Hardy type inequalities on complete Riemannian manifolds (Q540452)

The authors show that complete Riemannian manifolds with asymptotically non-negative Ricci curvature in which some Hardy type inequalities hold are not far from the Euclidean space. Let \(n\geq 3\) be an integer and let \(p,q,\beta\) and \(\gamma\) be constants satisfying \[ 1\leq q<n,\quad q\leq p\leq \frac{nq}{n-q},\quad \gamma=-1+n\left(\frac{1}{q}-\frac{1}{p}\right) \tag{1} \] The Hardy inequality [cf. \textit{V. G. Maz'ja}, Sobolev spaces. Berlin: Springer (1985; Zbl 0692.46023)] tells that there exists a positive constant \(C\) such that \[ \left(\int_{\mathbb R^n}|x|^{\gamma p}|u|^p\,dx\right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\leq C \left(\int_{\mathbb R^n}|\nabla u|^q \,dx\right)^{\frac{1}{q}},\quad \text{for all } u\in C_0^\infty\mathbb R^n) \tag{2} \] where \(|x|\) is the Euclidean length of \(x\in \mathbb{R}^n\). One denotes by \(K(n,q,\gamma)\) the best constant for this inequality, that is \[ K(n,q,\gamma)^{-1}=\inf_{u\in C^\infty_0(\mathbb{R}^n)-\{0\}} \frac{(\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}|\nabla u|^q dx)^{\frac{1}{q}}}{(\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}|x|^{\gamma p}|u|^pdx)^{\frac{1}{p}}}. \tag{3} \] If \(\gamma p+q> 0\) and \(q>1\), it can be checked that [cf. \textit{K.-S. Chou} and \textit{C.-W. Chu}, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 48, No.~1, 137--151 (1993; Zbl 0739.26013)] \[ u(x)=(\lambda+|x|^{(q+\gamma p)(q-1)})^{(q-n)/(q+\gamma p)},\quad \lambda>0, \] is a family of minimizers for (3). \textit{M. P. do Carmo} and \textit{C. Xia} [Compos. Math. 140, No.~3, 818--826 (2004; Zbl 1066.53073)], \textit{E. Hebey} [Nonlinear analysis on manifolds: Sobolev spaces and inequalities. Courant Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 5. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (2000; Zbl 0981.58006)], \textit{M. Ledoux} [Commun. Anal. Geom. 7, No.~2, 347--353 (1999; Zbl 0953.53025)], and \textit{C. Xia} [Ill. J. Math. 45, No.~4, 1253--1259 (2001; Zbl 0996.53024); J. Funct. Anal. 224, No.~1, 230--241 (2005; Zbl 1071.53019); Math. Res. Lett. 14, No.~5--6, 875--885 (2007; Zbl 1143.53036)] studied complete manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvature satisfying some Sobolev type inequalities. In particular, metric and topological rigidity theorems had been obtained by M. do Carmo and C. Xia in [loc.~cit.] for complete manifolds of non-negative Ricci curvature satisfying some Caffarelly-Kohn-Nirenberg inequalities: \[ \left( \int_M \rho^{-bp}|u|^pdv\right)^{1/p}\leq C\left(\int_M \rho^{-2a}|\nabla u|^2 dv\right)^{1/2},\quad u\in C^\infty_0(M),\tag{4} \] where \[ n\geq 3,\quad 0\leq a<\frac{n-2}{2},\quad a\leq b<a+1,\quad p=\frac{2n}{n-2+2(b-a)},\tag{5} \] and \(\rho\) denotes the distance function of \(M\) to some fixed point. One observes that when \(a=0\) and \(M=\mathbb{R}^n\), this becomes the Hardy inequality (2) with \(q=2\). In the present paper, the authors consider a Riemannian manifold \((M^n,g)\) and denote by \(\rho(x)=\text{dist}_{(M,g)}(x,o)\), where \(o\in M\) is a fixed point, \(B_r(p)\) the geodesic ball of center \(p\) and radius \(r\) and \(\text{Vol}[B_r(p)]\) the volume of \(B_r(p)\). The authors say that \(M\) has asymptotically non-negative Ricci curvature if its Ricci curvature satisfies \[ \text{Ric}_{(M,g)}(x)\geq -(n-1)G(\rho(x)),\quad x\in M, \tag{6} \] where \(G\in C^1([0,+\infty))\) is a non-negative function such that \[ \int_0^{+\infty}tG(t)dt=b_0<+\infty. \] In this case, \(M\) satisfies the following volume growth property [\textit{S. Pigola, M. Rigoli} and \textit{A. G. Setti}, Vanishing and finiteness results in geometric analysis. A generalization of the Bochner technique. Progress in Mathematics 266. Basel: Birkhäuser (2008; Zbl 1150.53001)] \[ \frac{\text{Vol}[B_R(o)]}{\text{Vol}[B_{\widetilde{R}}(o)]}\geq e^{(n-1)b_0}\left(\frac{R}{\widetilde{R}}\right),\quad \text{for all } 0<\widetilde{R}<R. \tag{7} \] The purpose of the paper is to prove the following result. Theorem 1.1. Let \(n\geq 3\) be an integer and let \(p,q,\gamma\) be constants satisfying \[ 1<q<n ,\quad q<p\leq \frac{nq}{n-q},\quad \gamma=-1+n\left(\frac{1}{q}-\frac{1}{p}\right). \tag{8} \] Let \((M^n,g)\) be a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold with Ricci curvature satisfying (6) and suppose that \[ \left(\int_M \rho^{\gamma p}|u|^p dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\leq C\left(\int_M |\nabla u|^q dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{q}},\quad \text{for all } u\in C^\infty_0(M),\tag{9} \] for some constant \(C\geq K(n,q,\gamma)\). Then, for any \(R>0\), we have \[ \text{Vol}[B_R(o)]\geq e^{-(n-1)b_0} (C^{-1}K(n,q,\gamma))^{pq/(p-q)}V_0(R),\tag{10} \] where \(V_0(R)\) denotes the volume of an \(R\)-ball in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). The Bishop-Gromov comparison theorem [\textit{I. Chavel}, Riemannian geometry. A modern introduction. 2nd ed. Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics 98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2006; Zbl 1099.53001)] implies that, if \(M\) is an \(n\)-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with non-negative Ricci curvature, then, for any \(x\in M\), \(\text{Vol}[B_r(x)]\leq V_0(R)\), with equality holding if and only if \(B_r(x)\) is isometric to an \(r\)-ball in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). Thus, one gets from Theorem 1.1 the following metric rigidity theorems: Corollary 1.2. A complete non-compact Rioemannian manifold \((M^n,g)\) with non-negative Ricci curvature in which the inequality \[ \left(\int_M \rho^{\gamma p}|u|^p dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\leq K(n,q,\gamma)\left(\int_M|\nabla u|^q dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{q}},\quad u \in C^\infty_0 \] is satisfied, is isometric to \(\mathbb R^n\), where \(n,p,q,\gamma\) are as in (8). Corollary 1.3. Let \(n,p,q,\gamma\) be as in (8). There exists a positive constant \(\epsilon=\epsilon(n,p,q)\) such that any complete non-compact Riemannian manifold \((M^n,g)\) with non-negative Ricci curvature in which the inequality \[ \left(\int_M \rho^{\gamma p}|u|^p dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\leq (K(n,q,\gamma)+\epsilon)\left(\int_M|\nabla u|^q dv_g\right)^{\frac{1}{q}},\quad u\in C^\infty_0(M), \] is satisfied, is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}^n\). Corollary 1.4. Let \(n,p,q, \gamma\) be as in (8). For a fixed \(\delta \in (0,\frac{1}{2})\), there exists a \(b_0=b_0(n,\delta)\) such that, if the sectional curvature of a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold \((M^n,g)\) satisfies \[ K(x)\geq -G(\rho(x)),\quad \int^{+\infty}_0 tG(t) dt\leq b_0, \] and inequality (9) holds on \(M\) with \(C<(\frac{1}{2}+\delta)^{-\frac{p-q}{pq}}K(n,q,\gamma)\), then \(M\) is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}^n\).