On the flatness of Riemannian cylinders without conjugate points (Q429262)

The authors investigate conditions that ensure that a complete Riemannian two-cylinder without conjugate points is flat. Examples with nonpositive curvature show that one has to assume that the ends of the cylinder open sublinearly. The authors show that sublinear growth of the ends is indeed sufficient if it is measured by the length of horocycles. This is used to extend results by \textit{K. Burns} and \textit{G. Knieper} [J. Differ. Geom. 34, No. 3, 623--650 (1991; Zbl 0723.53024)], and by \textit{H. Koehler} [Asian J. Math. 12, No. 1, 35--45 (2008; Zbl 1147.53034)], where the ends are measured in terms of the shortest noncontractible loops.