Fibrations, the First Betti Number, and Almost Nonnegative Ricci Curvature

In this paper, we prove fibration theorems for manifolds with almost nonnegative Ricci curvature and certain extra regularity assumptions. We show that a closed $n$-manifold $M$ satisfying $\mathrm{diam}(M)^2\mathrm{sec}_M \geq -\kappa$ and $\mathrm{diam}(M)^2\mathrm{Ric}_M \geq -\delta$, where $\delta>0$ is sufficiently small depending only on $n$ and $\kappa$, fibers over a $b_1(M)$-torus. This removes the upper sectional curvature bound required in the earlier result of Yamaguchi \cite{Y88}. As a corollary, we obtain a refinement of Yamaguchi's smooth fibration theorem (\cite{Y91}), showing that the fiber itself (rather than a finite cover of it) fibers over a $b_1$-torus. Our results extend to manifolds satisfying a generalized Reifenberg condition introduced in \cite{HH24}, which encompasses both a lower bound on sectional curvature and the local rewinding Reifenberg condition. In the nonsmooth setting, a similar result also holds for a non-collapsed $\mathrm{RCD}(-\epsilon(D,r,n),n)$ space whose diameter is bounded by $D$ and which satisfies the $(r,\delta(n))$-local rewinding Reifenberg condition. The proofs rely on an equivariant regularity theorem for almost submetries under a lower Ricci curvature bound. In addition, we study the stability of rank of Abelian actions along equivariant Gromov-Hausdorff convergence in this paper.