Comparison theorems on Finsler manifolds with weighted Ricci curvature bounded below

Abstract

We obtain the Laplacian comparison theorem and the Bishop-Gromov comparison theorem on a Finsler manifold with the weighted Ricci curvature Ric∞ bounded below. As applications, we prove that if the weighted Ricci curvature Ric∞ is bounded below by a positive number, then the manifold must have finite fundamental group, and must be compact if the distortion is also bounded. Moreover, we give the Calabi-Yau linear volume growth theorem on a Finsler manifold with nonnegative weighted Ricci curvature.