Gradient Ricci solitons on surfaces

Abstract

We classify and expose all the gradient Ricci solitons on complete surfaces, open or closed, with curvature bounded below, and possibly with a discrete set of cone-like singular points that arise naturally. We give a precise qualitative description of each metric in terms of a phase portrait, that is the most accurate description for all cases that do not admit an explicit expression in terms of elementary functions. Our classification contains examples of smooth and conic solitons that were not described in the classic literature. We add some visual embeddings in R^3 for aesthetics.