Linear stability of Perelman's \(\nu\)-entropy on symmetric spaces of compact type (Q895889)

In this paper the authors establish a classification of \(\nu\)-stability for symmetric spaces of the compact type (Theorems 1.4 and 4.3). \(\nu\)-\textit{stability} is defined using Perelman \(\nu\)-entropy: More precisely, an Einstein metric is called \(\nu\)-stable if the second variation of its \(\nu\)-entropy is semi-negative definite. Let \((M^n, g)\) denote a compact Riemannian manifold whose scalar curvature is \(R\). Denoting by \(f: M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) a smooth function and by \(\tau\) a scale paramenter, the \(\mathcal{W}\)-functional is defined by \[ \mathcal{W}(g,f,\tau) =\int_M \left[\tau(R + | \nabla f|^2) + f -n \right] (4\pi \tau)^{-\frac{n}{2}}e^{-f} dV\,. \] Then the \(\nu\)-entropy is defined by \[ \nu(g) =\inf \left\{\mathcal{W}(g,f,\tau):\;f \in C^{\infty}(M),\;\tau > 0,\;(4\pi \tau)^{-\frac{n}{2}} \int_M e^{-f}dV = 1\right\}\,. \] In previous work [\textit{H.-D. Cao}, \textit{R. Hamilton} and \textit{T. Ilmanen}, ``Gaussian densities and stability for some Ricci solitons'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:math/0404165}] it was established that the standard sphere and projective spaces are \(\nu\)-stable, while various important examples of Einstein manifolds are \(\nu\)-unstable. This article builds on this earlier work, achieving a classification.