Scalar curvature estimates for compact symmetric spaces. (Q1608960)

Let \(M\) be a compact manifold and \(g\) a metric in \(M\) with scalar curvature \(k>0\). Let \(\mathcal{M}(g)\) be the following set: \(\mathcal{M}(g)\):=\{\(\tilde{g}\in Sym^2(TM)| | v\wedge w| _{\tilde{g}}=| v\wedge w| _{g}\) for all \(v,w \in TM\)\}. It is an interesting problem to study how large \(k\) can be as a function of \(M\) when one varies the metric \(\tilde{g} \in \mathcal{M}(g)\). \textit{M Gromov} in [Positive curvature, macroscopic dimension, spectral gaps and higher signatures, Proceedings of a conference, held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, October 24--27, 1993, Prog. Math. 132, 1--213 (1996; Zbl 0945.53022)], showed that there is a finite upper bound for the minimum of the scalar curvature, however it remains a problem to find sharp upper bounds in terms of the curvature of the fixed metric \(g\). There are examples of sharp upper bounds given in several articles. In this paper the authors generalize some of these results proving that if \((M,g)\) is a compact, connected, oriented Riemannian manifold with non-positive curvature operator on \(\Lambda^{2}(TM)\), such that the universal covering of \(M\) is homeomorphic to a symmetric space \(G/K\) of compact type with \(rk G= rk K+1\), and \(\tilde{g} \in \mathcal{M}(g)\), then \(k\geq\tilde{k}\) implies \(k=\tilde{k}\); if moreover the Ricci curvature of \(g\) satisfies \(\rho>0\) and \(2\rho-k<0\), then \(k\geq\tilde{k}\) implies \(\tilde{g}=g\).