The dihedral rigidity conjecture for \(n\)-prisms (Q6200613)

Let \(M\) be a convex polyhedron in Euclidean space, and let \(g\) be a metric on \(M\). Assume \((M,g)\) has nonnegative scalar curvature and weakly mean convex faces. Assume also that along the intersection of any two adjacent faces, the dihedral angle of \((M,g)\) is not larger than the (constant) dihedral angle of \((M,g_0)\), where \(g_0\) denotes the Euclidean metric. In [Cent. Eur. J. Math. 12, No. 8, 1109--1156 (2014; Zbl 1315.53027)], \textit{M. Gromov} conjectured that \((M,g)\) is isometric to a flat Euclidean polyhedron. This conjecture is known as the dihedral rigidity conjecture. Let \(n\geq 2\), and let \(P_0\subset {\mathbb{R}}^2\) be a Euclidean polygon whose interior dihedral angles are all no larger than \(\pi/2\). The author calls the polyhedron \(P=P_0\times [0,1]^{n-2}\) a prism. He then defines over-prism polyhedra, examples of which include the interior connected sums of \(P\) with a smooth manifold, and also the manifold obtained by applying a surgery along a homotopically trivial knot in the interior of \(P\). In an earlier paper [Invent. Math. 219, No. 1, 1--37, (2020; Zbl 1440.53049)], the author related the dihedral rigidity conjecture with a natural geometric variational problem of capillary type, and proved the conjecture for a large collection of polytopes in dimension \(3\). In the paper under review, he extends this idea to study polyhedra of dimension up to \(7\): Let \(M^n\), \(2\leq n\leq 7\), be a polyhedron, over-prism of type \(P\), where \(P^n\) is a Euclidean prism. Assume the scalar curvature of \(M\) is nonnegative and that each face of \(M\) is weakly mean convex. In addition, assume the dihedral angles between adjacent faces of \(M\) are everywhere equal to the corresponding dihedral angles of \(P\). The main result of the paper says that \((M,g)\) is isometric to a Euclidean prism.