Rigidity of manifolds with Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded below (Q715185)

The authors solve a rigidity spectral problem on the bottom of the spectrum of the diffusion operator \(\Delta_f\) raised by \textit{L.-F. Wang} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 37, No. 4, 393--402 (2010; Zbl 1190.53034)] and \textit{J.-Y. Wu} [J. Math. Anal. Appl 361, No. 1, 10--18 (2010; Zbl 1183.58028)] on a metric measure space \((M,g, e^{-f}d\mathrm{vol}_g)\) with \(m\)-dimensional Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature \(\operatorname{Ric}_f\) bounded from below by \(-(m-1)\), i.e., \[ \operatorname{Ric}_f^m(M)=\operatorname{Ric}_f(M) -\frac{1}{m-n}(\nabla f\otimes \nabla f)\geq -(m-1)g, \] where \(m>n=\dim (M)\) and \(\operatorname{Ric}_f(M)=Ric(M)+\operatorname{Hess} f\) is the Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature tensor. The proof follows a path similar to the one given by \textit{P. Li} and \textit{J. Wang} [J. Differ. Geom. 62, No. 1, 143--162 (2002; Zbl 1073.58023)]. Assuming \(\lambda_1(M)\) attains its maximum possible value \(\lambda_1(M)= \frac{(m-1)^2}{4}\) the authors prove that either (1) \(M\) has only one end or (2) \(M\) splits as a product \(M=\mathbb{R}\times N\) with a warped product metric \(ds^2_M=dt^2+ e^{-2t}ds^2_N\), where \(N\) is compact with nonegative Ricci curvature and \(\nabla_{\partial_t}f=m-n\). Using a volume comparison result for geodesic balls, they also prove that if a lower bound is given for the Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature tensor instead the \(m\)-dimensional one, namely, if \(\operatorname{Ric}_f(M)\geq -(n-1)\) and \(|\nabla f|\) is bounded from above by a constant \(A>0\), then \(\lambda_1(M)\leq (n-1+A)^2/4\). Furthermore, the equality holds if Condition (1) holds or Condition (2) holds with \(f=At\). In case of equality, the proof of both results consists on deriving first an improved Bochner-type inequality for \(|\nabla u| \Delta_f(|\nabla u|)\) or for \(\Delta_f(|\nabla u|^{b})\), where \(b\) is a convenient positive constant and \(u\) is an \(f\)-harmonic function, involving the bounds of the Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor and of \(|\nabla f|\). A natural notion of \(f\)-nonparabolic end is given using bounded \(f\)-harmonic maps. Assuming \(M\) has at least two ends, they first conclude \(M\) has at least one \(f\)-parabolic end. Using a Busemann function with respect to a geodesic ray that goes to infinity at a parabolic end, they derive (2). The assumption on boundedness of \(|\nabla f|\) is shown to be necessary in the second result, i.e., under the lower bound condition for \(\operatorname{Ric}_f(M)\), by giving an example with \(|\nabla f|\) and \(\lambda_1\) both unbounded.