Sharp isoperimetric and Sobolev inequalities in spaces with nonnegative Ricci curvature

Abstract

By using optimal mass transport theory we prove a sharp isoperimetric inequality in $${\textsf {CD}} (0,N)$$ metric measure spaces assuming an asymptotic volume growth at infinity. Our result extends recently proven isoperimetric inequalities for normed spaces and Riemannian manifolds to a nonsmooth framework. In the case of n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature, we outline an alternative proof of the rigidity result of Brendle (Comm Pure Appl Math 2021:13717, 2021). As applications of the isoperimetric inequality, we establish Sobolev and Rayleigh-Faber-Krahn inequalities with explicit sharp constants in Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature; here we use appropriate symmetrization techniques and optimal volume non-collapsing properties. The equality cases in the latter inequalities are also characterized by stating that sufficiently smooth, nonzero extremal functions exist if and only if the Riemannian manifold is isometric to the Euclidean space.