Comparison Geometry for the Bakry-Emery Ricci Tensor

For Riemannian manifolds with a measure $(M,g, e^{-f} dvol_g)$ we prove mean curvature and volume comparison results when the $\infty$-Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and $f$ is bounded or $\partial_r f$ is bounded from below, generalizing the classical ones (i.e. when $f$ is constant). This leads to extensions of many theorems for Ricci curvature bounded below to the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. In particular, we give extensions of all of the major comparison theorems when $f$ is bounded. Simple examples show the bound on $f$ is necessary for these results.Comment: 21 pages, Some of the estimates have been improved. In light of some new references, and to improve the exposition, the paper has been reorganized. An appendix is also adde

Hitchin-Thorpe Inequality for Noncompact Einstein 4-Manifolds

We prove a Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for noncompact Einstein 4-manifolds with asymptotic geometry at infinity. The asymptotic geometry at infinity is either a cusp bundle over a compact space (the fibered cusps) or a fiber bundle over a cone with a compact fiber (the fibered boundary). Many noncompact Einstein manifolds come with such a geometry at infinity.Comment: 17 page

On the universal cover and the fundamental group of an RCD∗(K,N)RCD^*(K,N)-space

The main goal of the paper is to prove the existence of the universal cover for $RCD^*(K,N)$-spaces. This generalizes earlier work of C. Sormani and the second named author on the existence of universal covers for Ricci limit spaces. As a result, we also obtain several structure results on the (revised) fundamental group of such spaces. These are the first topological results for $RCD^{*}(K,N)$-spaces without extra structural-topological assumptions (such as semi-local simple connectedness).Comment: Final version to appear in Journal f\"ur die Reine und Angewandte Mathemati