The barycenter method on singular spaces (Q863622)

According to famous results by \textit{G. Besson}, \textit{G. Courtois} and \textit{S. Gallot} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 5, No. 5, 731--799 (1995; Zbl 0851.53032); Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 16, No. 4, 623--649 (1996; Zbl 0887.58030)], a closed locally symmetric negatively curved manifold of dimension \(n\geq 3\) uniquely minimizes the volume (normalized by \(n\)-th power of the volume entropy) in the same homotopy class of all Riemannian manifolds (for \(n=2\) this is due to A.~Katok). The paper under review extends Besson-Courtois-Gallot techniques to a significantly larger class of metric spaces. First, it is proved that a closed hyperbolic manifold of dimension \(n\geq 3\) minimizes the above normalized volume in the same homotopy class of almost everywhere Riemannian spaces. These spaces are defined in a way that allows to apply Besson-Courtois-Gallot techniques under minimal regularity assumptions. For example, Alexandrov spaces of finite dimension with curvature bounded below are almost everywhere Riemannian according to \textit{Y. Otsu} and \textit{T. Shioya} [J. Differ. Geom. 39, No. 3, 629--658 (1994; Zbl 0808.53061)]. Second, the uniquely minimizing property of closed hyperbolic manifolds is only proved in a narrower class of convex Riemannian amalgams, that are metric spaces glued from a locally finite countable collection of convex Riemannian manifolds with boundary along isometries of boundaries. For example, a compact cone-manifold of dimension \(n\geq 3 \) built with simplices of negative constant curvature with cone angles \(\leq 2\pi\) as well as the metric double of a convex Riemannian manifold with boundary are convex Riemannian amalgams. (The uniquely minimizing property of a closed hyperbolic manifold in the same homotopy class of all Alexandrov spaces of finite dimension with curvature bounded below is established in another author's paper ``Rigidity of minimal volume Alexandrov spaces'', Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Math. 31, No. 2, 381--389 (2006; Zbl 1098.53036)]. As applications, the unique volume minimizing property in a number of cases is discussed, the most notable is a proof of a Bonahon conjecture in Kleinian groups that the convex core with geodesic boundary of a convex cocompact hyperbolic manifold uniquely minimizes volume in an appropriate deformation space.