Spectral convergence under bounded Ricci curvature

Abstract

For a noncollapsed Gromov-Hausdorff convergent sequence of Riemannian manifolds with a uniform bound of Ricci curvature, we establish two spectral convergence. One of them is on the Hodge Laplacian acting on differential one-forms. The other is on the connection Laplacian acting on tensor fields of every type, which include all differential forms. These are generalizations of Cheeger-Colding's spectral convergence of the Laplacian acting on functions to the cases of tensor fields and differential forms. As a corollary we show the upper semicontinuity of the first Betti numbers with respect to the Gromov-Hausdorff topology, and give the equivalence between the continuity of them and the existence of a uniform spectral gap. We also define the Riemannian curvature tensor, the Ricci curvature, and the scalar curvature of the limit space, and show their properties. In particular the Ricci curvature coincides with the difference between the Hodge Laplacian and the connection Laplacian, and is compatible with Gigli's one and Lott's Ricci measure. Moreover a lower bound of the Ricci curvature is compatible with a reduced Riemannian curvature dimension condition. We also give a positive answer to Lott's question on the behavior of the scalar curvature with respect to the Gromov-Hausdorff topology.