On the uniqueness of asymptotic limits of the Ricci flow

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Antonio Ache , Princeton University
Fine Hall 110

Given a compact Riemannian manifold we consider a solution of a normalization of the Ricci flow which exists for all time and such that both the full curvature tensor and the diameter of the manifold are uniformly bounded along the flow. It was proved by Natasa Sesum that any such solution of the normalized Ricci flow is sequentially convergent to a shrinking gradient Ricci soliton and moreover the limit is independent of the sequence if one assumes that one of the limiting solitons satisfies a certain integrability condition. We prove that this integrability condition can be removed using an idea of Sun and Wang for studying the stability of the Kaehler-Ricci flow near a Kaehler-Einstein metric. The method relies on the monotonicity of Perelman's W-functional along the Ricci flow and a Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality for the mu-functional. If time permits we will compare this result with recent Theorems on the stability of the Ricci flow.