Volume comparison and rigidity for positive holomorphic sectional curvature

Abstract

We prove that the volume of a compact connected K\"ahler manifold with holomorphic sectional curvature at least 2 is bounded above by the volume of the Fubini-Study metric of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 2 on the complex projective space of the same dimension. Moreover equality holds if and only if the manifold is biholomorphically isometric to complex projective space. This answers a question posed by Xiong and Yang. Our approach also yields a different proof of Zhang's sharp volume estimate and Liu's rigidity theorem for compact K\"ahler manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. In fact, our main result states that the same sharp volume estimate holds under a new curvature positivity condition (mean RC curvature positivity), which is implied by both positive Ricci curvature and positive holomorphic sectional curvature. The definition of this condition was inspired by the work of Yang. The proofs in this paper are due to ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Pro, and the paper is merely an exposition of its output. The proofs has been verified by the authors and they take full responsibility for any errors.