Author Description

Riemannian geometry is characterized, and research is oriented towards and shaped by concepts (geodesics, connections, curvature,...) andobjectives,inparticularto understand certain classes of (compact) Riemannian manifolds de?ned by curvature conditions (constant or positive or negative curvature,...). Bywayofcontrast,g- metric analysis is a perhaps somewhat less systematic collection of techniques, for solving extremal problems naturally arising in geometry and for investigating and characterizing their solutions. It turns out that the two ?elds complement each other very well; geometric analysis o?ers tools for solving di?cult problems in geometry, and Riemannian geometry stimulates progress in geometric analysis by setting am- tious goals. It is the aim of this book to be a systematic and comprehensive introduction to Riemannian geometry and a representative introduction to the methods of geometric analysis. It attempts a synthesis of geometric and analytic methods in the study of Riemannian manifolds. The present work is the ?fth edition of my textbook on Riemannian geometry and geometric analysis. It has developed on the basis of several graduate courses I taught at the Ruhr-University Bochum and the University of Leipzig. The main new features of the present edition are the systematic inclusion of ?ow equations and a mathematical treatment of the nonlinear sigma model of quantum ?eld theory. These new topics also led to a systematic reorganization of the other material. Naturally, I have also included several smaller additions and minor corrections (for which I am grateful to several readers).