Space of nonnegatively curved metrics and pseudoisotopies (Q524871)

Let \(V\) be an open complete nonnegatively curved Riemannian manifold. By the soul Theorem of \textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{D. Gromoll} [Ann. Math. (2) 96, 413--443 (1972; Zbl 0246.53049)], any such manifold contains a compact totally convex submanifold without boundary, called a \textit{soul}, such that \(V\) is diffeomorphic to the interior of a tubular neighborhood of the soul. A connected open manifold is called \textit{indecomposable} if it admits a complete metric of \(K \geq 0\) such that the normal sphere bundle to a soul has no section. The authors prove that the souls of nearby nonnegatively curved metrics on \(V\) are smoothly close. They then apply this geometric result combined with some topological properties of pseudoisotopies to show that for many \(V\) the space of complete nonnegatively curved metrics has infinite higher homotopy groups.