Long-Time Estimates for Heat Flows on Asymptotically Locally Euclidean Manifolds

Abstract

Abstract We consider the heat equation associated to Schrödinger operators acting on vector bundles on asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) manifolds. Novel $L^p - L^q$ decay estimates are established, allowing the Schrödinger operator to have a non-trivial $L^2$-kernel. We also prove new decay estimates for spatial derivatives of arbitrary order, in a general geometric setting. Our main motivation is the application to stability of non-linear geometric equations, primarily Ricci flow, which will be presented in a companion paper. The arguments in this paper use that many geometric Schrödinger operators can be written as the square of Dirac-type operators. By a remarkable result of Wang, this is even true for the Lichnerowicz Laplacian, under the assumption of a parallel spinor. Our analysis is based on a novel combination of the Fredholm theory for Dirac-type operators on ALE manifolds and recent advances in the study of the heat kernel on non-compact manifolds.