Ricci Flow on ALF manifolds

Abstract

We prove that on ALF $n$-manifolds with $n\ge 4$ the Ricci flow preserves the ALF structure, and develop a weighted Fredholm framework adapted to ALF manifolds. Motivated by Perelman's $\hat{I}»$-functional, we define a renormalized functional $\hat{I}{»}_{\mathrm{ALF}}$ whose gradient flow is the Ricci flow. It is built from a relative mass with respect to a reference Ricci-flat metric at infinity. This yields a natural notion of variational and linear stability for Ricci-flat ALF $4$-metrics and lets us show that the conformally Kähler, non-hyperkähler examples are dynamically unstable along Ricci flow. We finally relate the sign of $\hat{I}{»}_{\mathrm{ALF}}$ to positive relative mass statements for ALF metrics.

40 pages