An optimal gap theorem

Abstract

By solving the Cauchy problem for the Hodge-Laplace heat equation for $d$-closed, positive $(1, 1)$-forms, we prove an optimal gap theorem for Kähler manifolds with nonnegative bisectional curvature which asserts that the manifold is flat if the average of the scalar curvature over balls of radius $r$ centered at any fixed point $o$ is a function of $o(r^{-2})$. Furthermore via a relative monotonicity estimate we obtain a stronger statement, namely a `positive mass' type result, asserting that if $(M, g)$ is not flat, then $\liminf_{r\to \infty} \frac{r^2}{V_o(r)}\int_{B_o(r)}\mathcal{S}(y)\, dμ(y)>0$ for any $o\in M$.