Diameter growth and bounded topology of complete manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature (Q2357788)

Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with the base point \(p_0\in M\). Set \(K_{p_0}(r)=\inf_{M\setminus B(p_0,r)}K\), where \(B(p_0,r)\) denotes the geodesic ball with center \(p_0\) and radius \(r\), \(K\) denotes the sectional curvature of \(M\), and the infimum is taken over all sections at all points contained in \(M\setminus B(p_0,r)\). The main result of the paper is: ``Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with base point \(p_0\) such that \(\text{Ric}\geq0\) and \(K_{p_0}(r)\geq -(\frac{c}{1+r^\alpha})^2\), for some \(c>0\) and \(\alpha\) satisfying \(0\leq\alpha\leq 1\). If furthermore, \(M\) has diameter growth of order \(o(r^{\frac{(n-1)\alpha+1}{n}})\), then \(M\) is of finite topological type; in particular, if in a neighborhood of an isolated end of \(M\) the above assumptions are satisfied, then the end has a collared neighborhood.'' The same result is also proved when the nonnegativity condition of Ricci curvature is removed and the order of diameter growth is replaced by \(o(r^\alpha)\).