On the escape rate of geodesic loops in an open manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature (Q2024753)

The escape rate \(E(M,x)\) of a noncompact and complete Riemannian manifold \((M,x)\) with an infinite fundamental group \(\pi_1(M,x)\) measures how fast the minimizing geodesic loops representing elements of the fundamental group escape from bounded balls centered at \(x\). It is defined as follows: \[ E(M,x) = \limsup_{|\gamma| \rightarrow \infty} \frac{d_H(x,c_\gamma)}{|\gamma|}\] where \(\gamma \in \pi_1(M,x)\), \(c_\gamma\) is the shortest geodesic loop representing \(\gamma\), \(|\gamma|\) is the length of \(c_\gamma\), and \(d_H\) is Hausdorff distance. In this paper it is shown that if \((M,x)\) is a complete open manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and \(E(M,x) =0\), then \(\pi_1(M,x)\) is virtually abelian, that is, it contains an abelian subgroup of finite index. The author also notes that one can apply the Cheeger-Gromoll splitting theorem [\textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{D. Gromoll}, Ann. Math. (2) 96, 413--443 (1972; Zbl 0246.53049)] to prove that the fundamental group of a complete open manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature is virtually abelian if one assumes the stronger hypothesis that the minimizing geodesic loops representing elements of the fundamental group are contained in a bounded set. This proof is contained in an appendix. A second appendix contains estimates of the escape rates of several manifolds.