Neumann Li-Yau gradient estimate under integral Ricci curvature bounds

TL;DR

This paper establishes a Li-Yau gradient estimate for heat equation solutions on compact manifolds with boundary under integral Ricci curvature bounds, extending previous results to non-convex boundaries with specific geometric conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a new gradient estimate under integral Ricci curvature bounds for manifolds with boundary, relaxing convexity assumptions.

Findings

Proves Li-Yau gradient estimate under integral Ricci bounds

Extends results to manifolds with non-convex boundary satisfying interior R-ball condition

Provides conditions for small enough integral Ricci curvature bounds

Abstract

We prove a Li-Yau gradient estimate for positive solutions to the heat equation, with Neumann boundary conditions, on a compact Riemannian submanifold with boundary ${\bf M}^n\subseteq {\bf N}^n$, satisfying the integral Ricci curvature assumption: \begin{equation} D^2 \sup_{x\in {\bf N}} \left( \oint_{B(x,D)} |Ric^-|^p dy \right)^{\frac{1}{p}} < K \end{equation} for $K(n,p)$ small enough, $p>n/2$, where $diam({\bf M})\leq D$. The boundary of ${\bf M}$ is not necessarily convex, but it needs to satisfy the interior rolling $R-$ball condition.