Positively curved manifolds with large spherical rank (Q290752)

Summary: Rigidity results are obtained for Riemannian \(d\)-manifolds with \(\sec\geqslant1\) and spherical rank at least \(d-2>0\). Conjecturally, all such manifolds are locally isometric to a round sphere or complex projective space with the (symmetric) Fubini-Study metric. This conjecture is verified in all odd dimensions, for metrics on \(d\)-spheres when \(d\neq6\), for Riemannian manifolds satisfying the Rakić duality principle, and for Kählerian manifolds.