Simplicial volume, barycenter method, and bounded cohomology (Q2182394)

The simplicial volume of a connected oriented manifold \(M\) is a numerical invariant associated to \(M\), depending only on the topology of \(M\). It is the \(\ell^1\) simplicial norm of its fundamental class in locally finite homology [\textit{M. Gromov}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 56, 5--99 (1982; Zbl 0516.53046)]. Gromov introduced it while studying the minimal normalized entropy and the minimal volume of a differentiable manifold and proved that, up to a positive constant, it bounds below both the minimal normalized entropy and the minimal volume of the manifold. He also conjectured that any closed manifold of nonpositive curvature and negative Ricci curvature has positive simplicial volume. Gromov's conjecture was proved for compact locally symmetric spaces of non-compact type in the works of \textit{J.-F. Lafont} and \textit{B. Schmidt} [Acta Math. 197, No. 1, 129--143 (2006; Zbl 1111.57020)], W. Thurston (\(\mathbb{H}^2\) case) and \textit{M. Bucher-Karlsson} (\(\operatorname{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(3)\) case) [Geom. Dedicata 125, 203--224 (2007; Zbl 1124.53025)]. Recently the positivity of the simplicial volume was proved for non positively curved manifolds with Ricci-type curvature condition by \textit{C. Connell} and \textit{S. Wang} [Groups Geom. Dyn. 13, No. 3, 1007--1034 (2019; Zbl 1426.53057)]. In the setting of non-compact finite volume locally symmetric spaces, Thurston proved the positivity of the simplicial volume of any such space of \(\mathbb R\)-rank 1. \textit{C. Löh} and \textit{R. Sauer} gave the first examples of higher rank, finite volume, non-compact locally symmetric spaces of positive simplicial volume [Comment. Math. Helv. 84, No. 3, 457--470 (2009; Zbl 1180.53046)]. Such examples were Hilbert modular varieties, which are \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric spaces. Moreover, \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric spaces covered by a product of \(\mathbb{R}\)-rank 1 symmetric spaces were shown to have positive simplicial volume by \textit{S. Kim} and \textit{T. Kuessner} [J. Topol. Anal. 7, No. 1, 23--46 (2015; Zbl 1310.53040)]. So it was conjectured that every \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric space has positive simplicial volume, and the question remained open for several years. In this paper this conjecture is proved for most \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric spaces. Theorem. Let \(X\) be a symmetric space of non-compact type with no direct factors isometric to \(\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{H}^2\), \(\mathbb{H}^3\), \(\operatorname{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(3)\), \(\operatorname{SL}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(4)\), or \(\operatorname{Sp}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{U}(2)\). Then the simplicial volume of \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric spaces covered by \(X\) is positive. Theorem. Let \(X\) be an irreducible symmetric space of non-compact type which is neither \(\operatorname{SL}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(4)\), nor \(\operatorname{Sp}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{U}(2)\). Then the simplicial volume of a \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 1 locally symmetric space covered by \(X\) is positive. While it is known that the simplicial volume of locally symmetric spaces of \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank at least 3 vanishes, in \(\mathbb{Q}\)-rank 2 there are no known examples with positive simplicial volume. From the above theorems and a degree argument, the following theorem is deduced, which improves a previous result by \textit{C. Connell} and \textit{B. Farb} [J. Differ. Geom. 65, No. 1, 19--59 (2003; Zbl 1067.53032)]. Theorem. Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional \(\mathbb Q\)-rank 1 locally symmetric space with no local direct factors locally isometric to \(\mathbb R\), \(\mathbb H^2\), \(\mathbb H^3\), \(\operatorname{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(3)\), \(\operatorname{SL}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SO}(4)\), or \(\operatorname{Sp}_4(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{U}(2)\). Then for any complete Riemannian \(n\)-manifold \(N\) of finite volume with Ricci curvature bounded below by \(-(n-1)\) and any proper map \(f\colon N\to M\) \[\deg(f)\le C \frac{\mathrm{Vol}(N)}{\mathrm{Vol}(M)},\] where \(C\) depends only on \(n\). The proof of the above results involves showing that the codimension-one Jacobian of the barycentric straightening map is uniformly bounded for most higher-rank symmetric spaces. Other results of the paper address the issue of surjectivity of the comparison map for semisimple Lie groups of rank 2.