New Asymptotic Geometric Quantities in Riemannian Geometry and Their Geometric and Dynamical Applications

Abstract

We introduce large $p$ asymptotic geometric quantities associated with $p$-capacity, the first $p$-eigenvalue, and the Maz'ya constant on complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds. We prove the hierarchy $$ \mathcal{V}(M)\geq \mathcal C(Ω)\geq Λ(M)=\mathcal M(M)\geq0, $$ and show that, under a centered-ball isoperimetric condition or a rotational symmetry condition, these quantities coincide with the volume entropy or the dimension. In the Hadamard nonpositively curved case it also agrees with the topological entropy of the geodesic flow. As an application, combining with the entropy rigidity theorem, we obtain a characterization of hyperbolic manifolds. We also prove a second-order refinement. For a Hadamard manifold with compact quotient, under certain condition, the first-order large $p$ capacitary limit detects volume entropy, whereas the logarithmic second-order correction detects the rank.