Splitting, parallel gradient and Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature

Abstract: In this paper we obtain a splitting theorem for the symmetric diffusion operator

D e l t a_{p} h i = D e l t a - l e f t < a b l a p h i, a b l a i g h t >

and a non-constant

C^{3}

function

f

in a complete Riemannian manifold

M

, under the assumptions that the Ricci curvature associated with

D e l t a_{p} h i

satisfies

{m R i c}_{p} h i (a b l a f, a b l a f) g e 0

, that

| a b l a f |

attains a maximum at

M

and that

D e l t a_{p} h i

is non-decreasing along the orbits of

a b l a f

. The proof uses the general fact that a complete manifold

M

with a non-constant smooth function

f

with parallel gradient vector field must be a Riemannian product

M = N i m e s m a t h b b R

, where

N

is any level set of

f

.

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