Rigidity of Einstein 4-manifolds with positive curvature (Q1591420)

Let \((M,g)\) be a complete differentiable 4-dimensional Einstein manifold with normalized Ricci curvature \(\text{Ric}=1\) and with nonnegative sectional curvature. Assume additionally that the sectional curvature \(K\) of the manifold satisfies either (a) \(K\geq\epsilon_0=(\sqrt{1249}-23)/120\approx 0.102843\); or (b) \(2K(e_0,e_2)+K(e_0,e_3)\geq 9/14\) for any orthonormal basis \((e_0,e_1,e_2,e_3)\) of the tangent space at any point of \(M\), which fulfills \(K(e_0,e_2)\geq K(e_0,e_3)\). Then, it is proved that the manifold \((M,g)\) is isometric to either the Euclidean sphere \(S^4\), the real projective space \(\mathbb{R} P^4\) with constant sectional curvature \(K=1/3\), or the complex projective space \(\mathbb{C} P^2\) with the normalized Fubini-Study metric. Moreover, the author discusses consequences of the above theorem for the nonexistence of certain Einstein metrics on exotic 4-spheres as well as on exotic 4-dimensional real or complex projective spaces, and also on products of two 2-dimensional spheres. The proof is based on the Weitzenböck formulas for the self-dual and anti-self-dual Weyl tensors, certain estimates concerning the length functions of these tensors, and the lower bound estimate of the first positive eigenavlue of the Laplace operator due to A. Lichnerowicz and S. Gallot.