A gradient estimate for all positive solutions of the conjugate heat equation under Ricci flow (Q941417)

The authors obtain a pointwise gradient estimate for all positive solutions to the conjugate heat equation, similar to the G.~Perelman gradient estimate for the fundamental solution of that equation under the Ricci flow. Like in Perelman's case, the most general form of the gradient estimate does not require any curvature assumption. If the Ricci curvature is bounded from below, the authors prove a localized gradient estimate similar to the Li-Yau estimate for the linear Schrödinger heat equation. The main difference with the linear case is that no assumptions on the derivatives of the potential (scalar curvature) are needed.