Related papers: Differentiable sphere theorems whose comparison sp…

We prove a result analogous to Reeb's theorem in the context of Morse-Bott functions: if a closed, smooth manifold $M$ admits a Morse-Bott function having two critical submanifolds $S^k$ and $S^l$ ($k \neq l$), then $M$ has dimension…

Rigidity results are obtained for Riemannian $d$-manifolds with $\sec \geqslant 1$ and spherical rank at least $d-2>0$. Conjecturally, all such manifolds are locally isometric to a round sphere or complex projective space with the…

In this paper, we first prove that any closed simply connected 4-manifold that admits a decomposition into two disk bundles of rank greater than 1 is diffeomorphic to one of the standard elliptic 4-manifolds: $\mathbb{S}^4$,…

Our main result asserts that for any given numbers C and D the class of simply connected closed smooth manifolds of dimension m<7 which admit a Riemannian metric with sectional curvature bounded in absolute value by C and diameter uniformly…

We prove a sharp spectral generalization of the Cheeger--Gromoll splitting theorem. We show that if a complete non-compact Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n\geq 2$ has at least two ends and \[ \lambda_1(-\gamma\Delta+\mathrm{Ric})\geq…

Let $M^n$ be a closed immersed hypersurface lying in a contractible ball $B(p,R)$ of the ambient $(n+1)$-manifold $N^{n+1}$. We prove that, by pinching Heintze-Reilly's inequality via sectional curvature upper bound of $B(p,R)$, 1st…

For a given Riemannian manifold $(M^n, g)$ which is near standard sphere $(S^n, g_{round})$ in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology and satisfies $Rc \geq n-1$, it is known by Cheeger-Colding theory that $M$ is diffeomorphic to $S^n$. A…

Special generic maps are higher dimensional versions of Morse functions with exactly two singular points, characterizing spheres topologically except $4$-dimensional cases: in these cases standard spheres are characterized. Canonical…

We show that no exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ admits a complete Riemannian metric with uniformly positive isotropic curvature and with bounded geometry. This is essentially a corollary of the main result in [Hu1], and was stated in [Hu2] without…

The present paper finds new necessary and sufficient conditions for $6$-dimensional closed and simply-connected manifolds of certain classes to admit special generic maps into certain Euclidean spaces. The class of special generic maps…

We prove that a variety of examples of minimal complex surfaces admit exotic diffeomorphisms, providing the first known instances of exotic diffeomorphisms of irreducible 4-manifolds. We also give sufficient conditions for the boundary Dehn…

Meeks, P\'erez and Ros conjectured that a closed Riemannian $3$-manifold which does not admit any closed embedded minimal surface whose two-sided covering is stable, must be diffeomorphic to a quotient of the $3$-sphere. We give an…

In this paper, we prove that, for any integer $n\ge 2,$ there exists an $\epsilon_{n} \ge 0$ so that if $M$ is an n-dimensional complete manifold with sectional curvature $ K_{M}\ge 1$ and if $M$ has conjugate radius bigger than…

We prove that if a complete connected $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ has radial sectional curvature at a base point $p\in M$ bounded from below by the radial curvature function of a two-sphere of revolution $\widetilde M$ belonging…

We extend the classical theory of sphere theorems to the transverse geometry of Riemannian foliations. In this setting, we establish transverse analogues of the Grove-Shiohama diameter sphere theorem and of the Berger-Klingenberg…

In this paper, I shall demonstrate that sufficiently high-dimensional closed positively-curved Riemannian manifolds are either diffeomorphic to a spherical space form, or isometric to a locally compact rank one symmetric space. This…

Associated to every closed, embedded submanifold $N$ of a connected Riemannian manifold $M$, there is the distance function $d_N$ which measures the distance of a point in $M$ from $N$. We analyze the square of this function and show that…

We introduce a version of discrete Morse theory specific for manifolds with boundary. The idea is to consider Morse functions for which all boundary cells are critical. We obtain "Relative Morse Inequalities" relating the homology of the…

Introduced by Seifert and Threlfall, cylindrical neighborhoods of isolated critical points of smooth functions is an essential tool in the Lusternik- Schnirelmann theory. We conjecture that every isolated critical point of a smooth function…

We prove the following rigidity theorem: For an n-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold with boundary whose Ricci curvature is bounded by n-1 from below, if its boundary is isometric to the standard sphere of dimension n-1 and totally…