Recent developments about Geometric Analysis on RCD(K,N) spaces

This thesis is about some recent developments on Geometric Analysis and Geometric Measure Theory on RCD(K,N) metric measure spaces that have been obtained in [8,48,49,51,52,171]. After the preliminary Chapter 1, where we collect the basic notions of the theory relevant for our purposes, Chapter 2 is dedicated to the presentation of a simplified approach to the structure theory of RCD(K,N) spaces via \u3b4- splitting maps developed in collaboration with Bru\ue9 and Pasqualetto. The strategy is similar to the one adopted by Cheeger-Colding in the theory of Ricci limit spaces and it is suitable for adaptations to codimension one. Chapter 3 is devoted to the proof of the constancy of the dimension conjecture for RCD(K,N) spaces. This has been obtained in a joint work with Bru\ue9, where we proved that dimension of the tangent space is the same almost everywhere with respect to the reference measure, generalizing a previous result obtained by Colding-Naber for Ricci limits. The strategy is based on the study of regularity of flows of Sobolev vector fields on spaces with Ricci curvature bounded from below, which we find of independent interest. In Chapters 4 and 5 we present the structure theory for boundaries of sets of finite perimeter in this framework, as developed in collaboration with Ambrosio, Bru\ue9 and Pasqualetto. An almost complete generalization of De Giorgi\u2019s celebrated theorem is given, opening to further developments for Geometric Measure Theory in the setting of synthetic lower bounds on Ricci curvature. In Chapter 6 we eventually collect some results about sharp lower bounds on the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of the p-Laplacian based on a joint work with Mondino. We also address the problems of rigidity and almost rigidity, heavily relying on the compactness and stability properties of RCD spaces

Polya-Szego inequality and Dirichlet pp-spectral gap for non-smooth spaces with Ricci curvature bounded below

We study decreasing rearrangements of functions defined on (possibly non-smooth) metric measure spaces with Ricci curvature bounded below by $K>0$ and dimension bounded above by $N\in (1,\infty)$ in a synthetic sense, the so called $CD(K,N)$ spaces. We first establish a Polya-Szego type inequality stating that the $W^{1,p}$-Sobolev norm decreases under such a rearrangement and apply the result to show sharp spectral gap for the $p$-Laplace operator with Dirichlet boundary conditions (on open subsets), for every $p\in (1,\infty)$. This extends to the non-smooth setting a classical result of B\'erard-Meyer and Matei; remarkable examples of spaces fitting out framework and for which the results seem new include: measured-Gromov Hausdorff limits of Riemannian manifolds with Ricci$\geq K>0$, finite dimensional Alexandrov spaces with curvature$\geq K>0$, Finsler manifolds with Ricci$\geq K>0$. In the second part of the paper we prove new rigidity and almost rigidity results attached to the aforementioned inequalities, in the framework of $RCD(K,N)$ spaces, which seem original even for smooth Riemannian manifolds with Ricci$\geq K>0$.Comment: 33 pages. Final version published in Journal de Math\'ematiques Pures et Appliqu\'ee

Rigidity of the 1-Bakry-\'Emery inequality and sets of finite perimeter in RCD spaces

This note is dedicated to the study of the asymptotic behaviour of sets of finite perimeter over RCD(K,N) metric measure spaces. Our main result asserts existence of a Euclidean tangent half-space almost everywhere with respect to the perimeter measure and it can be improved to an existence and uniqueness statement when the ambient is non collapsed. As an intermediate tool, we provide a complete characterization of the class of RCD(0,N) spaces for which there exists a nontrivial function satisfying the equality in the 1-Bakry-\'Emery inequality. This result is of independent interest and it is new, up to our knowledge, even in the smooth framework

Weak Laplacian bounds and minimal boundaries in non-smooth spaces with Ricci curvature lower bounds

The goal of the paper is four-fold. In the setting of non-smooth spaces with Ricci curvature lower bounds (more precisely RCD(K,N) metric measure spaces): - we develop an intrinsic theory of Laplacian bounds in viscosity sense and in a pointwise, heat flow related, sense, showing their equivalence also with Laplacian bounds in distributional sense; - relying on these tools, we establish a PDE principle relating lower Ricci curvature bounds to the preservation of Laplacian lower bounds under the evolution via the $p$-Hopf-Lax semigroup, for general exponents $p\in[1,\infty)$. This principle admits a broad range of applications, going much beyond the topic of the present paper; - we prove sharp Laplacian bounds on the distance function from a set (locally) minimizing the perimeter with a flexible technique, not involving any regularity theory; this corresponds to vanishing mean curvature in the smooth setting and encodes also information about the second variation of the area; - we initiate a regularity theory for boundaries of sets (locally) minimizing the perimeter, obtaining sharp dimension estimates for their singular sets, quantitative estimates of independent interest even in the smooth setting and topological regularity away from the singular set. The class of RCD(K,N) metric measure spaces includes as remarkable sub-classes: measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits of smooth manifolds with lower Ricci curvature bounds and finite dimensional Alexandrov spaces with lower sectional curvature bounds. Most of the results are new also in these frameworks. Moreover, the tools that we develop here have applications to classical questions in Geometric Analysis on smooth, non compact Riemannian manifolds with lower Ricci curvature bounds.Comment: 96 pages. Revised version. Accepted by Mem. Amer. Math. So

Regularity of Lagrangian flows over RCD∗(K,N)RCD^*(K,N) spaces

The aim of this note is to provide regularity results for Regular Lagrangian flows of Sobolev vector fields over compact metric measure spaces verifying the Riemannian curvature dimension condition. We first prove, borrowing some ideas already present in the literature, that flows generated by vector fields with bounded symmetric derivative are Lipschitz, providing the natural extension of the standard Cauchy-Lipschitz theorem to this setting. Then we prove a Lusin-type regularity result in the Sobolev case (under the additional assumption that the m.m.s. is Ahlfors regular) therefore extending the already known Euclidean result

Boundary regularity and stability for spaces with Ricci bounded below

This paper studies the structure and stability of boundaries in noncollapsed $\text{RCD}(K,N)$ spaces, that is, metric-measure spaces $(X,\mathsf{d},\mathscr{H}^N)$ with lower Ricci curvature bounded below. Our main structural result is that the boundary $\partial X$ is homeomorphic to a manifold away from a set of codimension 2, and is $N-1$ rectifiable. Along the way we show effective measure bounds on the boundary and its tubular neighborhoods. These results are new even for Gromov-Hausdorff limits $(M_i^N,\mathsf{d}_{g_i},p_i) \rightarrow (X,\mathsf{d},p)$ of smooth manifolds with boundary, and require new techniques beyond those needed to prove the analogous statements for the regular set, in particular when it comes to the manifold structure of the boundary $\partial X$. The key local result is an $\epsilon$-regularity theorem, which tells us that if a ball $B_{2}(p)\subset X$ is sufficiently close to a half space $B_{2}(0)\subset \mathbb{R}^N_+$ in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense, then $B_1(p)$ is biH\"older to an open set of $\mathbb{R}^N_+$. In particular, $\partial X$ is itself homeomorphic to $B_1(0^{N-1})$ near $B_1(p)$. Further, the boundary $\partial X$ is $N-1$ rectifiable and the boundary measure $\mathscr{H}^{N-1}_{\partial X}$ is Ahlfors regular on $B_1(p)$ with volume close to the Euclidean volume. Our second collection of results involve the stability of the boundary with respect to noncollapsed mGH convergence $X_i\to X$. Specifically, we show a boundary volume convergence which tells us that the $N-1$ Hausdorff measures on the boundaries converge $\mathscr{H}^{N-1}_{\partial X_i}\to \mathscr{H}^{N-1}_{\partial X}$ to the limit Hausdorff measure on $\partial X$. We will see that a consequence of this is that if the $X_i$ are boundary free then so is $X$

Stability of Tori under Lower Sectional Curvature

Let $(M^n_i, g_i)\stackrel{GH}{\longrightarrow} (X,d_X)$ be a Gromov-Hausdorff converging sequence of Riemannian manifolds with ${\rm Sec}_{g_i} \ge -1$, ${\rm diam}\, (M_i)\le D$, and such that the $M^n_i$ are all homeomorphic to tori $T^n$. Then $X$ is homeomorphic to a $k$-dimensional torus $T^k$ for some $0\leq k\leq n$. This answers a question of Petrunin in the affirmative. In the three dimensional case we prove the same stability under the weaker condition ${\rm Ric}_{g_i} \ge -2$

The equality case in Cheeger's and Buser's inequalities on RCD\mathsf{RCD} spaces

We prove that the sharp Buser's inequality obtained in the framework of $\mathsf{RCD}(1,\infty)$ spaces by the first two authors is rigid, i.e. equality is obtained if and only if the space splits isomorphically a Gaussian. The result is new even in the smooth setting. We also show that the equality in Cheeger's inequality is never attained in the setting of $\mathsf{RCD}(K,\infty)$ spaces with finite diameter or positive curvature, and we provide several examples of spaces with Ricci curvature bounded below where these assumptions are not satisfied and the equality is attained.Comment: Added new results: the discussion on Cheeger's inequality now fits into the study of a family of inequalities relating eigenvalues of the p-Laplacian. To appear on Journal of Functional Analysi

Fundamental Groups and the Milnor Conjecture

It was conjectured by Milnor in 1968 that the fundamental group of a complete manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature is finitely generated. The main result of this paper is a counterexample, which provides an example $M^7$ with ${\rm Ric}\geq 0$ such that $\pi_1(M)=\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}$ is infinitely generated. There are several new points behind the result. The first is a new topological construction for building manifolds with infinitely generated fundamental groups, which can be interpreted as a smooth version of the fractal snowflake. The ability to build such a fractal structure will rely on a very twisted gluing mechanism. Thus the other new point is a careful analysis of the mapping class group $\pi_0\text{Diff}(S^3\times S^3)$ and its relationship to Ricci curvature. In particular, a key point will be to show that the action of $\pi_0\text{Diff}(S^3\times S^3)$ on the standard metric $g_{S^3\times S^3}$ lives in a path connected component of the space of metrics with ${\rm Ric}>0$