The Cartan-Hadamard conjecture and the little prince (Q2329588)

The authors study a generalized Cartan-Hadamard conjecture, which says that if \(\Omega\) is a domain with fixed volume in a complete, simply connected Riemannian \(n\)-manifold \(M\) with sectional curvature \(K \leq \chi \leq 0\), then the boundary \(\partial\Omega\) has the least possible volume boundary when \(\Omega\) is a round \(n\)-ball with constant curvature \(K = \chi\). The case \(n = 2\) and \(\chi = 0 \) is an old result of \textit{A. Weil} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 182, 1069--1071 (1926; JFM 52.0712.05)]. The authors give a unified proof of this conjecture in dimensions \(n = 2\) and \(n = 4\) when \(\chi = 0 \), and prove a special case of the conjecture for \(\chi 0 \) and a different version also if \(\chi 0\). The results for \(n = 4\) and \(\chi \not= 0\) are new. The proofs are based on arguments concerning optical transport, optimal transport and linear programming. The author use also an argument used by \textit{C. B. Croke} [Comment. Math. Helv. 59, 187--192 (1984; Zbl 0552.53017)], relaxing the curvature condition \(K \leq \chi\) to a weaker condition Candle (\(\chi\)) or \(LCD(\chi)\). The authors find counterexamples to a naive version of the Cartan-Hadamard conjecture: For every \(\epsilon 0\), there exists a Riemannian domain \(\Omega \equiv B^3\) with \((1-\epsilon)\)-pinced curvature, and with the volume of \(\partial\Omega\) bounded by a function of \(\epsilon\) and with the volume of \(\Omega\) arbitrarily large.