English

Rigidity estimates for isometric and conformal maps from $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$

Analysis of PDEs 2022-09-21 v2 Differential Geometry

Abstract

We investigate both linear and nonlinear stability aspects of rigid motions (resp. M\"obius transformations) of Sn1\mathbb{S}^{n-1} among Sobolev maps from Sn1\mathbb{S}^{n-1} into Rn\mathbb{R}^n. Unlike similar in flavour results for maps defined on domains of Rn\mathbb{R}^n and mapping into Rn\mathbb{R}^n, not only an isometric (resp. conformal) deficit is necessary in this more flexible setting, but also a deficit measuring the distortion of Sn1\mathbb{S}^{n-1} under the maps in consideration. The latter is defined as an associated isoperimetric type of deficit. We mostly focus on the case n=3n=3, where we also explain why the estimates are optimal in their corresponding settings. In the isometric case the estimate holds true also when n=2n=2 and generalizes in dimensions n4n\geq 4 as well, if one requires apriori boundedness in a certain higher Sobolev norm. We also obtain linear stability estimates for both cases in all dimensions. These can be regarded as Korn-type inequalities for the combination of the quadratic form associated with the isometric (resp. conformal) deficit on Sn1\mathbb{S}^{n-1} and the isoperimetric one.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.03846,
  title  = {Rigidity estimates for isometric and conformal maps from $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$},
  author = {Stephan Luckhaus and Konstantinos Zemas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.03846},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

61 pages, final version after reviewing process. Accepted in Inventiones Mathematicae