A characterization of codimension one collapse under bounded curvature and diameter (Q1711027)

Let \(\mathcal{M}(n,D)\) be the class of closed Riemannian manifolds of dimension \(n\) whose diameter is at most \(D\) and whose sectional curvature satisfies \(|\text{sec}^M|\leq 1\). Gromov showed that \(\mathcal{M}(n,D)\) is precompact with respect to the Gromov-Hausdorff metric. Its closure has been extensively investigated since then. The limit of a sequence in \(\mathcal{M}(n,D)\) has a metric space structure. Its Hausdorff dimension, which is known to be an integer, may be strictly smaller than \(n\); in this case the sequence is said to collapse. If the sequence does not collapse, the limit space is a Riemannian manifold. If the limit space has dimension \(n-1\), Fukaya proved that it has a Riemannian orbifold structure with lower regularity. The article under review studies in detail the latter case. The main result is the following characterization for a sequence in \(\mathcal{M}(n,D)\) with limit space \(Y\): the dimension of \(Y\) is greater than or equal to \(n-1\) if and only if for all \(r> 0\) there is a constant \(C=C(n,r,Y) > 0\) such that \(C\leq \frac{\text{vol}(B_r^{M_i}(x)) }{\text{inj}^{M_i}(x)}\) for every \(x\in M_i\) and every \(i\in\mathbb{N}\). The author complements this result by giving a geometric interpretation and several intuitive and illustrative examples. The proof uses and refines work of Fukaya on collapsing sequences to endow the spaces in a sequence with an extra structure, and work of Tapp on (bounded) Riemannian submersions to estimate the injectivity radius.