Estimating scalar curvature by norm of Riemannian curvature tensor under the Ricci flow

differential-geometryricci-flowriemannian-geometry

In B. Chow and D. Knopf's book "The Ricci Flow: An Introduction", the authors claim that for any dimension $n$ and any Riemannian manifold $M^n$, there is a constant $C_n$ depending only on $n$ such that $R \leq C_n \|\text{Rm}\|$. It's not clear whether this inequality should actually be $R(t) \leq C_n \|\text{Rm}(t)\|$, where $g(t)$ is a solution to the Ricci flow on $M$. It appears that the definition of norm they're using is the pointwise one, i.e $\|\text{Rm}(x)\| = \sqrt{R_{ijk\ell}(x)R^{ijk\ell}(x)}$.

Why is this true? From the definitions it doesn't look at all obvious why there should exist such a constant.

Best Answer

This is essentially a statement of linear algebra: for $v\in\mathbb{R}^d$ we have the comparison of $p$-norms $\|v\|_1\le\sqrt{d}\|v\|_2$. Using an orthonormal frame on $M^n$, we can regard the components of the Riemann tensor $R_{ijkl}$ as elements of $\mathbb{R}^{n^4}$, and obtain the desired inequality: $$ R=\sum_{i,j}R_{ijij}\le\sum_{i,j}|R_{ijij}|\le\sum_{i,j,k,l}|R_{ijkl}|\le n^2\sqrt{\sum_{ijkl}|R_{ijkl}|^2}=n^2\|Rm\| $$ This gives a bound $C_n=n^2$. This may not be the minimal possible $C_n$, but it shows that such a bound exists.

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