Collapsed Riemannian manifolds with bounded diameter and bounded covering geometry (Q1901995)

Let \(M^n_D\) be the class of Riemannian \(n\)-manifolds with \(\text{diam} (M) \leq D\) and \(|K_M |\leq 1\). For each member \(M\) of \(M^n_D\) one supposes that its frame bundle \(FM\) admits an \(O(n)\)-invariant fibre bundle structure \(\widetilde {\eta}: FM\to B_{\widetilde {\eta}}\), in which fibres are equipped with the canonical affine connection, namely, the one for which all left invariant vector fields are parallel. The projection \(\pi: FM\to M\) induces \(\widetilde {\pi}: B_{\widetilde {\eta}}\to B_\eta= B_{\widetilde {\eta}}/ O(n)\), and the centers of the fibres of \(\widetilde {\eta}\) determine an \(O(n)\)-invariant fibre bundle structure on \(FM\), \(\widetilde {f}: FM\to B_{\widetilde {\eta}}\), which has the torus as fibre and affine structure group. \(\widetilde {f}\) then determines a map \(f: M\to B_f= B_{\widetilde {f}}/ O(n)\). The fibration \(f\) is called a canonical \(F\)-structure, and it is said to be injective if the homomorphism of fundamental groups induced by the inclusion map to the orbit into \(M\) is injective. The authors then prove the Theorem: There exists a constant \(v= v(n, D, m)> 0\) such that if for \(\gamma\in \pi_1 (M)\), \(\text{ord} (\gamma) <\infty\) implies order \((\gamma)< m\), and \(M\) has bounded covering geometry (i.e. the pullback metric of the simply connected covering space of \(M\) has injectivity radius \(\geq 1\)), and \(\text{vol} (M)< v\), then \(M\) admits a (purely) injective \(F\)-structure. This fact is shown to provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a manifold \(M\) to admit a collapsed metric in the class \(M^n_D\), that is to say, under the hypothesis of the theorem, there exists a sequence of invariant metrics on \(M\) with bounded diameter and bounded covering geometry for which the volumes converge to zero. If the rank of the injective \(F\)-structure is \(k\geq 4\), then all elements of the real Pontryagin class of degree \(\geq (4n- k)/4\) vanish identica.