Horofunctions, Busemann functions, and ideal boundaries of open manifolds of nonnegative curvature (Q1335939)

In this article the author discusses three boundaries \(B(X)\), \(O(X)\) and \(DL(X)\) for a complete, noncompact Riemannian manifold \(X\) and compares them in the case that \(X\) has sectional curvature \(K\geq 0\). In general \(B(X) \subseteq O(X) \subseteq DL(X)\) and equality holds for the first two spaces if \(X\) is complete and simply connected with \(K \leq 0\). The first two spaces are sometimes equal in the nonsimply connected case, for example if \(X\) is the flat cylinder \(S^ 1 \times \mathbb{R}\). The author constructs a 2-dimensional example with \(K\geq 0\) in the sense of Alexandrov which shows that the spaces \(B(X)\) and \(O(X)\) need not even be homeomorphic. This conclusion remains valid for smooth manifolds with \(K \geq 0\) by perturbing the example slightly in the Hausdorff metric. The space \(DL(X)\) is in general infinite-dimensional, for example in the case that \(X = \mathbb{R}^ 2\) with the standard flat metric. The author shows that if \(X\) is complete and noncompact with \(K \geq 0\), then \(DL(X)\) is contractible and metrizable. The conclusions of this article hold more generally for manifolds \(X\) that satisfy the \(K\geq 0\) comparison theorem for large geodesic triangles. The boundaries in question or their motivating ideas were first described by Gromov. Let \(X\) be a complete and noncompact Riemannian manifold with Riemannian metric \(d\). Let \(C(X)\) denote the space of continuous functions on \(X\) with the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. Let \(C'(X)\) denote the quotient space \(C(X)/\sim\), where \(f\sim g\) if \(f - g\) is constant on \(X\). Imbed \(X\) into \(C'(X)\) by the map \(x \to [d_ x]\), where \(d_ x \in C(X)\) is the distance function given by \(d_ x(y) = d(x,y)\) and \([d_ x]\) denotes the equivalence class under \(\sim\) of \(d_ x\) in \(C'(X)\). We define \(\partial X = \overline{X} - X\), where \(\overline{X}\) denotes the closure of \(X\) in \(C'(X)\). If \(f \in C(X)\) is a function such that \([f] \in \partial X\), then \(f\) is called a horofunction. Equivalently, \(f\in C(X)\) is a horofunction if there exists a point \(p \in X\) and a sequence \(\{a_ n\} \subseteq X\) such that \(d(p,a_ n)\to \infty\) and \(f_ n(x) = d(p,a_ n) - d(x,a_ n) \to f\) uniformly on compact subsets of \(X\) as \(n \to \infty\). Let \(O(X)\) denote the set of all horofunctions in \(C(X)\) with the topology induced from \(C(X)\). One can define a distinguished subset \(B(X) \subset O(X)\) as follows. Let \(\gamma : [0,\infty) \to X\) be a unit speed geodesic ray; that is, \(d(\gamma(0),\gamma(t)) = t\) for all \(t \geq 0\). The Busemann function \(h_ \gamma \in C(X)\) is defined by \(h_ \gamma(x) = \lim_{t \to \infty} \{t - d(x,\gamma(t))\}\) for all \(x \in X\). (The Busemann function is sometimes defined to be the negative of the function above). Let \(B(X) = \{[h_ \gamma] : \gamma\) is a geodesic ray of \(X\)\}. We now assume that \(X\) has sectional curvature \(K \geq 0\) in addition to being complete and noncompact. Define two geodesic rays \(c(t)\), \(\gamma(t)\) to be equivalent if \(\lim_{t \to \infty} (1/t)\) \(d(c(t),\gamma(t)) = 0\), and let \(X(\infty)\) denote the set of equivalence classes of geodesic rays on \(X\). Define a metric \(d_ \infty\) on \(X(\infty)\) by \(d_ \infty([c],[\gamma]) = \lim_{t \to \infty} (1/t) d(c(t),\gamma(t))\). The metric \(d_ \infty\) is well defined since \(K \geq 0\) (and is also well defined if \(K \leq 0\) and \(X\) is simply connected). If \(c\) and \(\gamma\) are geodesic rays with \([c] \neq [\gamma]\) in \(X(\infty)\), then the corresponding Busemann functions \(h_ c\) and \(h_ \gamma\) determine different equivalence classes in \(C'(X)\). One obtains the Theorem. If \(X\) is complete and noncompact with sectional curvature \(K \geq 0\), then the map \([h_ c] \to [c]\) is a continuous surjective map of \(B(X)\) onto \((X(\infty),d_ \infty)\). (This map is a homeomorphism if \(X\) is simply connected with \(K \leq 0\)). One may define an angle at infinity \(\angle_ \infty ([c],[\gamma])\) between points \([c]\) and \([\gamma]\) in \(X(\infty)\) that agrees with the Tits angle at infinity for simply connected manifolds \(X\) with \(K \leq 0\). As in the nonpositive curvature case \(\angle_ \infty\) defines a metric on \(X(\infty)\) such that \(d_ \infty([c],[\gamma])= 2 \sin((1/2) \angle_ \infty ([c], [\gamma]))\) for all points \([c]\) and \([\gamma]\) in \(X(\infty)\). Hence \(d_ \infty\) and \(\angle_ \infty\) determine the same topology in \(X(\infty)\) and the identity map \(i : (X(\infty),d_ \infty) \to (X(\infty),\angle_ \infty)\) is a quasiisometry. The author also considers the boundary \(DL(X)\) that consists of all distance-like functions (\(d\ell\)-functions). A function \(f\in C(X)\) is \(d\ell\) if there exists a point \(p \in X\) and a sequence of subsets \(\{A_ n\}\) of \(X\) such that \(d(p,A_ n) \to \infty\) as \(n \to \infty\) and \(f_ n(x) = d(p,A_ n) - d(x,A_ n)\) converges to \(f(x)\) as \(n \to \infty\), uniformly on compact subsets of \(X\). In general the space \(DL(X)\) is infinitely dimensional, but the author shows that \(DL(X)\) is contractible and metrizable if \(M\) is complete and noncompact with \(K \geq 0\).