Sharp Cartan–Hadamard isoperimetry and rigidity

We resolve the generalized Cartan–Hadamard isoperimetric conjecture in every dimension. In a complete simply connected smooth manifold with sectional curvature at most κ ≤ 0, every finite-volume set of finite ambient perimeter has perimeter at least that of the equal-volume ball in curvature κ. For bounded positive-volume sets, equality in the Euclidean comparison holds precisely when the set agrees up to null sets with an open region isometric, with its induced metric, to a round Euclidean ball.

Every compactly supported integral n-cycle, n ≥ 2, in a proper CAT(0) space bounds a compactly supported integral current with the sharp Euclidean mass bound. The theorem allows arbitrary integer multiplicities and unrestricted ambient dimension. In particular, we prove the Euclidean Cartan–Hadamard isoperimetric conjecture in dimensions at least three.