Simplicial volume, Barycenter method, and Bounded cohomology

Abstract: We show that codimension one dimensional Jacobian of the barycentric straightening map is uniformly bounded for most of the higher rank symmetric spaces. As a consequence, we prove that the locally finite simplicial volume of most $\mathbb Q$-rank $1$ locally symmetric spaces is positive, which has been open for many years. Finally we improve the degree theorem for $\mathbb Q$-rank $1$ locally symmetric spaces of Connell and Farb. We also address the issue of surjectivity of the comparison map in real rank $2$ case.