Rigidity of equality of Lyapunov exponents for geodesic flows (Q1748605)

The author is interested in characterizing the geometry of a locally symmetric space, among negatively curved manifolds, by means of the the dynamics of its geodesic flow. More specifically, given the unit tangent bundle \(S^1M\) of a negatively curved manifold \(M\), the action of its geodesic flow \((g^t)\) on its unstable foliation will be used to characterize when \(M\) is actually homothetic to a negatively curved locally symmetric space. Precisely, the main result of the author is as follows. Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional (with \(n\geq 3\)) closed negatively curved Riemannian manifold. Suppose that for every periodic point \(p\) of the geodesic flow on \(S^1M\), with period \(\ell_p\), all the Lyapunov exponents of the action of \((Dg^{\ell_p})_p\) on the unstable leaf \(L^u_p\) have the same modulus. Then \(M\) is homothetic to a compact quotient of the real hyperbolic space. Then the author varies this rigidity theorem: considering nearly hyperbolic spaces of non-constant negative curvature, whose Lyapunov exponents match those of the appropriate (not necessarily real) symmetric space, under additional technical assumptions he derives the analogous rigidity result. The proofs use recent results by \textit{A. Avila} and \textit{M. Viana} [Invent. Math. 181, No. 1, 115--178 (2010; Zbl 1196.37054)], by \textit{B. Kalinin} [Ann. Math. (2) 173, No. 2, 1025--1042 (2011; Zbl 1238.37008)], and also rigidity results by \textit{L. Capogna} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 50, No. 9, 867--889 (1997; Zbl 0886.22006)] and \textit{P. Pansu} [Ann. Math. (2) 129, No. 1, 1--60 (1989; Zbl 0678.53042)].