A new curvature invariant and entropy of geodesic flows (Q791899)

Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curvature. Denote by SM the unit tangent bundle to M, let \(\mu\) be the normalized \((\mu(SM)=1)\) Liouville measure on SM, and \(h_{\mu}\) the entropy of the geodesic flow on SM with respect to the measure \(\mu\). For each \(p\in M\) and each \(v\in T_ pM\), let \(Q_ v\) be the quadratic form on \(T_ pM\) satisfying \(Q_ v(v)=0\) and for each unit vector w orthogonal to v, \(Q_ v(w)\) is the sectional curvature of the two-plane spanned by v and w. Let \(\{\lambda_ i\}\) be the set of eigenvalues of the positive semi- definite form \(-Q_ v\), and set \(\sigma(v)=-\sum \sqrt{\lambda_ i}\). Then \(\sigma\) (v) is a pointwise curvature invariant on SM whose average with respect to \(\mu\) we denote by \(\alpha\) (M). Theorem. \(h_{\mu}\geq - \alpha(M)\), with equality if and only if M is locally symmetric.