In this paper we address the issue of uniformly positive scalar curvature on noncompact 3-manifolds. In particular we show that the Whitehead manifold lacks such a metric, and in fact that is the only contractible noncompact 3-manifold with a metric of uniformly positive scalar curvature. We also describe contractible noncompact manifolds of higher dimension exhibiting this curvature phenomenon. Lastly we characterize all connected oriented 3-manifolds with finitely generated fundamental group allowing such a metric. 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
