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We study the possibility of achieving metastable de Sitter vacua in general N=2 to N=1 truncated supergravities without vector multiplets, and compare with the situations arising in N=2 theories with only hypermultiplets and N=1 theories with only chiral multiplets. In N=2 theories based on a quaternionic manifold and a graviphoton gauging, de Sitter vacua are necessarily unstable, as a result of the peculiar properties of the geometry. In N=1 theories based on a Kahler manifold and a superpotential, de Sitter vacua can instead be metastable provided the geometry satisfies some constraint and the superpotential can be freely adjusted. In N=2 to N=1 truncations, the crucial requirement is then that the tachyon of the mother theory be projected out from the daughter theory, so that the original unstable vacuum is projected to a metastable vacuum. We study the circumstances under which this may happen and derive general constraints for metastability on the geometry and the gauging. We then study in full detail the simplest case of quaternionic manifolds of dimension four with at least one isometry, for which there exists a general parametrization, and study two types of truncations defining Kahler submanifolds of dimension two. As an application, we finally discuss the case of the universal hypermultiplet of N=2 superstrings and its truncations to the dilaton chiral multiplet of N=1 superstrings. We argue that de Sitter vacua in such theories are necessarily unstable in weakly coupled situations, while they can in principle be metastable in strongly coupled regimes., Comment: 40 pages, no figures

We discuss a gap in Besse's book, recently pointed out by Merton, which concerns the classification of Riemannian manifolds admitting a Codazzi tensors with exactly two distinct eigenvalues. For such manifolds, we prove a structure theorem, without adding extra hypotheses and then we conclude with some application of this theory to the classification of three-dimensional gradient Ricci solitons., Comment: Minor corrections

In this paper we investigate complete critical metrics of the $L^{2}$-norm of the scalar curvature. We prove that any complete critical metric with positive scalar curvature has constant scalar curvature and we characterize critical metrics with nonnegative scalar curvature in dimension three and four.

In this paper we consider a perturbation of the Ricci solitons equation proposed by J. P. Bourguignon in \cite{jpb1}. We show that these structures are more rigid then standard Ricci solitons. In particular, we prove that there is only one complete three--dimensional, positively curved, Riemannian manifold satisfying $$ Ric -\frac{1}{2} R \, g \, + \, \nabla^2 f \, = \,0\,, $$ for some smooth function $f$. This solution is rotationally symmetric and asymptotically cylindrical and it represents the analogue of the Hamilton's cigar in dimension three. The key ingredient in the proof is the rectifiability of the potential function $f$. It turns out that this property holds also in the Lorentzian setting and for a more general class of structures which includes some gravitational theories., Comment: Minor changes

We clarify a number of issues on Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms in supergravity, keeping the formalism at a minumum and making use of explicit examples. We explain why, if the U(1) vector is massive everywhere in field space, FI terms are not genuine and can always be redefined away or introduced when they are not present. We formulate a simple anomaly-free model with a genuine FI term, a classically stable de Sitter (dS) vacuum and no global symmetries. We explore the relation between N=2 and N=1 FI terms by discussing N=1 truncations of N=2 models with classically stable dS vacua., Comment: 17 pages, no figures; v3: added sentence at the end of section 3.2

In this paper we prove that any complete conformal gradient soliton with nonnegative Ricci tensor is either isometric to a direct product $\mathbb{R}\times N^{n-1}$, or globally conformally equivalent to the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ or to the round sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n}$. In particular, we show that any complete, noncompact, gradient Yamabe-type soliton with positive Ricci tensor is rotationally symmetric, whenever the potential function is nonconstant., Comment: Minor corrections

In this paper we prove that any $n$-dimensional ($n\ge 4$) complete Bach-flat gradient steady Ricci soliton with positive Ricci curvature is isometric to the Bryant soliton. We also show that a three-dimensional gradient steady Ricci soliton with divergence-free Bach tensor is either flat or isometric to the Bryant soliton. In particular, these results improve the corresponding classification theorems for complete locally conformally flat gradient steady Ricci solitons in [6] and [9].

We prove that any $n$--dimensional complete gradient Ricci soliton with pinched Weyl curvature is a finite quotient of $\RR^{n}$, $\RR \times \SS^{n-1}$ or $\SS^{n}$. In particular, we do not need to assume the metric to be locally conformally flat.

In this short note we prove that any complete four dimensional anti-self-dual (or self-dual) quasi-Einstein manifolds is either Einstein or locally conformally flat. This generalizes a recent result of X. Chen and Y. Wang.

In this paper we introduce the notion of generalized quasi--Einstein manifold, that generalizes the concepts of Ricci soliton, Ricci almost soliton and quasi--Einstein manifolds. We prove that a complete generalized quasi--Einstein manifold with harmonic Weyl tensor and with zero radial Weyl curvature, is locally a warped product with $(n-1)$--dimensional Einstein fibers. In particular, this implies a local characterization for locally conformally flat gradient Ricci almost solitons, similar to that proved for gradient Ricci solitons.

In this paper we prove that any complete locally conformally flat quasi-Einstein manifold of dimension $n\geq 3$ is locally a warped product with $(n-1)$-dimensional fibers of constant curvature. This result includes also the case of locally conformally flat gradient Ricci solitons., Comment: Minor corrections

This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to an error, Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to an error

In this paper we produce families of Riemannian metrics with positive constant $\sigma_k$-curvature equal to $2^{-k} {n \choose k}$ by performing the connected sum of two given compact {\em non degenerate} $n$--dimensional solutions $(M_1,g_1)$ and $(M_2,g_2)$ of the (positive) $\sigma_k$-Yamabe problem, provided $2 \leq 2k < n$. The problem is equivalent to solve a second order fully nonlinear elliptic equation.

We compute the evolution equation of the Weyl tensor under the Ricci flow of a Riemannian manifold and we discuss some consequences for the classification of locally conformally flat Ricci solitons.

We prove that some Riemannian manifolds with boundary under an explicit integral pinching are spherical space forms. Precisely, we show that 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with totally geodesic boundary, positive scalar curvature and an explicit integral pinching between the $L^2$-norm of their scalar curvature and the $L^2$-norm of their Ricci tensor are spherical space forms with totally geodesic boundary. Moreover, we prove also that 4-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with umbilic boundary, positive Yamabe invariant and an explicit integral pinching between the total integral of their $(Q,T)$-curvature and the $L^2$-norm of their Weyl curvature are spherical space forms with totally geodesic boundary. As a consequence of our work, we show that a certain conformally invariant operator which plays an important role in Conformal Geometry has a trivial kernel and is non-negative if the Yamabe invariant is positive and verifies a pinching condition together with the total integral of the $(Q,T)$-curvature. As an application of the latter spectral analysis, we show the existence of conformal metrics with constant $Q$-curvature, constant $T$-curvature, and zero mean curvature under the latter assumptions.

The long range Bethe Ansatz solution of the mixing problem in N=4 SYM allows to compute in a very efficient way multiloop anomalous dimensions of various composite operators. In the case of sl(2) twist operators it is important to obtain closed expressions for the anomalous dimensions in terms of the Lorentz spin. Conjectures are available altough analytical proofs are missing beyond one-loop. In this paper, we will present a method to expand at large spin the solution of the long range Baxter equation in twist 2 and 3. We will also propose sum rules for special singlet states at higher twist., Comment: Contribution to the workshop "Nonlinear Physics. Theory and experiment. V", Gallipoli, June 12-21, 2008

By means of a Kaluza-Klein type argument we show that the Perelman's F-functional is the Einstein-Hilbert action in a space with extra ``phantom'' dimensions. In this way, we try to interpret some remarks of Perelman in the introduction and at the end of the first section in his first famous paper. As a consequence the Ricci flow (modified by a diffeomorphism and a time-dependent factor) is the evolution of the ``real'' part of the metric under a constrained gradient flow of the Einstein-Hilbert gravitational action in higher dimension.

The spectrum of anomalous dimensions of twist sl(2) operators in N=4 SYM has an intriguing feature in low twist 2 or 3. The anomalous dimension of the lowest state, dual a folded string on AdS_5 X S^5, can be computed by Bethe Ansatz at 3, 4 loops respectively as a simple closed function of the Lorentz spin. This feature is apparently lost at higher twist. We propose sum rules for the excited anomalous dimensions where closed expressions can still be provided, even at higher twist. We present several explicit three loop examples. Many structural regularities can be observed leading to closed expressions which depend parametrically both on the spin and the twist. They allow to compute the subleading term in the logarithmic large spin expansion of the sum rules as a compact simple function of the twist, in analogy with the recent results by Freyhult, Rej and Staudacher in arXiv:0712.2743 [hep-th]., Comment: 31 pages, 2 eps figures

Recently, several multi-loop conjectures have been proposed for the spin dependence of anomalous dimensions of twist-2 and 3 operators in the sl(2) sector of N=4 SYM. Currently, these conjectures are not proven, although several consistency checks have been performed on their large spin expansion. In this paper, we show how these expansions can be efficiently computed without resorting to any conjecture. To this aim we present in full details a method to expand at large spin the solution of the long-range Baxter equation. We treat the twist-2 and 3 cases at two loops and the twist-3 case at three loops. Several subtleties arise whose resolution leads to a simple algorithm computing the expansion., Comment: 26 pages

In this paper we prove that, under an explicit integral pinching assumption between the $L^2$-norm of the Ricci curvature and the $L^2$-norm of the scalar curvature, a closed 3-manifold with positive scalar curvature admits an Einstein metric with positive curvature. In particular this implies that the manifold is diffeomorphic to a quotient of ${\Bbb S}^3$., Comment: Some misprints in the first version are corrected