160 4. PROOF OF THE COMPACTNESS THEOREM
3.2. Choice of ball centers. In this subsection we will find centers
for the balls which will make up the necessary covers. Define >. [r] as
(4.7) /\ ' [ ]. 1 [ r =;= Dμ r, lo ] = D a ·mm. { lo, 1 }n · e -Cr ,
where D = D (n, lo) is a large constant, to be chosen later, depending only
on n and the uniform lower bound lo for inj (Ok). Note that >. is a decreasing
function of r. We shall choose D large enough so that >.[OJ ::::; 1.
We shall work on an individual manifold (Mn, g, 0) and then apply the
result to (M'k, 9k, Ok). Choose a sequence of points {x°'}~=O in M with
N E NU {O, oo}, which we call a net, as follows. Let x^0 = 0 and r^0 ~
d (x^0 , 0) = 0. Let
51 ~ {x EM: B(x,>.[d(x,O)]) nB (x^0 ,>. [r^0 ]) = 0}.
If 51 is empty, then B (x^0 ,2>. [r^0 ]) = M and we take N = 0 and stop
choosing points. Since the balls in the definition of 51 are open, 51 is a
closed set. Hence, if 51 is nonempty, then there exists a point x^1 E 51 such
that r^1 ~ d ( x^1 , 0) = d ( 51 , 0). Since x^1 E 51 , we have
B ( x^1 ' A [r^1 J) n B ( x^0 ' A [r^0 ]) = 0.
Next let
52 ~ { x EM : B (x, >. [d (x, O)]) n B ( x,6, >. [r,6]) = 0 for f3=0,1}.
Again, since 52 c 51 is a closed set, if 52 is nonempty (if 52 is empty, we
take N = 1 and stop), we may choose x^2 E 52 such that r^2 ~ d ( x^2 , O) =
d (5^2 , 0). We have
B ( x,6, >. [r,6]) n B (x'Y, >. [r1]) = 0 for f3=/='YE{O,1, 2}.
By induction, assuming that the points x^0 , x^1 , x^2 , ... , xa-l have been cho-
sen, let
5°' ~ { x E M : B ( x, >. [ d ( x, 0)]) n B ( x,6, >. [ r,6]) = 0, f3 = 0, ... , a - 1}.
Note that S°' c 5a-^1. If 5°' is nonempty (if 5°' is empty, we take N = a-1
and stop), choose x°' E 5°' such that r°' ~ d(x°',O) = d(5°',0). Then
B ( x,6, >. [r,6]) n B (x1, >. [r^7 ]) = 0 for f3=/='YE{O,1, 2, ... , a}.
LEMMA 4.21 (Existence of covers with bounds on the number of balls).
Let (Mn, g) be a complete Riemannian manifold with sectional curvatures
IKI :S; Co and injectivity radius inj (0) 2': lo> 0. For each r > 0 there exists
a nondecreasing function A (r) such that the finite collection
{B (x°', 2.\ [r°']) : 0::::; a::::; A (r)}
forms a cover for B (0, r) and r°' > r if a > A (r). Furthermore, we can
choose A (r) to depend only on n, r, Co and lo (in particular, not depend on