Ricci curvature and monotonicity for harmonic functions

Abstract

In this paper we generalize the monotonicity formulas of [C] for manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. Monotone quantities play a key role in analysis and geometry; see, e.g., [A], [CM1] and [GL] for applications of monotonicity to uniqueness. Among the applications here is that level sets of Green's function on open manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature are asymptotically umbilic.