On Mostow rigidity for variable negative curvature. (Q5957469)

According to the Mostow rigidity theorem, the isometry type of a complete finite volume locally symmetric negatively curved Riemannian \(n\)-manifold with \(n \geq 3\) is uniquely determined by its fundamental group. Let \(M_{a;b;\pi;n}\) be the class of complete finite volume Riemannian manifolds of dimension \(n \geq 3\) with sectional curvatures in [a; b] and fundamental groups isomorphic to \(\pi\). The author proves the followingTheorem: The class \(M_{a;b;\pi;n}\) falls into finitely many diffeomorphism types. For any sequence of manifolds in \(M_{a;b;\pi;n}\) , there exists a subsequence \((M_k; g_k)\), a smooth manifold M, and diffeomorphisms \(f_k : M \to M_k\) such that the pullback metrics \(f^*g_k\) converge in \(C^{1,\alpha} \)-topology uniformly on compact subsets to a complete finite volume \(C^{1,\alpha}\)-Riemannian metric on \(M\). The main ideas in the author's approach come from Kleinian groups and geometric group theory. Given a degenerating sequence of manifolds \(M_k\) , one can use rescaling in the universal covers to produce a nontrivial action of \(\pi\) on an R-tree with virtually nilpotent arc stabilizers. Then results of \textit{M. Bestvina} and \textit{M. Feighn} [Invent. Math. 121, 287--321 (1995, Zbl 0837.20047)] imply that \(\pi\) splits over a virtually nilpotent subgroup. The author proves that this does not happen if \(M_{a; b;\pi;n}\) is nonempty. Then the methods of the Cheeger-Gromov compactness theorem imply that \(M_k\) subconverges in the pointed \(C^{1,\alpha}\) topology to a complete \(C^{1,\alpha}\) Riemannian manifold \(M\). Then \(\pi_1(M)\) contains a subgroup isomorphic to \(\pi\) which implies that M has finite volume and, in fact, \(\pi_1(M) = \pi\). Now the convergence \(M_k \to M\) is analogous to strong convergence of Kleinian groups. Studying this convergence yields the theorem.