Euler characteristic numbers of space-like manifolds (Q1688497)

Let \(M^n\) be a smooth compact negatively curved manifold where the dimension \(n\) is even. Hopf had conjectured that the Euler characteristic \(\chi(M)\) of \(M\) satisfies \((-1)^{n/2}\chi(M)>0\). It is classical that the conjecture is true for surfaces. For \(4\)-dimensional manifolds, \textit{S.-S. Chern} [Abh. Math. Semin. Univ. Hamb. 20, 117--126 (1955; Zbl 0066.17003)] gave a proof attributing it to Milnor. \textit{M. Gromov} [J. Differ. Geom. 33, No. 1, 263--292 (1991; Zbl 0719.53042)] established the conjecture when \(M\) is a Kähler manifold. Recall that the minimum volume, \(\text{minvol}(N)\) of a compact smooth manifold is the infimum of the volume of \((N,g)\) where \(g\) varies over Riemannian metrics such that the absolute values of the sectional curvatures of \((N,g)\) are bounded above by \(1\). \textit{M. Gromov} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 56, 5--99 (1982; Zbl 0516.53046)] showed that \(\text{minvol}(N)\geq c_n||N||\) where \(||N||\) is the simplicial volume of \(N\) and \(c_n\) is a positive constant that depends only on \(n=\dim N\). The simplicial volume of a closed manifold is a homotopy invariant. He also showed that \(||N||\) is positive if \(N\) is negatively curved. He has conjectured the existence of an absolute constant \(\epsilon(n)>0\) depending only on \(n\) such that \(\text{minvol} (N)<\epsilon(n)\) implies that \(\text{minvol}(N)=0\) where \(\dim N=n\). The main result (Theorem 1.1) of the paper under review is that Hopf's conjecture is valid when \(M\) is homotopic to a compact manifold \(N\) which is `space-like'. A smooth Riemannian manifold \((N,g)\) is said to be \textit{space-like} if there exists a symmetric \((0,2)\) tensor \(h\) on \(N\) satisfying the following conditions: (i) the Riemann curvature tensor \(R\) has an expression \(R_{ijkl}=-(h_{ik}h_{jl}-h_{il}h_{jk})\), and, (ii) \(\nabla_ih_{jk}=\nabla_jh_{ik}\). If \((N^{d},g)\) is a complete space-like manifold, it is shown that its universal cover \(\widetilde{N}\) imbeds isometrically in the Minkowski space \(\mathbb{R}^{d,1}\) such that the second fundamental form of \(\widetilde{N}\) is given by \(h\). Moreover, \(\widetilde{N}\) is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb R^d\). The authors prove that if \(N^n\) is an even-dimensional compact space-like manifold then \((-1)^{n/2}\chi(N)\geq 0\) and that equality holds if and only if the minimum volume of \(N\) is zero. Their main theorem immediately follows from this since \(\chi(M)=\chi(N)\) and since \((1/c_n)\text{minvol}(N)\geq ||N||=||M||>0\) as \(M\) is negatively curved. They also show that the minimum volume conjecture holds for the class of space-like manifolds. The proof involves varying the initial Riemannian metrics \(g=g_0\) and \(h=h_0\) by considering the mean curvature flow \((g_t,h_t)\) of \((g_0,h_0)\) for which the solution exists for all \(t>0\). It turns out that \(N\) is space-like with respect to \((g_t,h_t)\) for all \(t\) and so the mean curvature flow equation simplifies to the equations \(\partial_t(g_{ij})=2H h_{ij}, \partial_t(h_{ij})=\Delta h_{ij}+h_{ik}h_{jl}g^{kl}-|A|^2h_{ij} \), where \(H=h_{ij}g^{ij}, |A|^2=g^{ij}g^{kl}h_{ik}h_{jl}\). Chern's generalized Gauss-Bonnet formula \(\int_N\Omega=\chi(N)\) applied to \((N,g_t)\) leads to the equation \((-1)^{n/2} \chi(N) =c\int_{N} \frac{\det(h_t)}{\det(g_t)} d\text{vol}_t\) with \(c=2/\text{vol}(\mathbb S^n)\). For a suitable sequence of \(t=t_k\) where \(t_k\to \infty\) as \(k\to \infty\), the authors show that \(\lim_{k\to \infty}\int_N(\frac{\det(h_{t_k})}{\det(g_{t_k})}-(H_{t_k}/n)^n) d\text{vol}_{t_k}=0\). This implies that \((-1)^{n/2}\chi(N)\geq 0\).