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Mean curvature in manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below

Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold of nonnegative Ricci curvature and $Σ$ a compact embedded 2-sided minimal hypersurface in $M$. It is proved that there is a dichotomy: If $Σ$ does not separate $M$ then $Σ$ is totally geodesic and $M\setminusΣ$ is isometric to the Riemannian product $Σ\times(a,b)$, and if $Σ$ separates $M$ then the map $i_*:π_1(Σ)\rightarrow π_1(M)$ induced by inclusion is surjective. This surjectivity is also proved for a compact 2-sided hypersurface with mean curvature $H\geq(n-1)\sqrt{k}$ in a manifold of Ricci curvature $Ric_M\geq-(n-1)k,k>0$, and for a free boundary minimal hypersurface in a manifold of nonnegative Ricci curvature with nonempty strictly convex boundary. As an application it is shown that a compact $n$-dimensional manifold $N$ with the number of generators of $π_1(N)<n$ cannot be minimally embedded in the flat torus $T^{n+1}$.