A Sharp Comparison Theorem for Compact Manifolds with Mean Convex Boundary

Martin Li

Published 2012-04-08, updated 2017-08-24Version 3

Let $M$ be a compact $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and mean convex boundary $\partial M$. Assume that the mean curvature $H$ of the boundary $\partial M$ satisfies $H \geq (n-1) k >0$ for some positive constant $k$. In this paper, we prove that the distance function $d$ to the boundary $\partial M$ is bounded from above by $\frac{1}{k}$ and the upper bound is achieved if and only if $M$ is isometric to an $n$-dimensional Euclidean ball of radius $\frac{1}{k}$.