The sectional-curvature characterization of Alexandrov spaces among RCD spaces

Let (M,d)({\rm M},{\sf d}) be a complete and separable metric space. An nn-dimensional Alexandrov space has curvature bounded from below by kRk\in\mathbb{R} in the Alexandrov sense. Suppose moreover that (M,d,Hn)({\rm M},{\sf d},\mathcal H^n) is an RCD(k(n1),n){\sf RCD}(k(n-1),n) space, that supp(Hn)=M\operatorname{supp}(\mathcal H^n)={\rm M}, and that R\bm{\mathcal R} denotes the distributional Riemann curvature operator on test vector fields and test functions.

Sectional-curvature characterization conjecture. The following conditions are equivalent: (M,d)({\rm M},{\sf d}) is an nn-dimensional Alexandrov space of curvature bounded from below by kk, and

R(X,Y,Y,X)(f)kfXY2dm\bm{\mathcal R}(X,Y,Y,X)(f)\geq k\int f|X\wedge Y|^2\,\mathrm d\mathfrak m

for every fTest(M)f\in{\rm Test}({\rm M}) with f0f\geq0 and every X,YTestV(M)X,Y\in{\rm TestV}({\rm M}).

This would characterize the Alexandrov condition through the lower bound of the abstract sectional curvature on finite-dimensional RCD{\sf RCD} spaces. The paper presents it as an equivalence between the Alexandrov curvature bound and the stated RCD{\sf RCD}, support, and curvature-operator conditions; no resolution is given.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Nicola Gigli, “Riemann curvature tensor on RCD spaces and possible applications”, arXiv:1902.02282 (2019).

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