Analysis and geometry on manifolds with integral Ricci curvature bounds. II (Q4517448)

This paper establishes several geometrical results for Riemannian manifolds with integral bounds for their Ricci curvature. These bounds are expressed in terms of a quantity \(\overline k(\lambda,p,R)\) which depends upon \(R > 0\), \(p \geq 1\), and real \(\lambda\), and which is defined for a Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) by the following formula: \[ \overline k ( \lambda, p, R) = \sup_{x \in M} \left( {1 \over \operatorname {vol}B(x,R)} \int _{B(x,R)} |\min\{ 0 , r(x) - \lambda\}|\right) ^{1/p} \] where \(r(x)\) denotes the smallest eigenvalue of the Ricci tensor at the point \(x \in M\). The authors develop a maximum principle and gradient estimate which they use to obtain generalizations of work of \textit{T. H. Colding} and of \textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{T. H. Colding} [Ann. Math. (2) 144, 189-237 (1996; Zbl 0865.53037), J. Differ. Geom. 46, 406-480 (1997; Zbl 0902.53034), Invent. Math. 124, 193-214 (1996; Zbl 0871.53028), Ann. Math. (2) 145, 477-501 (1997; Zbl 0879.53030)]. Here are the statements of two theorems which are corollaries of more general and technical results: Theorem. Suppose a sequence of closed Riemannian \(n\)-manifolds \((M_i,g_i)\) converges to a Riemannian \(n\)-manifold \((N,g)\) in the Gromov--Hausdorff topology. For each \(R > 0\) there is an \(\varepsilon(n,p,\lambda,R) > 0\) such that if all the manifolds satisfy \(\overline k(p,\lambda,R) \leq \varepsilon\), then they must be diffeomorphic to \(N\) for large \(i\). Let \(v(n,\lambda,R)\) be the volume of an \(R\)-ball in \(S_\lambda^n\), the simply connected curvature \(\lambda\) space form of dimension \(n\). Theorem. Given \(\lambda > 0\) and \(0<R<\pi/\sqrt \lambda\), we can find \(\varepsilon(n,p,R,\lambda) > 0\) and \(\delta (n,p,R,\lambda) > 0\) such that if \((M,g)\) is a complete Riemannian \(n\)-manifold with \(\overline k(p,\lambda,R) \leq \varepsilon\) and \(\operatorname {vol}B(x,R) \geq (1-\delta) \cdot v(n,\lambda,R)\) for all \( x \in M\), then \(M\) is diffeomorphic to a manifold with constant curvature \(\lambda > 0\). \{Part I is a preprint\}.