On the fundamental group of non-positively curved manifolds (Q1085811)

Let M be a complete Riemannian manifold of nonpositive sectional curvature that satisfies the following property: Let \(f: N\to M\) be a continuous map, where N is a compact \(C^{\infty}\) manifold. Then: 1) There exists a harmonic map \(h: N\to M\) in the same homotopy class as f. 2) Every closed curve in f(N) is freely homotopic to a closed geodesic of M. Clearly both conditions are satisfied if M is compact, but the compactness of M is not necessary as the author shows in section 3 of the paper. The main result of this paper is the following theorem. Let M be a complete manifold of nonpositive sectional curvature that satisfies the condition above. Let \(\Gamma\) be a discrete, countable group, and let \(\Phi: \Gamma\to \pi_ 1(M)\) be any homomorphism. Then there exists a subgroup \(\Gamma'\) of \(\Gamma\) with finite index in \(\Gamma\) such that the restriction of \(\Gamma\) to \(\Gamma'\) factors through a free abelian group A, where A is the free part of \(\Gamma'/[\Gamma',\Gamma']\). If M is compact \(\Gamma\) is a solvable subgroup of \(\pi_ 1(M)\) and \(\Phi: \Gamma\to \pi_ 1(M)\) is the inclusion map, then the theorem yields a result of Gromoll-Wolf and Yau: \(\Gamma\) contains an abelian subgroup of finite index and \(\Gamma\) is carried by a totally geodesic, isometric immersion of a flat torus in M. The theorem also contains the following corollary to a result of Avez: if A is compact with sectional curvature that is nonpositive but not identically zero, then \(\pi_ 1(M)\) is not amenable. (In fact Avez proves that \(\pi_ 1(M)\) has exponential growth.) The following is a brief sketch of the proof of the theorem. Let M,\(\Phi\),\(\Gamma\) be as in the statement of the theorem. Let N be a compact \(C^{\infty}\) manifold with fundamental group \(\Gamma\), and let \(h: N\to M\) be a continuous map that induces the homomorphism \(\Phi: \pi_ 1(N)\to \pi_ 1(M)\). By hypothesis we may assume that h is harmonic. Lift h to a map \(h: \tilde N\to \tilde M\) of the universal covers \(\tilde N,\tilde M\) of N,M. Consider geodesics \(\gamma\subseteq \tilde M\) such that \(\gamma\) is an axis of an element of \(\Phi(\Gamma)\) and remains a bounded distance from \(h(\tilde N)\). Let Z be the closure in \(\tilde M(\infty)\) of the points \(\gamma(\infty)\), where \(\gamma\) is a geodesic as described above. The amenability of \(\Phi(\Gamma)\) then implies that \(d(\beta\circ h)\) is a harmonic 1-form on \(\tilde N\) if \(\beta\) is any Busemann function in \(\tilde M\) determined by a point of Z. The author then deduces the existence of a finite index subgroup \(\Gamma'\) of \(\Gamma\) such that \(\Phi(\Gamma')\) fixes every point in Z and shows that \(\Gamma'\) satisfies the conditions of the Theorem.