Rigidity of Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature

Abstract

We prove that if $$M^n(n\ge 4)$$ is a compact Einstein manifold whose normalized scalar curvature and sectional curvature satisfy pinching condition $$R_0>\sigma _{n}K_{\max }$$ , where $$\sigma _n\in (\frac{1}{4},1)$$ is an explicit positive constant depending only on $$n$$ , then $$M$$ must be isometric to a spherical space form. Moreover, we prove that if an $$n(\ge {\!\!4})$$ -dimensional compact Einstein manifold satisfies $$K_{\min }\ge \eta _n R_0,$$ where $$\eta _n\in (\frac{1}{4},1)$$ is an explicit positive constant, then $$M$$ is locally symmetric. It should be emphasized that the pinching constant $$\eta _n$$ is optimal when $$n$$ is even. We then obtain some rigidity theorems for Einstein manifolds under $$(n-2)$$ -th Ricci curvature and normalized scalar curvature pinching conditions. Finally we extend the theorems above to Einstein submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold, and prove that if $$M$$ is an $$n(\ge {\!\!4})$$ -dimensional compact Einstein submanifold in the simply connected space form $$F^{N}(c)$$ with constant curvature $$c\ge 0$$ , and the normalized scalar curvature $$R_0$$ of $$M$$ satisfies $$R_0>\frac{A_n}{A_n+4n-8}(c+H^2),$$ where $$A_n=n^3-5n^2+8n$$ , and $$H$$ is the mean curvature of $$M$$ , then $$M$$ is isometric to a standard $$n$$ -sphere.