Some examples of vanishing Yamabe invariant and minimal volume, and collapsing of inequivalent smoothings and PL-structures (Q258029)

In this paper, using the theory of \(\mathcal F\)-structure, polarized \(\mathcal F\)-structure, and \(\mathcal T\)-structure on manifolds developed by \textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{M. Gromov} [J. Differ. Geom. 23, 309--346 (1986; Zbl 0606.53028)], the author computes the minimal volume, the minimal entropy and the Yamabe invariant for a high-dimensional smooth manifold on the homeomorphism class of any smooth manifold that admits a Riemannian metric of zero sectional curvature. The minimal volume \(\text{MinVol}(M)\) for a closed manifold \(M\) is defined as the infimum of all volumes over all Riemannian metrics whose sectional curvature is bounded by one. Due to Cheeger-Gromov, it is well known that if a manifold \(M\) admits a polarized \(\mathcal F\)-structure, then the minimal volume vanishes and \(M\) collapses with bounded sectional curvature. The author proves that every closed \(n\)-manifold \(M\) that is homotopy equivalent to \(\mathbb R^n/\Gamma\) with \(n \geq 5\) admits a polarized \(\mathcal F\)-structure. Consequently, both the minimal volume and the Yabame invariant, for such a manifold vanish, and the manifold collapses with bounded sectional curvature. Moreover the Yamabe invariant is realized if and only if \(M\) is diffeomorphic or PL-homeomorphic to the Euclidean form \(\mathbb R^n/\Gamma\). As a corollary, the author shows that every homotopy \(n\)-torus with \(n \geq 5\) admits a polarized \(\mathcal F\)-structure. Refining the notion of minimal volume, we can obtain a more restrictive invariant for closed manifolds. Namely, for a real number \(D>0\), \(D\)-\(\text{MinVol}(M)\) is defined as the infimum of all volumes over all metrics whose sectional curvature is bounded by one and whose diameter remains bounded from above by \(D\). Due to [\textit{O. Baues} and \textit{W. Tuschmann}, ``Seifert fiberings and collapsing infrasolv spaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1209.2450}], this invariant \(D\)-\(\text{MinVol}(M)\) does discriminate the standard smooth structure on the \(n\)-torus from certain inequivalent smoothings. The result mentioned above as a corollary shows that this is not the case for minimal volume. Related to the notion of \(D\)-\(\text{MinVol}(M)\), the author shows that within the homeomorphism type of the \(n\)-torus with \(n \geq 5\), there are smoothings and PL-structures for which \(D\)-\(\text{MinVol}(M)\) decreases under finite coverings. Finally, the author proves that the fundamental group of a manifold places no restriction on the vanishing of the minimal volume and the manifold collapses with bounded sectional curvature. In other words, he shows that if \(G\) is a finitely generated group and \(n \geq 5\), then there exists a closed smooth \(n\)-manifold \(M\) with fundamental group \(\pi_1(M) \cong G\) that admits a polarized \(\mathcal T\)-structure, and consequently the minimal volume vanishes and \(M\) collapses with bounded sectional curvature.