Sharpening a gap theorem: nonnegative Ricci and small curvature concentration

Abstract

We sharpen a gap theorem of Chan & Lee for nonnegative Ricci curvature manifolds that have positive asymptotic volume ratio and small enough scale-invariant integral curvature (so-called "curvature concentration"), by showing that the curvature concentration need only depend linearly on the asymptotic volume ratio. We prove the result by exhibiting a long-time Ricci flow solution with faster than $1/t$ curvature decay, which allows us to shift the limiting contradiction argument to time infinity and thus obtain an explicit bound on the size of the gap.

To appear in Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations. Final version