Rank rigidity, cones, and curvature-homogeneous Hadamard manifolds (Q696161)

It is known that locally irreducible, compact Riemannian manifolds with non-positive sectional curvature and \(\text{rank}\geq 2\) (i.e., along each geodesic there exist at least two linearly independent parallel Jacobi vector fields) are locally symmetric, but it is still an open problem whether the compactness condition can be replaced by completeness (Rank Rigidity Conjecture). Note that the non-positivity of the curvature is known to be essential. The main result of the paper is the construction of non-complete manifolds which show that a local Rank Rigidity Conjecture does not hold and hence that rank rigidity is a global phenomenon. These examples appear in the framework of the presented approach via infinitesimal geometry. The authors introduce the notion of infinitesimal rank of a Riemannian manifold. It is the largest integer \(k\) such that at every point \(p\) of \(M\) and for every tangent vector \(v\) at \(p\), there exists a \(k\)-dimensional subspace of the tangent space \(T_pM\) containing \(v\) and on which the curvature tensor vanishes. Spaces with high infinitesimal rank are serious candidates for having high rank. For this reason, the authors start by determining the \((M,g)\) with infinitesimal \(\text{rank }k= \dim M-1\). (Note that \(k=\dim M\) if and only if \((M,g)\) is flat.) Generically, these spaces are semisymmetric spaces with a curvature tensor of conullity two. This leads the authors to the consideration of manifolds of cone-type and it provides the counterexamples to the local Rank Rigidity Conjecture. The consideration of the curvature homogeneous semisymmetric spaces with curvature tensor of conullity two also yields counterexamples to the following infinitesimal version of the Rank Rigidity Conjecture: If \(M\) is a connected, complete, locally irreducible Riemannian manifold of non-positive curvature and infinitesimal rank greater than one, then \(M\) is locally symmetric. Finally, the authors prove that the Rank Rigidity Conjecture holds true within the class of curvature homogeneous semisymmetric spaces.