The Cross Curvature Flow of 3-manifolds with Negative Sectional Curvature

Abstract

We introduce a geometric evolution equation for 3-manifolds with sectional curvature of one sign which is in some sense dual to the Ricci flow. On a closed 3-manifold with negative sectional curvature, we establish short time existence and a pair of monotonicity formulas for solutions to the flow. One of these formulas shows that, provided the solution exists for all time, the metric approaches hyperbolic in an integral sense. Long time existence is still an open problem.