Diameter estimates and Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for four-dimensional compact Quasi-Einstein manifolds

Abstract

We study compact $m$-quasi-Einstein manifolds and derive geometric estimates relating the oscillation of the potential function to the diameter of the manifold. We obtain lower bounds for the diameter in terms of the oscillation of the potential function. As an application in dimension four, we derive diameter conditions ensuring that compact $m$-quasi-Einstein manifolds satisfy the Hitchin--Thorpe inequality. Our results extend diameter estimates in smooth metric measure spaces and are consistent with known bounds in the limiting case corresponding to Ricci solitons. Finally, we provide a volume estimate involving the oscillation.