On Potential Function of Gradient Steady Ricci Solitons

Abstract

In this paper we study potential function of gradient steady Ricci solitons. We prove that infimum of potential function decays linearly; in particular, potential function of rectifiable gradient steady Ricci solitons decays linearly. As a consequence, we show that a gradient steady Ricci soliton with bounded potential function must be trivial, and no gradient steady Ricci soliton admits uniformly positive scalar curvature.