Complete three-dimensional manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvature and quadratic volume growth (Q1579885)

The author presents a partial result adressed to the solution of the following conjecture, due to R. Schoen and S. T. Yau: ``Any open three manifold with non-negative Ricci curvature is either diffeomorphic to the 3-dimensional Euclidean space \(R^3\) or its universal covering is isometric to \(K \times R\), where \(K\) is a surface of non-negative curvature''. In the article complete three-manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvature are considered that, moreover, satisfy the following quadratic volume growth condition: there are positive constants \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) such that, for any geodesic ball \(B(p,r)\) with \(r>1\) holds \[ \beta r^2 \leq \text{vol}(B(p,r)) \leq \alpha r^2. \] The main result of this paper asserts that, if \(M\) is an open complete three manifold with non-negative Ricci curvature, such that \(M\) and its universal covering space have quadratic volume growth, then \(M\) is contractible.