Weakly PIC1 manifolds with maximal volume growth (Q2238536)

A Riemannian manifold \((M^m,g)\) is said to be weakly PIC1 if its product with \(\mathbb R\) has nonnegative isotropic curvature, c.f. [\textit{M. J. Micallef} and \textit{J. D. Moore}, Ann. Math. (2) 127, No. 1, 199--227 (1988; Zbl 0661.53027)]. The main result of the paper states that if a weakly PIC1 manifold of dimension \(m\geq 4\) has maximal volume growth then its topology is trivial. \textbf{Theorem.} Let \((M^m, g)\) be a complete weakly PIC1 Riemannian manifold with dimension \(m\geq 4\). If \((M^m, g)\) has maximal volume growth, i.e., \(\operatorname{Vol} B(r)\geq vr^m\) for some \(v > 0\) and \(\forall r > 0\), then \(M^m\) is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb R^m\). The proof is based on the use of specific methods of the Ricci flow theory. Particularly, the preservation under the Ricci flow of certain nonnegative curvature conditions including weakly PIC1 is discussed.