On Euler characteristic and fundamental groups of compact manifolds (Q832499)

In the present paper the authors study a variation of the isoperimetric inequality for a fundamental group of a given compact manifold. This \textit{radial isoperimetric inequality} (for \(p \geq 1\)) is defined and used as follows: A group \(G\) with a finite presentation \(\langle S | R \rangle\) is said to satisfy the inequality if for every word \(w = s_1 \cdots s_{L(w)}\) with \(s_i \in S\) representing the identity \(e\) in \(G\) we have \[ \operatorname{Area}(w) \leq C \sum_{i=1}^{L(w)} (d_S(\overline w(i), e) + 1)^{p-1}, \] where \(L(w)\) is the length of \(w\), \(d_S\) denotes the word metric given by the generating set \(S\), \(\operatorname{Area}(w)\) is the combinatorial area, i.e. the minimal \(k\) such that \(w = \prod_{i=1}^k v_ir_iv_i^{-1}\) for \(v_i\) reduced words on \(S\), \(r_i\) or \(r_i^{-1} \in R\) and \(\overline w(i)\) denotes the representation of \(s_1\cdots s_i\) in \(G\). For \(p = 1\) this gives the usual \textit{linear isoperimetric inequality} \(\operatorname{Area}(w) \leq C L(w)\), whereas the authors prove that both CAT(0) and automatic groups satisfy the inequality for \(p=2\). Moreover, they show that if the fundamental group of a compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) satisfies the radial isoperimetric inequality, one has the following consequence (Theorems 1.4 resp. 3.1 in the paper): Let \(\pi \colon \tilde M \to M\) be the universal covering, suppose \(H_{\mathrm{dR}}^1(\tilde M) = 0\) and let \(\omega\) be a closed \(2\)-form on \(M\) with \([\pi^*\omega] = 0\). Then there exists a smooth, bounded \(1\)-form \(\eta\) on \(\tilde M\) with \(\pi^*\omega = \operatorname{d}\eta\). The bound on \(\eta\) is constant for \(p=1\) resp. linear in \(d_{\tilde M}(x, x_0)\), where \(x_0\) is a fixed point in \(\tilde M\), for \(p = 2\). From this the authors conclude (Theorem 1.6) that an \(n\)-dimensional Kähler manifold \((M, \omega)\) with CAT(0) or automatic fundamental group, universal covering \(\pi \colon \tilde M \to M\) and \([\pi^*\omega] = 0\) is Kähler non-elliptic in the sense of [\textit{J. Jost} and \textit{K. Zuo}, Commun. Anal. Geom. 8, No. 1, 1--30 (2000; Zbl 0978.32024)] and therefore has Euler characteristic \((-1)^{\frac{n}{2}}\chi(M) \geq 0\), i.e. conforms to the Hopf-Singer conjecture.