Simply connected open 3-manifolds with slow decay of positive scalar curvature (Q2418699)

The main result of this note is the following theorem. \par Theorem. Let $M$ be a simply connected $3$-manifold with complete Riemannian metric $g$ with less than quadratic decay of scalar curvature, i.e.~such that $\liminf_{r(x)\to \infty} r(x)^\alpha scal(x)>0$ for some $\alpha\in [0,2)$, where $r(x)$ is the distance to an arbitrary point in $M$. \par If $M$ is contractible, it is diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^3$, in particular is not the Whitehead manifold. \par If $\pi_2(M)$ is infinite cyclic, then $M$ is diffeomorphic to $S^2\times \mathbb{R}$. \par The proof is based on the minimal hypersurface method of \textit{R. Schoen} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} [Ann. Math. Stud. 102, 209--228 (1982; Zbl 0481.53036)], more precisely it uses solutions to the Plateau problem. For the first case, one shows that $M$ is simply connected at infinity. To achieve this, the author uses the solutions to the Plateau problem for hypothetical homotopically non-trivial curves $\gamma$ in the complement of large balls, together with a smallness result of \textit{H. Rosenberg} [Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 74, No. 2, 227--238 (2006; Zbl 1104.53057)] on constant mean curvature surfaces to derive a contradiction. \par The proof of the second part is reduced to the first one by a surgery construction.