Related papers: Pinching, Pontrjagin classes, and negatively curve…

Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian metric of sectional curvature within $[-a^2,-1]$ whose fundamental group contains a $k$-step nilpotent subgroup of finite index. We prove that $a\ge k$ answering a question of M. Gromov. Furthermore, we show…

We prove a finiteness theorem for the class of complete finite volume Riemannian manifolds with pinched negative sectional curvature, fixed fundamental group, and of dimension $>2$. One of the key ingredients is that the fundamental group…

Under mild assumptions on a group G, we prove that the class of complete Riemannian n-manifolds of uniformly bounded negative sectional curvatures and with the fundamental groups isomorphic to G breaks into finitely many tangential homotopy…

Given a simply connected manifold $M$, we completely determine which rational monomial Pontryagin numbers are attained by fiber homotopy trivial $M$-bundles over the $k$-sphere, provided that $k$ is small compared to the dimension of $M$.…

We study noncompact, complete, finite volume, negatively curved manifolds $M$. We construct $M$ with infinitely generated fundamental groups in all dimensions $n \geq 2$. We construct $M$ whose cusp cross sections are compact hyperbolic…

Let $G/H$ be a closed, simply connected homogeneous manifold. Suppose every stable class of real vector bundles over $G/H$ contains a homogeneous bundle. Then, for any closed, simply connected smooth manifold $M$ homotopy equivalent to…

We prove a result on equivariant deformations of flat bundles, and as a corollary, we obtain two ``splitting in a finite cover'' theorems for isometric group actions on Riemannian manifolds with infinite fundamental groups, where the…

We give conceptual proofs of some well known results concerning compact non-positively curved locally symmetric spaces. We discuss vanishing and non-vanishing of Pontrjagin numbers and Euler characteristics for these locally symmetric…

We prove that for manifolds with negative curvature bounded away from $0$ of infinite volume and bounded geometry, the bounded fundamental class, defined via integration of the volume form over straight top-dimensional simplices, vanishes…

We find new obstructions to the existence of complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature on manifolds with infinite fundamental groups. In particular, we construct many examples of vector bundles whose total spaces admit…

In this paper, without assuming that manifolds are spin, we prove that if a compact orientable, and connected Riemannian manifold $(M^{n},g)$ with scalar curvature $R_{g}\geq 6$ admits a non-zero degree and $1$-Lipschitz map to…

Let M be an oriented compact positively curved 4-manifold. Let G be a finite subgroup of the isometry group of $M$. Among others, we prove that there is a universal constant C (cf. Corollary 4.3 for the approximate value of C), such that if…

We study noncompact, complete, finite volume, Riemannian 4-manifolds $M$ with sectional curvature $-1<K<0$. We prove that $\pi_1 M$ cannot be a 3-manifold group. A classical theorem of Gromov says that $M$ is homeomorphic to the interior of…

In this paper, we investigate the geometry of the moduli space of curves by using the curvature properties of direct image sheaves of vector bundles. We show that the moduli space $(M_g, \omega_{WP})$ of curves with genus $g>1$ has…

We study the fundamental group of an open $n$-manifold $M$ of nonnegative Ricci curvature with additional stability condition on $\widetilde{M}$, the Riemannian universal cover of $M$. We prove that if any tangent cone of $\widetilde{M}$ at…

We show that almost nonnegatively curved m-dimensional manifolds are, up to finite cover, nilpotent spaces in the sense of homotopy theory and have C(m)-nilpotent fundamental groups. We also show that up to a finite cover almost…

We show that in each dimension $n\ge 10$ there exist infinite sequences of homotopy equivalent but mutually non-homeomorphic closed simply connected Riemannian $n$-manifolds with $0\le \sec\le 1$, positive Ricci curvature and uniformly…

Examples of almost-positively and quasi-positively curved spaces of the form M=H((G,h)xF) were discovered recently. Here, h is a left-invariant metric on a compact Lie group G, F is a compact Riemannian manifold on which the subgroup H of G…

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…

Let $(M^{n+1},g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $3\le n+1\le 5$. We show that, if the metric $g$ is generic or if the metric $g$ has positive Ricci curvature, then $M$ contains infinitely many geometrically distinct constant…