Mixed curvature almost flat manifolds (Q2048464)

The infranil-manifold of an \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) is the quotient of a simply connected nilpotent Lie group \(G\) by the action of a torsion-free discrete subgroup \(\Gamma\) of the semidirect product of \(G\) with a compact subgroup of \(\operatorname{Aut}(G)\). A celebrated almost flat manifolds theorem of \textit{M. Gromov} [J. Differ. Geom. 13, 231--241 (1978; Zbl 0432.53020)] says that for any natural number \(n\) there exists a constant \(\epsilon(n)\) such that if a closed manifold \(M\) admits a Riemannian metric of \(|\operatorname{sec}|\leq 1\) and \(\operatorname{diam}\leq \epsilon(n)\) then \(M\) is finitely covered by a nilmanifold. This was later refined by \textit{E. A. Ruh} [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 1--14 (1982; Zbl 0468.53036)] showing that \(M\) must be infranil. The main aim of this article is to generalise Gromov's almost flat manifolds theorem.