We study the asymptotics as $p\uparrow 2$ of stationary $p$-harmonic maps $u_p\in W^{1,p}(M,S^1)$ from a compact manifold $M^n$ to $S^1$, satisfying the natural energy growth condition $$\int_M|du_p|^p=O(\frac{1}{2-p}).$$ Along a subsequence $p_j\to 2$, we show that the singular sets $Sing(u_{p_j})$ converge to the support of a stationary, rectifiable $(n-2)$-varifold $V$ of density $Θ_{n-2}(\|V\|,\cdot)\geq 2π$, given by the concentrated part of the measure $$μ=\lim_{j\to\infty}(2-p_j)|du_{p_j}|^{p_j}dv_g.$$ When $n=2$, we show moreover that the density of $\|V\|$ takes values in $2π\mathbb{N}$. Finally, on every compact manifold of dimension $n\geq 2$ we produce examples of nontrivial families $(1,2)\ni p\mapsto u_p\in W^{1,p}(M,S^1)$ of such maps via natural min-max constructions.
We give two structural conditions on a codimension $1$ integral $n$-varifold with first variation locally summable to an exponent $p>n$ that imply the following: whenever each orientable portion of the $C^{1}$-embedded part of the varifold (which is non-empty by the Allard regularity theory) is stationarity and the $C^{2}$-immersed part of it is stable with respect to the area functional for volume preserving deformations, its support, except possibly on a closed set of codimension $7$, is an immersed constant-mean-curvature (cmc) hypersurface of class $C^{2}$ that can fail to be embedded only…
In a previous paper we developed a regularity and compactness theory in Euclidean ambient spaces for codimension 1 weakly stable CMC integral varifolds satisfying two (necessary) structural conditions. Here we generalize this theory to the setting where the mean curvature (of the regular part of the varifold) is prescribed by a given $C^{1, α}$ ambient function $g$ and the ambient space is a general $(n+1)$-dimensional Riemannian manifold; we give general conditions that imply that the support of the varifold, away from a possible singular set of dimension $\leq n-7,$ is the image of a $C^{2}$…
We establish an optimal regularity result for parametrized two-dimensional stationary varifolds. Namely, we show that the parametrization map is a smooth minimal branched immersion and that the multiplicity function is constant. We provide some applications of this regularity result, especially in the calculus of variations for the area functional.
We prove that every stationary polyhedral varifold minimizes area in the following senses: (1) its area cannot be decreased by a one-to-one Lipschitz ambient deformation that coincides with the identity outside of a compact set, and (2) it is the varifold associated to a mass-minimizing flat chain with coefficients in a certain metric abelian group. NOTE: After this paper was posted, I learned that (1) and (2) were already proved by Choe and Morgan, respectively. Thus this paper is an exposition of their results.
If one considers an integral varifold $I^m\subseteq M$ with bounded mean curvature, and if $S^k(I)\equiv\{x\in M: \text{ no tangent cone at $x$ is }k+1\text{-symmetric}\}$ is the standard stratification of the singular set, then it is well known that $\dim S^k\leq k$. In complete generality nothing else is known about the singular sets $S^k(I)$. In this paper we prove for a general integral varifold with bounded mean curvature, in particular a stationary varifold, that every stratum $S^k(I)$ is $k$-rectifiable. In fact, we prove for $k$-a.e. point $x\in S^k$ that there exists a unique $k$-plan…
Let $(M^n,g)$ be simply connected, complete, with non-positive sectional curvatures, and $Σ$ a 2-dimensional closed integral current (or flat chain mod 2) with compact support in $M$. Let $S$ be an area minimising integral 3-current (resp. flat chain mod 2) such that $\partial S = Σ$. We use a weak mean curvature flow, obtained via elliptic regularisation, starting from $Σ$, to show that S satisfies the optimal Euclidean isoperimetric inequality: $ 6 \sqrtπ\, \mathbf{M}[S] \leq (\mathbf{M}[Σ])^{3/2} $. We also obtain an optimal estimate in case the sectional curvatures of M are bounded from ab…
In a recent paper the author introduced a new method based on viscosity techniques for producing minimal surfaces by minmax arguments. The present work corresponds to the regularity part of the method. Precisely we establish that any weakly conformal $W^{1,2}$ map from a riemann surface $S$ into a closed oriented sub-manifold $N^n$ of an euclidian space ${\mathbb R}^m$ realizes a stationary varifold if and only if it is a smooth conformal harmonic map form $S$ into $N^n$.
On compact 2-manifolds with non-empty convex boundary, we prove a regularity result for integral 1-varifolds $V$ that are stationary with free boundary and $\mathbb{Z}_2$-almost minimizing in small annuli. That regularity says that $V$ is a free boundary finite geodesic network. Next, using that regularity, we compute the first $p$-widths of the unit closed ball $B^2,$ for $p=1, . . . , 4.$
On a compact manifold $M^{n}$ ($n\geq 3$) with boundary, we study the asymptotic behavior as $ε$ tends to zero of solutions $u_ε: M \to \mathbb{C}$ to the equation $Δu_ε + ε^{-2}(1 - |u_ε|^{2})u_ε = 0$ with the boundary condition $\partial_νu_ε = 0$ on $\partial M$. Assuming an energy upper bound on the solutions and a convexity condition on $\partial M$, we show that along a subsequence, the energy of $\{u_ε\}$ breaks into two parts: one captured by a harmonic $1$-form $ψ$ on $M$, and the other concentrating on the support of a rectifiable $(n-2)$-varifold $V$ which is stationary with respect…
We develop a new method for proving regularity for small energy stationary solutions of coupled gauge field equations. Our results duplicate those of Tian--Tao [7] for the pure Yang Mills equations, but our proof is simpler, and obtains bounded curvature without the use of Coulomb gauges. It relies instead on the Weitzenblock formulae, and an improved Kato inequality.
We are interested by holomorphic $d$-webs $W$ of codimension one in a complex $n$-dimensional manifold $M$. If they are ordinary, i.e. if they satisfy to some condition of genericity (whose precise definition is recalled), we proved in [CL] that their rank $ρ(W)$ is upper-bounded by a certain number $π'(n,d)\ \bigl($which, for $n\geq 3$, is stictly smaller than the Castelnuovo-Chern's bound $π(n,d)\bigr)$. In fact, denoting by $c(n,h)$ the dimension of the space of homogeneous polynomials of degree $h$ with $n$ unknowns, and by $h_0$ the integer such that $$c(n,h_0-1)<d\leq c(n,h_0),$$ $π'(n,d…
We study time-like hypersurfaces with vanishing mean curvature in the (3+1) dimensional Minkowski space, which are the hyperbolic counterparts to minimal embeddings of Riemannian manifolds. The catenoid is a stationary solution of the associated Cauchy problem. This solution is linearly unstable, and we show that this instability is the only obstruction to the global nonlinear stability of the catenoid. More precisely, we prove in a certain symmetry class the existence, in the neighborhood of the catenoid initial data, of a co-dimension 1 Lipschitz manifold transverse to the unstable mode cons…
We consider triholomorphic maps from an almost hyper-Hermitian manifold $\mathcal{M}^{4m}$ into a hyperKähler manifold $\mathcal{N}^{4n}$. This means that $u \in W^{1,2}$ satisfies a quaternionic del-bar equation. We work under the assumption that $u$ is locally strongly approximable in $W^{1,2}$ by smooth maps: then such maps are almost stationary harmonic (when $\mathcal{M}$ is hyperKähler as well, then stationary harmonic). We show that in this more general situation the classical $ε$-regularity result still holds. We then address compactness issues for a weakly converging sequence $u_\ell …
