Pseudolocality for the ricci flow and applications

Abstract

Perelman established a differential Li-Yau-Hamilton (LYH) type inequality for fundamental solutions of the conjugate heat equation corresponding to the Ricci flow on compact manifolds. As an application of the LYH inequality, Perelman proved a pseudolocality result for the Ricci flow on compact manifolds. In this article we provide the details for the proofs of these results in the case of a complete noncompact Riemannian manifold. Using these results we prove that under certain conditions, a finite time singularity of the Ricci flow must form within a compact set. The conditions are satisfied by asymptotically flat manifolds. We also prove a long time existence result for the Kähler-Ricci flow on complete nonnegatively curved Kähler manifolds. © Canadian Mathematical Society 2010.