On the geometry of positively curved manifolds with large radius (Q1425770)

Let \(M\) be a complete, connected Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K_M\geq 1\). The radius \(\text{rad}(x)\) and the conjugate radius \(\rho(x)\) at each point \(x\in M\) are defined by \[ \text{rad}(x)= \max\{d(x, y); y\in X\},\quad \rho(x)= \inf\{c_v; v\in T_x M,\| v\|= 1\}, \] \(c_v\) denoting the conjugate value of \(v\). Moreover, the radius and the conjugate radius of \(M\) are given by \[ \text{rad}(M)= \min\{\text{rad}(x); x\in M\}, \quad\rho(M)= \inf\{\rho(x); x\in M\}. \] The author studies complete Riemannian manifolds with sectional curvatures bounded below by 1 and radius greater than \({\pi\over 2}\), proving the following statements. Theorem 1: Let \(M\) be a complete, connected, Riemannian manifold with \(K_M\geq 1\), \(\text{rad}(M)\geq{\pi\over 2}\) and put \(\dim M= n\). Assume that at each point \(x\in M\text{\,rad}(x)\leq\rho(x)\). Then \(M\) is isometric to an \(n\)-sphere. theorem 2: Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional complete, connected Riemannian manifold with \(n\geq 3\), \(K_M\geq 1\) and \(\text{rad}(M)> {\pi\over 2}\). If \(M'\) is a nontrivial connected, closed, totally geodesic submanifold of \(M\), then \(\text{rad}(M')\geq \text{rad}(M)\). Using a theorem of Grove and Petersen, one obtains that, given a manifold \(M\) as in Theorem 2, for any integer \(k\), with \(2\leq k\leq n- 1\), there exists a positive constant \(C(k)\) such that the volume of each \(k\)-dimensional closed, connected, totally geodesic submanifold \(M'\) of \(M\) satisfies \(\text{Vol}(M')\geq C(k)\).