Large-scale conformal rigidity in dimension three (Q877163)

An action of a group \(\Gamma\) on a Riemannian manifold \(X\) is said to be geometric if it is properly discontinuous, compact and isometric. The author says that \(X\) has bounded geometry if there is a number \(\epsilon >0\) and a compact Riemannian manifold \(Y\) such that all balls of radius \(\epsilon\) in \(X\) can be isometrically embedded into \(Y\). Moreover, he says that \(X\) is conformally flat if every point has a neighborhood conformal to a ball in Euclidean space. Next, the author defines the large-scale conformally rigid manifold i.e. a Riemannian manifold \(X_0\) with a geometric group action with a following property: whenever \(X\) is a Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry and \(\Gamma\) is a finitely generated group quasi-isometric to \(X\), then, if \(X\) is conformal to \(X_0\), then \(X\) is quasi-isometric to \(X_0\). In this framework the author proves the following theorem: Let \(X_0\) be a Riemannian \(3\)-manifold which admits a geometric group action. Assume that \(X_0\) is conformally flat and homeomorphic to \(\mathbb R^3\). Then \(X_0\) is large-scale conformally rigid.