Positively curved manifolds with large conjugate radius (Q2852537)

Let \(M\) be a complete and simply connected Riemannian manifold with \(\text{sec} \geq 1\), where \(\text{sec}\) is the sectional curvature of \(M\). Denote by \(\text{conj}(M)\) the conjugate radius of \(M\), by \(\text{inj}(M)\) the injectivity radius of \(M\), and by \(\text{rad}(M)\) the radius of \(M\). The main result of the paper states that \(\text{conj}(M) = \text{inj}(M)\) if \(\text{conj}(M) \geq \pi/2\). NEWLINENEWLINEThe author presents three applications of this result: (1) If \(\text{conj}(M) \geq \pi/2\), then \(M\) is homeomorphic to a sphere or isometric to a compact rank-one symmetric space. (2) If \(\text{rad}(M) \geq \pi/2\), then \(\text{conj}(M) \leq \text{rad}(M)\), and equality holds if and only if \(M\) is isometric to a compact rank-one symmetric space. (3) If for each unit speed geodesic \(\gamma :\mathbb R \to M\), \(\gamma(\pi/2)\) is the first conjugate point to \(\gamma(0)\) along \(\gamma\), then \(M\) is isometric to a compact rank-one symmetric space.