On eigenvalue pinching in positive Ricci curvature

Abstract.

We shall show that for manifolds with Ric≥n−1 the radius is close to π iff the (n+1)st eigenvalue is close to n. This extends results of Cheng and Croke which show that the diameter is close to π iff the first eigenvalue is close to n. We shall also give a new proof of an important theorem of Colding to the effect that if the radius is close to π, then the volume is close to that of the sphere and the manifold is Gromov-Hausdorff close to the sphere. From work of Cheeger and Colding these conditions imply that the manifold is diffeomorphic to a sphere.