The weighted mixed curvature of a foliated manifold

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the weighted mixed (sectional, Ricci and scalar) curvature of a foliated (and almost-product) Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ equipped with a vector field $X$. We define several functions ($q$th Ricci type curvatures), which "interpolate" between the weighed sectional and Ricci curvatures. The novel concepts of the "mixed curvature-dimension" condition and "synthetic dimension of a distribution" allow us to update the estimate of the diameter of a compact Riemannian foliation and to prove new splitting theorems for almost-product manifolds of nonnegative/nonpositive weighted mixed scalar curvature. In the case of positive (and nonnegative) weighted mixed sectional curvature we explore the weighted generalization of Toponogov's conjecture on totally geodesic foliations.