Gap phenomenon for scalar curvature

Abstract

Inspired by Goette-Semmelmann \cite{GSSU2002}, we derive an estimate for the scalar curvature without a nonnegativity assumption on curvature operator. As an application, we show that, on an even dimensional closed manifold with nonzero Euler characteristic, any Riemannian metric $g$ is $\epsilon$-gap distance extremal for some $\epsilon \geq 0$. For manifolds with boundary, inspired by Lott \cite{JL2021}, we obtained a similar estimate for scalar curvature and mean curvature. We apply the estimate on certain Euclidean domains to study a Gromov's question in \cite{GM20233} concerning the extension problem of metric on the boundary to the interior.