Two-dimension vanishing, splitting and positive scalar curvature

Abstract

We prove several analogs of Gromov's macroscopic dimension conjecture with extra curvature assumptions. More explicitly, we show that for an open Riemannian $n$-manifold $(M,g)$ of nonnegative Ricci (resp. sectional) curvature, if it has uniformly positive scalar curvature and it is uniformly volume noncollapsed, then the essential (resp. Hausdorff) dimension of an asymptotic cone, as a notion of largeness, has a sharp upper bound $n-2$, which is $2$ less than the upper bound for an open Riemannian manifold with only nonnegative Ricci curvature. As a consequence, the dimension of space of linear growth harmonic functions of $M$ has upper bound $n-1$ which is also $2$ less than the sharp bound $n+1$ when $M$ only has nonnegative Ricci curvature. We also prove the first Betti number upper bound is $n-2$ if $M$ is compact, and $n-3$ if $M$ is non-compact. When $M$ is compact we show a fibration theorem over torus, and a rigidity theorem for the fiber when the first Betti number upper bound is achieved.