Two-dimension vanishing, splitting and positive scalar curvature

Abstract We prove several analogs of Gromov’s macroscopic dimension conjecture with extra curvature assumptions. More explicitly, we show that for an open Riemannian n -manifold ( M , g ) of nonnegative Ricci (resp. sectional) curvature, if it has uniformly positive scalar curvature and it is uniformly volume noncollapsed, then the essential (resp. Hausdorff) dimension of an asymptotic cone, as a notion of largeness, has a sharp upper bound $$n-2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , which is 2 less than the upper bound for an open Riemannian manifold with only nonnegative Ricci curvature. As a consequence, the dimension of space of linear growth harmonic functions of M has upper bound $$n-1$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> which is also 2 less than the sharp bound $$n+1$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> when M only has nonnegative Ricci curvature. We also prove the first Betti number upper bound is $$n-2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> if M is compact, and $$n-3$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> if M is non-compact. When M is compact we show a fibration theorem over torus, and a rigidity theorem for the fiber when the first Betti number upper bound is achieved.