We show how to deform a metric of the form g = gr + dr2 to a metric = Hr + dr2, which is a hyperbolic metric for r less than some fixed λ, and coincides with g for r large. Here by hyperbolic metric we mean a metric of constant sectional curvature equal to -1. We study the extent to which is close to hyperbolic everywhere, if we assume g is close to hyperbolic. A precise definition of the close to hyperbolic concept is given. We also deal with a one-parameter version of this problem. The results in this paper are used in the problem of smoothing Charney–Davis strict hyperbolizations.

We discuss the cobordism type of spin manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature. We show that in each dimension 4k ⩾ 12, there are infinitely many cobordism types of simply connected and non-negatively curved spin manifolds. Moreover, we raise and analyse a question about possible cobordism obstructions to non-negative curvature.

We apply the lifting theorem of Searle and the second author to put metrics of almost nonnegative curvature on the fake $\mathbb{R}P^{6}$s of Hirsch and Milnor and on the analogous fake $\mathbb{R}P^{14}$s.

We prove ${\it\epsilon}$-closeness of hypersurfaces to a sphere in Euclidean space under the assumption that the traceless second fundamental form is ${\it\delta}$-small compared to the mean curvature. We give the explicit dependence of ${\it\delta}$ on ${\it\epsilon}$ within the class of uniformly convex hypersurfaces with bounded volume.

We use the exterior and composition products of double forms together with the alternating operator to reformulate Pontrjagin classes and all Pontrjagin numbers in terms of the Riemannian curvature. We show that the alternating operator is obtained by a succession of applications of the first Bianchi sum and we prove some useful identities relating the previous four operations on double forms. As an application, we prove that for a $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}k$-conformally flat manifold of dimension $n\geq 4k$, the Pontrjagin classes $P_i$ vanish for any $i\geq k$. Finally, we study the equality case in an inequality of Thorpe between the Euler–Poincaré characteristic and the $k{\rm th}$ Pontrjagin number of a $4k$-dimensional Thorpe manifold.

A Riccati inequality involving the Ricci curvature can be used to deduce many interesting results about the geometry and topology of manifolds. In this note we use it to present a short alternative proof to a theorem of Ambrose.

This paper studies topological and metric rigidity theorems for hypersurfaces in a Euclidean sphere. We first show that an $n({\geq}\,2)$-dimensional complete connected oriented closed hypersurface with non-vanishing Gauss–Kronecker curvature immersed in a Euclidean open hemisphere is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean $n$-sphere. We also show that an $n({\geq}\,2)$-dimensional complete connected orientable hypersurface immersed in a unit sphere $S^{n+1}$ whose Gauss image is contained in a closed geodesic ball of radius less than $\pi/2$ in $S^{n+1}$ is diffeomorphic to a sphere. Finally, we prove that an $n({\geq}\,2)$-dimensional connected closed orientable hypersurface in $S^{n+1}$ with constant scalar curvature greater than $n(n-1)$ and Gauss image contained in an open hemisphere is totally umbilic.