t=0}\). The gradient of a function \(u:M\to \mathbb{R}\) is given by \(\nabla u(x)=\mathcal{L}^*(Du(x))\) where \(\mathcal{L}^*:TM^*\to TM\) is the Legendre transformation \(\mathcal{L}^*(g_y(y,\cdot))=y\). The geodesic spray \(G=y^i\partial/\partial x_i-2G^i(x,y)\partial/\partial y^i\) is defined, where \(G^i\) depends on \(g_y\) and its first order derivatives. The connection used in this work is the Chern connection \(\nabla^V\), defined for each nonzero vector field \(V\), with corresponding curvature tensor \(R^V(X,Y)Z=[\nabla^V_X,\nabla^V_Y]Z-\nabla^V_{[X,Y]}Z\). The flag curvature for fixed pole \(v\in T_xM\), and \(w\in T_xM\), is defined by \( K^v(v,w)=g_v(R^v(v,w)w,v)/(g_v(v,v)g_v(w,w)-g_v(v,w)^2)\), and the Ricci curvature by \(\mathrm{Ric}(v)=F^2(v)\sum_{1\leq i\leq n-1} K^v(v,e_i)\), where \(\{e_i, F(v)^{-1}v\}\) is \(g_v\)-o.n. basis of \(T_xM\). The \(S\)-curvature is defined by \(S(y)=\frac{\partial{G^i}}{\partial y^i}(x,y)-y^i\frac{\partial}{\partial x_i}(\ln \sigma_F(x))\), where \(\sigma_F(x)\) is given by the volume ratio of the one of the unit \(n\)-dimensional Euclidean ball by the one in \(T_xM\) defined by \(F(y)<1\). The Finsler distributional Laplacian of a function \(u\) can be described as \(\Delta u=tr_{\nabla u}\mathrm{Hess} (u) -S(\nabla u)\), where \(\mathrm{Hess}\, u(X,Y)= g_{\nabla u}(\nabla_X^{\nabla u}\nabla u, Y)\), and satisfies \((\Delta u,\phi)_{L^2}=-(D\phi(\nabla u),1)_{L^2}\) for any test function \(\phi\) on \(M\). The Finsler-Ricci flow can be described by \(\frac{\partial}{\partial t} g(t)_{ij}=-2 \mathrm{Ric}_{ij}\) or the equivalent evolution equation \(\frac{\partial}{\partial t}F^2= -2F^2R\), where \(R=(1/F^2)\mathrm{Ric}\), with initial condition \(F(0)=F_0\). The author assumes the flow \((M,F(t))\), for \(t\in [0, T]\), is a closed Finsler-Ricci flow with vanishing \(S\)-curvature for all \(t\) and of uniformly bounded Ricci curvature, that is \(-K_1\leq \mathrm{Ric}_{ij}\leq K_2\) as quadratic forms, where \(K_1, K_2\) are positive constants, and \(\partial/\partial x_i\) is any \(g_v\)-orthonormal coordinate system. In the main theorem, the author takes \(u(x,t)\) a positive global solution in the sense of distributions of the heat equation under the flow \(F(t)\), \(\partial_tu=\Delta u\). Then, he proves that, for any \(\theta>1\), \(u\) satisfies the first order differential Harnack inequality \[ F^2(\nabla(\log u)(t,x))-\theta \partial_t(\log u)(t,x)\leq \frac{n\theta^2}{t} +\frac{n\theta^3K_1}{\theta -1}+n^{3/2}\theta^2\sqrt{C_2(x)} \] where \(C_2=\max\{K_1^2, K_2^2\}\). The proof consists on taking \(V=\nabla u\), and first deriving the evolution of the Legendre transformation, and of \(F^2(\nabla u)\) and then the estimation is obtained by using a Bochner-Weitzenböck formula due to \textit{S.-i. Ohta} and \textit{K.-T. Sturm} [Adv. Math. 252, 429--448 (2014; Zbl 1321.53089)] and applying some geometric arithmetic inequalities, and a maximum principle, in a similar way as in the proof of Theorem 2 of [\textit{S. Liu}, Pac. J. Math. 243, No. 1, 165--180 (2009; Zbl 1180.58017)].