# Theorem 1

## 1 Background

A ray, $`\gamma :[0,\mathrm{})M^n`$, is a geodesic which is minimal on any subsegment, $`d(\gamma (t),\gamma (s))=|ts|`$. Every complete noncompact Riemannian manifold contains a ray. Given a ray, one can define its associated Busemann function, $`b:M^n\text{R}\text{I}`$, as follows:

$$b(x)=\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}\left(Rd(x,\gamma (R))\right).$$
(6)   
The Busemann function is a Lipschitz function whose gradient has unit length almost everywhere. \[Bu\].

In Euclidean space, the level sets of the Busemann function associated with a given ray are the planes perpendicular to the given ray. In contrast, the Busemann function defined on a manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and linear volume growth has compact level sets with bounded diameter growth \[So1, Thm 15\]. In that paper, the author also proved that if such a manifold is not an isometrically split manifold, then the Busemann function is bounded below and $`b^1((\mathrm{},r])`$ is a compact set for all $`r`$ \[So1, Cor 19\].

###### Lemma 2

Let $`M^n`$ be a complete manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature. Suppose that there is a Busemann function, $`b`$, which is bounded below by $`b_{min}`$ and that diameter of the level sets grows at most linearly,

$$diam(b^1(b_{min}+r))C_D(r+1).$$
(7)   
Then there exists a universal constant, $`C_n`$, depending only on the dimension, $`n`$, such that any harmonic function, $`f`$, satisfies the following gradient estimate:

$$\underset{b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+r))}{sup}|f|\frac{C_n}{2(r+D)}\underset{b^1(b_{min}+2(r+D))}{sup}|f|$$
(8)   
for all $`DC_D(r+1)`$.

Proof of Lemma: First note that the boundary of the compact set, $`b^1([b_{min},r))`$, is just $`b^1(r)`$. So, by the maximum principal, we know that for any harmonic function, $`f`$,

$$\underset{b^1([b_{min},r))}{\mathrm{max}}f\underset{b^1(r)}{\mathrm{max}}f\text{ and}\underset{b^1([b_{min},r))}{\mathrm{min}}f\underset{b^1(r)}{\mathrm{min}}f.$$
(9)   
Furthermore, Cheng and Yau have proven the following gradient estimate for harmonic functions on balls in manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature,

$$\underset{B_p(a/2)}{sup}|f|\frac{C_n}{a}\underset{B_p(a)}{sup}|f|$$
(10)   
where $`C_n`$ is a universal constant depending only on the dimension, $`n`$. \[ChgYau, Thm 6\], see also \[SchYau, p21, Cor 2.2\]. This will be the constant in (8). Thus, we need only relate balls to regions defined by the Busemann function to prove the theorem.

Let $`x_0`$ be a point in $`b^1(b_{min})`$. Note that

$$B_{x_0}(a)b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+a))$$
(11)   
because the triangle inequality implies that

$$b(x)=\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}Rd(x,\gamma (R))\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}Rd(x_0,\gamma (R))+d(x_0,x)=b(x_0)+d(x_0,x).$$

On the other hand, using our diameter bound in (7), we claim that

$$b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+r))B_{x_0}(r+D)DC_D(r+1).$$
(12)   
To see this we will construct a ray, $`\sigma `$, emanating from $`x_0`$ such that for all $`t0`$, $`\sigma (t)b^1(r_{min}+t)`$. Then, for any $`yb^1([b_{min},b_{min}+r))`$, we let $`t=b(y)`$ and we have

$$d(x_0,y)d(x_0,\sigma (t))+d(\sigma (t),y)t+diam(b^1(r_{min}+t))r+D.$$

which implies (12). The ray, $`\sigma `$, is constructed by taking a limit of minimal geodesics, $`\sigma _i`$, from $`x_0`$ to $`\gamma (R_i)`$. A subsequence of such a sequence of minimal geodesics always converges. The limit ray satisfies the required property,

$`b(\sigma (t))`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}b(\sigma _i(t))=\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}Rd(\sigma _i(t),\gamma (R))`$   
$`=`$ $`\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}R(d(\sigma _i(0),\gamma (R))t)=b(x_0)+t.`$   
We can now combine the relationships between Busemann regions and balls, (12) and (11), with the gradient estimate, (10), and the maximum principal, (9), to prove the lemma. That is, for all $`DC_D(r+1)`$, we have

$`\underset{b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+r))}{sup}|f|`$ $``$ $`\underset{B_{x_0}(r+D)}{sup}|f|\text{ by (}\text{12}\text{),}`$   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_n}{2(r+D)}}\underset{B_{x_0}(2(r+D))}{sup}|f|`$   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_n}{2(r+D)}}\underset{b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+2(r+D)))}{sup}|f|`$   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_n}{2(r+D)}}\underset{b^1(b_{min}+2(r+D))}{sup}|f|.`$   
We employ this lemma and elements of the proof to prove our theorem.

## 2 Proof of the Theorem

The given manifold, $`M^n`$, has nonnegative Ricci curvature and linear volume growth. We will assume that $`M^n`$ doesn’t split isometrically and demonstrate that the harmonic functions of polynomial growth must be constant. Since the manifold doesn’t split isometrically and has linear volume growth, any Busemann function, $`b`$, has a minimum value by \[So1, Cor 23\]. Furthermore, by \[So2, Thm ?\], the diameters of the level sets of the Busemann function grow sublinearly. Thus we satisfy the hypothesis of Lemma 2 with $`C_D=1`$ in (7).

Let $`M(r)=\mathrm{max}_{b^1(b_{min}+r)}|f|`$, where $`f`$ is a harmonic function of polynomial growth. Note that $`M`$ is an nondecreasing function by the maximum principal, (9). By the lemma, we know that for all $`rb_{min}`$ and for all $`D(r+1)`$, we can bound the gradient of $`f`$ in terms of $`M`$,

$$\underset{b^1([b_{min},b_{min}+r))}{sup}|f|\frac{C_nM(2(r+D))}{2(r+D)}.$$
(13)   
Since $`b^1(r)`$ is compact, there exists $`x_r,y_rb^1(b_{min}+r)`$ such that

$$f(x_r)=\underset{b^1(b_{min}+r)}{\mathrm{min}}f\text{ and }f(y_r)=\underset{b^1(b_{min}+r)}{\mathrm{max}}f.$$
(14)   
We claim that, for $`r`$ sufficiently large, $`M(r)f(y_r)f(x_r)`$.

First recall that if $`f`$ is a positive or negative harmonic function on a manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, then $`f`$ must be constant \[Yau1, Cor 1\]. So there exists a point $`zM^n`$ such that $`f(z)=0`$. Thus, by the maximum principal, if $`rb(z)`$ we know that $`f(y_r)0`$ and $`f(x_r)0`$. So $`M(r)=max(f(y_r),f(x_r))f(y_r)f(x_r)`$.

We can now estimate $`M(r)`$ from above in terms of the gradient of $`f`$ and the diameter of the level set, $`b^1(r)`$. First we join $`x_r`$ to $`y_r`$ by a smooth minimal geodesic, $`\gamma _r`$. Note that the length of $`\gamma _r`$, is less than or equal to $`diam(b^1(r))`$ by the definition of diameter. So $`\gamma _rb^1(b_{min},r+diam(b^1(r)))`$. Thus for all $`rb(z)`$, for all $`D(r+1)`$, we have

$`M(r)f(y_r)f(x_r)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{L(\gamma _r)}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}f(\gamma (t))𝑑t`$   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{L(\gamma _r)}}|f||\gamma ^{}(t)|𝑑t`$   
$``$ $`\underset{b^1([b_{min},r+diam(b^1(r))))}{sup}|f|{\displaystyle _0^{L(\gamma _r)}}|\gamma ^{}(t)|𝑑t`$   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_nM(2(r+diam(b^1(r))+D))}{2(r+diam(b^1(r))+D)}}diam(b^1(r))`$   
$``$ $`C_nM(2(r+diam(b^1(r))+D)){\displaystyle \frac{diam(b^1(r))}{2r}}`$   
$``$ $`C_nM(2(r+(r+1)+D)){\displaystyle \frac{diam(b^1(r))}{2r}}`$   
Setting $`D=r+1`$ and taking $`r1`$, we have

$$M(r)C_nM(6r)\frac{diam(b^1(r))}{2r}.$$
(15)   
Recall that our manifold has sublinear diameter growth by \[So2, Thm ?\]. So, given any $`\delta >0`$, we can find $`R_\delta 1`$ such that

$$\frac{diam(b^1(r))}{2r}<\delta rR_\delta .$$
(16)   
Then, for all $`k𝐍`$ and for all $`RR_\delta `$, we have

$$M(R)C_nM(6R)\delta \text{ … }C_n^kM(6^kR)\delta ^k.$$
(17)   
Now $`f`$ has polynomial growth of order $`q`$, (5), so

$$M(r)=\underset{xb^1(b_{min}+r)}{\mathrm{max}}|f(x)|\underset{xb^1(b_{min}+r)}{\mathrm{max}}C(d(x,x_0)^q+1).$$
(18)   
Applying (12) with $`C_D=1`$ and $`D=C_D(r+1)`$, we get

$$M(r)C((r+(r+1))^q+1)C(6r^2)^qr1.$$
(19)   
Substituting this information into (17), we get

$`M(R)`$ $``$ $`C_n^kC\left(6(6^kR)^2\right)^q\delta ^k`$   
$``$ $`C\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6}^qR^{2q}(C_n6^{2q}\delta )^kRR_\delta .`$   
.

Fix $`\delta =1/(2C_n6^{2q})`$, so $`R_\delta `$ is fixed by (16). Then, for all $`RR_\delta `$, we have

$$M(R)\underset{k\mathrm{}}{lim}C\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6}^qR^{2q}(1/2)^k=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
(20)   
Since $`M(r)`$ is nondecreasing and nonnegative, $`M(r)=0`$ everywhere. Thus, $`f`$ is a constant.