Rigidity and sphere theorem for manifolds with positive Ricci curvature

LetM be a complete Riemannian manifold with Ricci curvature having a positive lower bound. In this paper, we prove some rigidity theorems forM by the existence of a nice minimal hypersurface and a sphere theorem aboutM. We also generalize a Myers theorem stating that there is no closed immersed minimal submanifolds in an open hemisphere to the case that the ambient space is a complete Riemannian manifold withk-th Ricci curvature having a positive lower bound. Supported by the JSPS postdoctoral fellowship and NSF of China