A Ricci inequality for hypersurfaces in the sphere (Q2569209)

Let \((M, g)\) be a complete oriented Riemannian \(n\)-dimensional manifold isometrically immersed in the unit Euclidean sphere \(S^{n + 1}\). Let \(K\) and \(\text{ Ric} (g)\) be the sectional curvature and the Ricci curvature of \(g\), respectively. By a result of \textit{B. Smyth} [Efimov's inequality and other inequalities in a sphere'', Geometry and Topology of submanifolds. IV, 76--86 (1992; Zbl 0839.53038)] if \(n \geq 3\) and \(\text{ inf } \, K > - \infty\) then \(\text{ sup Ric} (g) \geq n - 2\) unless the Riemannian covering manifold \(\tilde M\) of \(M\) is homeomorphic to an odd-dimensional sphere or to \(\mathbb R^n\). In the present paper, the author improves the previous result, considering instead of the assumption \(\text{ inf } \, K > - \infty\) the following conditions, separately: i) \(M\) has constant mean curvature \(H\); ii) \(H\) is bounded and \(\sup Ric(g) \leq n - 2\); iii) \(H\) is unbounded, \(\text{ sup Ric} (g) \geq n -2\) and \(\text{ inf} \, K > - \infty\). Moreover, he shows that when \(M\) has constant mean curvature, the condition \(\text{ sup Ric}(g) \geq n - 2\) holds and finally he gives a characterization of such hypersurfaces.