On the Betti numbers of Alexandrov spaces (Q1892337)

\textit{M. Gromov} [Comment. Math. Helv. 56, 179-195 (1981; Zbl 0467.53021)] proved that the total Betti number \(\sum^ n_{i = 0} b_ i (M)\) of a complete compact \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(M\) is bounded above by a constant depending only on \(n\) and \(k \cdot \text{diam} (M)\), where \(-k^ 2\) is a lower bound on the sectional curvature. The authors generalize Gromov's result and prove that for a complete \(n\)- dimensional Alexandrov space \(X\) of curvature \(-k^ 2\), \(k \geq 0\), and diameter \(d\) the total Betti number satisfies the inequality \(\sum^ n_{i = 0} b_ i (X) \leq C^{1 + kd}\) where \(C = C(n)\) is a constant. The proof is based on the relation between the compression of metric balls and the change in Betti numbers.