84 2. KAHLER-RICCI FLOW
By the uniform bound (2.43) on f, we conclude
for some C 2:: i.
1 det (ga13(x, t)) -
-=< <C
C - det (gajJ(x, 0)) -
D
REMARK 2.56. Alternatively, when r i= 0, applying the estimates (2.55)
ai:id (2.56) to equation (2.50), we have.
det 9a13(x, t) I ocp r I
log det gajJ(x, 0) = ot (x, t) - -:;;,cp(x, t) + f(x, 0)
S llJ(·, O)lloo ( ef;t + lef;t -11+1),
since max{C1, C2} S II!(·, O)lloo· In particular, if r < 0, then
e-211!(·,0)lloo < det (gajJ(x, t)) < e2llf(·,O)lloo.
- det (gafJ(x, 0)) -
Lemma 2.55 is the first step towards proving that \7 a \7 jJ'P is bounded
and that gajJ(x, t) is equivalent to gajJ(x, 0), which in particular implies_ that
gajJ(x, t) is always positive definite.
Next we estimate the trace of gajJ(x, t) with respect to gajJ(x, 0). Let
(2.59) Y(x, t) ~ ga/J(x, O)gajJ(x, t)
be the trace-type quantity we want to estimate. As we shall see below, a
bound for y (t) will imply a C^2 -estimate for cp (t). From (2.52) we have
y = n + f:l.g(O)'P,
(2.60) n = ga!3(t)gajJ(O) + l:l. 9 (t)'P·
Hence an estimate for Y implies an estimate for l:l. 9 (o)'P· Let Aa denote the
eigenvalues of gajJ(t) with respect to gajJ(O). Then
(2.61) Y = L~=l Aa
and the eigenvalues of ( a::Jf 213 ) with respect to gajJ(O) are Aa - l. If Y S C,
then as long as gajJ(t) is positive-definite, Aa SC for each a. On the other
hand, by Lemma 2.55, we have
1 n
CS II Aa SC,
O!=l
where for r S 0, the constant C is independent of time, whereas for r > 0, C
depends on time but remains bounded as long as the solution exists (though
the bound may tend to oo as time approaches oo). Hence there exists a
constant c > 0 such that Aa 2:: c, where c is independent of time for r S 0
and may depend on time for r > 0. So indeed, gajJ(t) remains positive-
definite as long as the solution exists and we have c S Aa S C', for some