The K\"ahler-Ricci flow on Hirzebruch surfaces

Abstract

We investigate the metric behavior of the Kahler-Ricci flow on the Hirzebruch surfaces, assuming the initial metric is invariant under a maximal compact subgroup of the automorphism group. We show that, in the sense of Gromov-Hausdorff, the flow either shrinks to a point, collapses to $\mathbb{P}^1$ or contracts an exceptional divisor, confirming a conjecture of Feldman-Ilmanen-Knopf. We also show that similar behavior holds on higher-dimensional analogues of the Hirzebruch surfaces.