Eigenvalue pinching and application to the stability and the almost umbilicity of hypersurfaces

In this paper we give pinching theorems for the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplacian on compact hypersurfaces of ambient spaces with bounded sectional curvature. As an application we deduce a rigidity result for stable constant mean curvature hypersurfaces M of these spaces N. Indeed, we prove that if M is included in a ball of radius small enough then the Hausdorff-distance between M and a geodesic sphere S of N is small. Moreover M is diffeomorphic and quasi-isometric to S. As other application, we obtain rigidity results for almost umbilic hypersurfaces.