We will prove the result by contradiction. So let us assume it is false. Then there exists a sequence $(M^{n}_{j},g_{j},p_{j})$ of Riemannian manifolds satisfying $|{\rm Ric}_{M^{n}_{j}}|\to 0$, ${\rm Vol}(B_{1}(p_{j}))>{\rm v}>0$ and such that

with $\beta<2\pi$ and $p$ a vertex.

Note first that by the noncollapsing assumption we have $\beta\geq\beta_{0}(n,v)$.

Now by Lemma 1.7, there exists $\delta_{j}$-splitting maps $u_{j}:B_{2}(p_{j})\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ with $\delta_{j}\to 0$. Fix some sequence $\epsilon_{j}\to 0$ which is tending to zero so slowly compared to $\delta_{j}$, that Theorem 1.8 holds for $u_{j}:B_{2}(0)\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ with $\epsilon_{j}$. Let $G_{\epsilon_{j}}\subseteq B_{1}(0^{n-2})$ be the corresponding good values of $u_{j}$, and let $s_{j}\in G_{\epsilon_{j}}\cap B_{10^{-1}}(0^{n-2})$ be fixed regular values.

Note that $\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times C(S^{1}_{\beta})$ is smooth outside of the singular set $\mathcal{S}=\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times\{0\}\subseteq\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times C(S^{1}_{\beta})$. In particular on $\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times C(S^{1}_{\beta})$ we have $r_{h}(x)\approx 1/d(x,\mathcal{S})$, where $r_{h}$ is the harmonic radius as in Section 1 and $d$ denotes distance. By the standard $\epsilon$-regularity theorem, it follows that the convergence of $M^{n}_{j}$ is in $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$ away from $\mathcal{S}$, for every $\alpha<1$ and $q<\infty$. Let $f_{j}:B_{\epsilon^{-1}_{j}}(p)\to B_{\epsilon^{-1}_{j}}(p_{j})$ be the $\epsilon_{j}$-Gromov Hausdorff maps, and let us denote $\mathcal{S}_{j}\equiv f_{j}(\mathcal{S})\subseteq M^{n}_{j}$. Then by the previous statements, for every $\tau>0$, all $j$ sufficiently large, and $x\in B_{1}(p_{j})\setminus T_{\tau}(\mathcal{S}_{j})$, we have $r_{h}(x)\geq\frac{\tau}{2}$.

Consider again the submanifold $u^{-1}_{j}(s_{j})\cap B_{1}(p_{j})$. Define the scale

By the considerations of the previous paragraph, this minimum is actually obtained at some $x_{j}\in u^{-1}_{j}(s_{j})\cap B_{1}(p_{j})$, with $x_{j}\to\mathcal{S}_{j}\cap B_{10^{-1}}(p_{j})$. Moreover, since $S^{1}_{\beta}$, the cross-section of the cone factor, satisfies $0<\beta<2\pi$, it follows that $r_{j}\to 0$. According to Theorem 1.8, there exists a lower triangular matrix $A_{j}\in GL(n-2)$ such that $v_{j}\equiv A_{j}\circ\big(u_{j}-s_{j}\big):B_{r_{j}}(x_{j})\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ is an $\epsilon_{j}$-splitting map. Note that we have renormalized so that each of our regular values is the zero level set.

Now let us consider the sequence $(M^{n}_{j},r_{j}^{-1}d_{j},x_{j})$. After passing to a subsequence if necessary, which we will continue to denote by $(M^{n}_{j},r_{j}^{-1}d_{j},x_{j})$, have

in the pointed Gromov-Hausdorff sense, where $X$ splits off $\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ isometrically.

We begin by observing that by our noncollapsing assumption we have ${\rm Vol}(B_{1}(x_{j}))>c(n){\rm v}>0$, and hence, in the rescaled spaces, we have ${\rm Vol}(B_{r}(x_{j}))>c{\rm v}r^{n}$ for all $r\leq R_{j}\to\infty$. In particular, $X$ has Euclidean volume growth at $\infty$ i.e. ${\rm Vol}(B_{r}(x^{\prime}))>c{\rm v}\,r^{n}$ for all $r>0$.

After possibly passing to another subsequence, we can limit the functions $v_{j}$ to a function $v:X\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$. Note that by our normalization, we have $v_{j}:B_{2}(x_{j})\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ are $\epsilon_{j}$-splittings, and that by Theorem 1.11, we have for each $R>2$ that $v_{j}:B_{R}(x_{j})\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ are $C(n,R)\epsilon_{j}$-splittings. In particular, we can conclude that

where $v:X\to\mathds{R}^{n-2}$ is the projection map and $S=u^{-1}(0)$.

Now by construction, in the rescaled spaces we have for any $y\in u^{-1}_{j}(0)$ that $r_{h}(y)\geq 1$. Therefore, the limit $X$ is $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$ in a neighborhood of $u^{-1}(0)$, and hence $S=u^{-1}(0)$ is a nonsingular surface. Thus, since $X=\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times S$ it follows that $X$ is at least a $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$ manifold with $r_{h}\geq 1$. Since the Ricci curvature is uniformly bounded, in fact tending to zero, we have by the standard $\epsilon$-regularity theorem that the convergence $(M^{n}_{j},r_{j}^{-1}d_{j},x_{j})\to(X,d_{X},x)$ is in $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$. Because the convergence is in $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$ we have that $r_{h}$ converges continuously; [A90]. In particular, we have that $r_{h}(x^{\prime}_{j})\to r_{h}(x^{\prime})$ and so $r_{h}(x^{\prime})=1$.

On the other hand, since $|{\rm Ric}_{M^{n}_{j}}|\to 0$ and $X$ is $C^{1,\alpha}\cap W^{2,q}$ it follows that $X$ is a smooth Ricci flat manifold. This is easiest to see by writing directly in harmonic coordinates on $X$, see [A90] for the argument. Now since $X=\mathds{R}^{n-2}\times S$, we can conclude that $S$ is smooth and Ricci flat, hence flat. In particular, we have that $X$ is flat. Since we have already shown that $X$ has Euclidean volume growth, this implies that $X=\mathds{R}^{n}$. However, we have also already concluded that $r_{h}(x^{\prime})=1$, which gives us our desired contradiction. ∎