Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality on metric measure spaces with applications

Abstract: We prove that if a metric measure space satisfies the volume doubling condition and the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality with the same exponent $n \ge 3$, then it has exactly the $n$-dimensional volume growth. As an application, if an $n$-dimensional Finsler manifold of non-negative $n$-Ricci curvature satisfies the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality with the sharp constant, then its flag curvature is identically zero. In the particular case of Berwald spaces, such a space is necessarily isometric to a Minkowski space.