We say that a Riemannian manifold M has rank at least k if every geodesic in M admits at least k parallel Jacobi fields. The Rank Rigidity Theorem of Ballmann and Burns-Spatzier, later generalized by Eberlein-Heber, states that a complete, irreducible, simply connected Riemannian manifold M of rank at least 2 (the higher rank assumption), whose isometry group satisfies the condition that the recurrent vectors are dense in the unit tangent bundle SM (the duality condition), is a symmetric space of noncompact type. This includes, for example, higher rank M which admit a finite volume quotient. We adapt the method of Ballmann and Eberlein-Heber to prove a generalization of this theorem where the manifold M is assumed only to have no focal points. We then use this theorem to generalize to no focal points a result of Ballmann-Eberlein stating that for compact manifolds of nonpositive curvature, rank is an invariant of the fundamental group.
In this note, we study the Gehring link problem in the round sphere, which motives our study of the width of a band in positively curved manifolds. Using the same idea, we are able to get a sphere theorem for hypersurface in in the round $S^{n}$ in terms of its focal radius as well as the rigidity of Clifford hypersurface in $S^{n}$. The $3$-dimension case of our theorems confirm two conjectures raised by Gromov in [Gro18].
In this article, we consider a closed rank one Riemannian manifold $M$ without focal points. Let $P(t)$ be the set of free-homotopy classes containing a closed geodesic on $M$ with length at most $t$, and $\# P(t)$ its cardinality. We obtain the following Margulis-type asymptotic estimates: \[\lim_{t\to \infty}\#P(t)/\frac{e^{ht}}{ht}=1\] where $h$ is the topological entropy of the geodesic flow. In the appendix, we also show that the unique measure of maximal entropy of the geodesic flow has the Bernoulli property.
We generalize the higher rank rigidity theorem to a class of Finsler spaces, i.e. Berwald spaces. More precisely, we prove that a complete connected Berwald space of finite volume and bounded nonpositive flag curvature with rank at least $2$ whose universal cover is irreducible, is a locally symmetric space or a locally Minkowski space.
In this article, we consider the geodesic flow on a compact rank $1$ Riemannian manifold $M$ without focal points, whose universal cover is denoted by $X$. On the ideal boundary $X(\infty)$ of $X$, we show the existence and uniqueness of the Busemann density, which is realized via the Patterson-Sullivan measure. Based on the the Patterson-Sullivan measure, we show that the geodesic flow on $M$ has a unique invariant measure of maximal entropy. We also obtain the asymptotic growth rate of the volume of geodesic spheres in $X$ and the growth rate of the number of closed geodesics on $M$. These r…
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold with dimension greater or equal to $3$ which admits a complete, finite-volume Riemannian metric $g_0$ locally isometric to a rank-1 symmetric space of non-compact type. The volume entropy rigidity theorem asserts that $g_0$ minimizes a normalized volume growth entropy among all complete, finite-volume, Riemannian metric on $M$. We will repair a gap in the proof when $g_0$ is locally isometric to the Cayley hyperbolic space.
In this paper we analyze the local and global boundary rigidity problem for general Riemannian manifolds with boundary $(M,g)$. We show that the boundary distance function, i.e., $d_g|_{\partial M\times\partial M}$, known near a point $p\in \partial M$ at which $\partial M$ is strictly convex, determines $g$ in a suitable neighborhood of $p$ in $M$, up to the natural diffeomorphism invariance of the problem. We also consider the closely related lens rigidity problem which is a more natural formulation if the boundary distance is not realized by unique minimizing geodesics. The lens relation me…
If a group $Γ$ acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space $X$ without 3-flats, then either $X$ contains a $Γ$-periodic geodesic which does not bound a flat half-plane, or else $X$ is a rank 2 Riemannian symmetric space, a 2-dimensional Euclidean building or non-trivially splits as a metric product. Consequently all such groups satisfy a strong form of the Tits Alternative.
Ballmann's Rank Rigidity Conjecture predicts that a CAT(0) space of higher rank with a geometric group action is rigid -- isometric to a Riemannian symmetric space, a Euclidean building, or splits as a direct product. We confirm this conjecture in rank 2. For CAT(0) spaces of higher rank $n\geq 2$ we prove rigidity if the space contains a periodic $n$-flat and every complete geodesic lies in some $n$-flat. This does not require a geometric group action.
Lichnerowicz猜想断言所有的调和流形要么是平坦的要么是秩为1的局部对称空间。这个猜想已被Z. Szabó \cite{Sz}：具有紧万有覆盖的调和流形. E. Damek和F.利玛窦\cite{DR}提供的例子表明，在非紧的情况下，猜想是错误的。然而，这样的流形不允许紧商。本文利用秩的概念研究了单连通非平坦非紧调和流形$X$上的渐近几何和测地流。在本文的第一部分中，我们证明了以下断言是等价的。体积的增长是纯指数的，$X$的秩是1，测地流是Anosov关于Sasaki度量，$X$是Gromov双曲。本文第二部分证明了若$X$是一个无焦点的非平坦调和流形，则测地流是Anosov流。在证明的过程中，我们得到了任意黎曼流形上的某些部分双曲流是Anosov流，这是调和流形以外的有趣的。结合\cite{BCG}，\cite{BFL}和\cite{FL}的刚性定理，我们对所有无焦点或含Gromov双曲基本群的紧致调和流形证实了Lichnerowicz猜想.
Let $Γ$ be a non-uniform lattice in $PU(p,1)$ without torsion and with $p\geq2 $. We introduce the notion of volume for a representation $ρ:Γ\rightarrow PU(m,1)$ where $m \geq p$. We use this notion to generalize the Mostow--Prasad rigidity theorem. More precisely, we show that given a sequence of representations $ρ_n:Γ\rightarrow PU(m,1)$ such that $\lim_{n \to \infty} \text{Vol}(ρ_n) =\text{Vol}(M)$, then there must exist a sequence of elements $g_n \in PU(m,1)$ such that the representations $g_n \circ ρ_n \circ g_n^{-1}$ converge to a reducible representation $ρ_\infty$ which preserves a to…
This belongs to a series of papers motivated by Ballmann's Higher Rank Rigidity Conjecture. We prove the following. Let $X$ be a CAT(0) space with a geometric group action. Suppose that every geodesic in $X$ lies in an $n$-flat, $n\geq 2$. If $X$ contains a periodic $n$-flat which does not bound a flat $(n+1)$-half-space, then $X$ is a Riemannian symmetric space, a Euclidean building or non-trivially splits as a metric product. This generalizes the Higher Rank Rigidity Theorem for Hadamard manifolds with geometric group actions.
We prove several cases of Zimmer's conjecture for actions of higher-rank cocompact lattices on low dimensional manifolds. For example, if $Γ$ is a cocompact lattice in $\mathrm{Sl}(n, \mathbb R)$, $M$ is a compact manifold, and $ω$ a volume form on $M$ we show that any homomorphism $ρ\colon Γ\rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}(M)$ has finite image if the dimension of $M$ is less than $n-1$ and that any homomorphism $ρ\colon Γ\rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}(M,ω)$ has finite image if the dimension of $M$ is less than $n$. The key step in the proof is to show any such action has uniform subexponential growth of …
