An assortment of negatively curved ends (Q2870236)

Let \(V\) be a complete open Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K\) satisfying \(-1\leq K<0\). Assume \(V\) has finite volume. Work of \textit{M. Gromov} [J. Differ. Geom. 13, 223--230 (1978; Zbl 0433.53028)] and of \textit{W. Ballmann} et al. [Manifolds of nonpositive curvature. Boston-Basel-Stuttgart: Birkhäuser (1985; Zbl 0591.53001)] implies \(V\) is diffeomorphic to the interior of a compact manifold \(\bar V\) with boundary. One wishes to determine what manifolds can arise as the boundary of \(\bar V\). Motivated by work of \textit{P. Ontaneda} [``Pinched smooth hyperbolization'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1110.6374}], the author describes a sizable class of closed manifolds \(M\) so that \(M\times\mathbb{R}\) admits a complete metric of bounded negative sectional curvature which is exponentially warped near one end and which has finite volume near the other end. \S1 provides an introduction, \S2 presents curvature formulae, \S3 discusses products, \S4 deals with non positively curved manifolds, \S5 deals with infranil manifolds, \S6 treats circle bundles, and \S7 establishes the main results of the paper.