Ricci flow and diffeomorphism groups of 3-manifolds

Source abstract

We complete the proof of the Generalized Smale Conjecture, apart from the case of R P 3 RP^3 , and give a new proof of Gabai’s theorem for hyperbolic 3 3 -manifolds. We use an approach based on Ricci flow through singularities, which applies uniformly to spherical space forms, except S 3 S^3 and R P 3 RP^3 , as well as hyperbolic manifolds, to prove that the space of metrics of constant sectional curvature is contractible. As a corollary, for such a 3 3 -manifold X X , the inclusion Isom ⁡ ( X , g ) → Diff ⁡ ( X ) \operatorname {Isom}(X,g)\rightarrow \operatorname {Diff}(X) is a homotopy equivalence for any Riemannian metric g g of constant sectional curvature.