Metrics of positive Ricci curvature on quotient spaces

We show that any closed biquotient with finite fundamental group admits metrics of positive Ricci curvature. Also, let M be a closed manifold on which a compact Lie group G acts with cohomogeneity one, and let L be a closed subgroup of G which acts freely on M. We show that the quotient N := M/L carries metrics of nonnegative Ricci and almost nonnegative sectional curvature. Moreover, if N has finite fundamental group, then N admits also metrics of positive Ricci curvature. Particular examples include infinite families of simply connected manifolds with the rational cohomology rings and integral homology of complex and quaternionic projective spaces.Comment: 23 page

Differentiable stability and sphere theorems for manifolds and Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature

Leon Green obtained remarkable rigidity results for manifolds of positive scalar curvature with large conjugate radius and/or injectivity radius. Using $C^{k,\alpha}$ convergence techniques, we prove several differentiable stability and sphere theorem versions of these results and apply those also to the study of Einstein manifolds.Comment: 13 pages; final version; accepted for publication in Comm. Anal. Geo

On the topology of moduli spaces of non-negatively curved Riemannian metrics

We study spaces and moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with non-negative Ricci or non-negative sectional curvature on closed and open manifolds. We construct, in particular, the first classes of manifolds for which these moduli spaces have non-trivial rational homotopy, homology and cohomology groups. We also show that in every dimension at least seven (respectively, at least eight) there exist closed (respectively, open) manifolds for which the space and moduli space of Riemannian metrics with non-negative sectional curvature has infinitely many path components. A completely analogous statement holds for spaces and moduli spaces of non-negative Ricci curvature metrics.Comment: 24 pages; minor change

On the torsion in the center conjecture

We present a condition for towers of fiber bundles which implies that the fundamental group of the total space has a nilpotent subgroup of finite index whose torsion is contained in its center. Moreover, the index of the subgroup can be bounded in terms of the fibers of the tower. Our result is motivated by the conjecture that every almost nonnegatively curved closed m-dimensional manifold M admits a finite cover M' for which the number of leafs is bounded in terms of m such that the torsion of the fundamental group of M' lies in its center

Nonconnected moduli spaces of nonnegative sectional curvature metrics on simply connected manifolds

We show that in each dimension $4n+3$, $n\ge 1$, there exist infinite sequences of closed smooth simply connected manifolds $M$ of pairwise distinct homotopy type for which the moduli space of Riemannian metrics with nonnegative sectional curvature has infinitely many path components. Closed manifolds with these properties were known before only in dimension seven, and our result does also hold for moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with positive Ricci curvature. Moreover, in conjunction with work of Belegradek, Kwasik and Schultz, we obtain that for each such $M$ the moduli space of complete nonnegative sectional curvature metrics on the open simply connected manifold $M\times\mathbb {R}$ also has infinitely many components