A Compactness Theorem for Riemannian Manifolds with Boundary and Applications

Abstract: In this paper we prove weak L^{1,p} (and thus C^{\alpha}) compactness for the class of uniformly mean-convex Riemannian n-manifolds with boundary satisfying bounds on curvature quantities, diameter, and (n-1)-volume of the boundary. We obtain two stability theorems from the compactness result. The first theorem applies to 3-manifolds (contained in the aforementioned class) that have Ricci curvature close to 0 and whose boundaries are Gromov-Hausdorff close to a fixed metric on S^2 with positive curvature. Such manifolds are C^{\alpha} close to the region enclosed by a Weyl embedding of the fixed metric into \R^3. The second theorem shows that a 3-manifold with Ricci curvature close to 0 (resp. -2, 2) and mean curvature close to 2 (resp. 2\sqrt 2, 0) is C^{\alpha} close to a metric ball in the space form of constant curvature 0 (resp -1, 1), provided that the boundary is a topological sphere.