Geometric diffeomorphism finiteness in low dimensions and homotopy group finiteness (Q1598165)

In this note the author establishes two geometric finiteness theorems for the diffeomorphism types and homotopy groups of a closed simply connected \(m\)-dimensional manifold \(M\). The first theorem is: For any given numbers \(C\) and \(D\) there are at most a finite number of diffeomorphism types of \(M\), with \(m<7\), which admit Riemannian metrics having sectional curvature \(|K|\leq C\) and \(\text{diam} (M)\leq D\). The second theorem is: For any given numbers \(C\) and \(D\), there always exist for each natural number \(k\geq 2\), up to an isomorphism, at most finitely many groups which can occur as the \(k\)-th homotopy group of \(M\) which admits a Riemannian metric with \(|K|\leq C\) and \(\text{diam} (M)\leq D\). Contents include: an introduction (which contains a comprehensive overview and discussion of the material); proofs of the two results; and a bibliography of twenty-five items.