Calibrations for the Sasaki volume on odd spheres and the no-gap problem
Abstract
For each odd sphere with , we consider the Sasaki volume functional on smooth unit tangent vector fields . Using the Gluck--Ziller calibration on the unit tangent bundle (extended to constant sectional curvature by Brito--Chac\'on--Naveira), we establish the universal calibrated lower bound , where . In the relaxed (integral-current) setting, we show that the section-constrained stable mass in equals the calibration value and is attained by an -calibrated mass-minimizing integral -cycle in the section class. We also analyze the equality case on smooth graphs. If a smooth graph is -calibrated on an open set, then it satisfies the rigidity system and for all , hence is locally a radial distance-gradient field. In particular, for there is no smooth unit field on whose graph is -calibrated everywhere. Finally, we construct an explicit smooth recovery sequence (presented in detail for and then extended to all odd dimensions) and prove a uniform nonvanishing estimate for the polar-shell normalization in the patching construction. As a consequence, , so there is no Lavrentiev gap.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.22961,
title = {Calibrations for the Sasaki volume on odd spheres and the no-gap problem},
author = {Jonas Matuzas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.22961},
year = {2026}
}