On the structure of Riemannian manifolds of almost nonnegative Ricci curvature (Q1777669)

Summary: We study the structure of manifolds with almost nonnegative Ricci curvature. We prove that a compact Riemannian manifold with bounded curvature, diameter bounded from above, and Ricci curvature bounded from below by an almost nonnegative real number and such that the first Betti number is \(b_1(M)= \dim(M)-2\), is an infranilmanifold or that a finite cover is a sphere bundle over a torus. Furthermore, if we assume the Ricci curvature is bounded and the volume is bounded from below, then the manifold must be an infranilmanifold.