We revisit the classical problem due to Weyl, as well as its generalisations, concerning the isometric immersions of $\mathbb{S}^2$ into simply-connected $3$-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with non-negative Gauss curvature. A sufficient condition is exhibited for the existence of global $C^{1,1}$-isometric immersions. Our developments are based on the framework à la Labourie (Immersions isométriques elliptiques et courbes pseudo-holomorphes, J. Diff. Geom. 30 (1989), 395--424) of studying isometric immersions using $J$-holomorphic curves. We obtain along the way a generalisation of a classical theorem due to Heinz and Pogorelov.
We introduce an elliptic regularization of the PDE system representing the isometric immersion of a surface in $\mathbb R^{3}$. The regularization is geometric, and has a natural variational interpretation.
We prove uniqueness of smooth isometric immersions within the class of negatively curved corrugated two-dimensional immersions embedded into $\mathbb{R}^3$. The main tool we use is the relative entropy method employed in the setting of differential geometry for the Gauss-Codazzi system. The result allows us to compare also two solutions to the Gauss-Codazzi system that correspond to a smooth and a $C^{1,1}$ isometric immersion of not necessarily the same metric and prove continuous dependence of their second fundamental forms in terms of the metric and initial data in $L^2$.
The isometric immersion of two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds or surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space is a fundamental problem in differential geometry. When the Gauss curvature is negative, the isometric immersion problem is considered in this paper through the Gauss-Codazzi system for the second fundamental forms. It is shown that if the Gauss curvature satisfies an integrability condition, the surface has a global smooth isometric immersion in the three-dimensional Euclidean space even if the Gauss curvature decays very slowly at infinity. The new idea of the proof is based o…
In this paper the method of compensated compactness is applied to the problem of isometric immersion of a two dimensional Riemannian manifold with negative Gauss curvature into three dimensional Euclidean space. Previous applications of the method to this problem have required decay of order $t^{-4}$ in the Gauss curvature. Here we show that the decay of Hong $t^{-2-δ/2}$ where $δ\in(0,4)$ suffices.
We prove the developability and $C^{1,1/2}$ regularity of $W^{2,2}$ isometric immersions of $n$-dimensional domains into $R^{n+1}$. As a conclusion we show that any such Sobolev isometry can be approximated by smooth isometries in the $W^{2,2}$ strong norm, provided the domain is $C^1$ and convex. Both results fail to be true if the Sobolev regularity is weaker than $W^{2,2}$.
A fundamental problem in differential geometry is to characterize intrinsic metrics on a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold ${\mathcal M}^2$ which can be realized as isometric immersions into $\R^3$. This problem can be formulated as initial and/or boundary value problems for a system of nonlinear partial differential equations of mixed elliptic-hyperbolic type whose mathematical theory is largely incomplete. In this paper, we develop a general approach, which combines a fluid dynamic formulation of balance laws for the Gauss-Codazzi system with a compensated compactness framework, to deal wi…
We provide conditions under which an isometric immersion of a (warped) product of manifolds into a space form must be a (warped) product of isometric immersions.
We prove the existence of $C^{1,1}$ isometric immersions of several classes of metrics on surfaces $(\mathcal{M},g)$ into the three-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^3$, where the metrics $g$ have strictly negative curvature. These include the standard hyperbolic plane, generalised helicoid-type metrics and generalised Enneper metrics. Our proof is based on the method of compensated compactness and invariant regions in hyperbolic conservation laws, together with several observations on the geometric quantities (Gauss curvature, metric components etc.) of negatively curved surfaces.
In this paper we consider the Cauchy problem for isometric immersions. More precisely, given a smooth isometric immersion of a codimension one submanifold we construct $C^{1,α}$ isometric extensions for any $α<\frac{1}{n(n+1)+1}$ via the method of convex integration.
We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of isometric immersions of a simply connected Riemannian manifold into a two-step nilpotent Lie group. This comprises the case of immersions into $H$-type groups.
Wextend the results obtained recently by G. D'Ambra and A. Loi towards the proof of a conjecture of M.Gromov on isometric immersions via non-free maps.
We investigate the behavior of the second fundamental form of an isometric immersion of a space form with negative curvature into a space form so that the extrinsic curvature is negative. If the immersion has flat normal bundle, we prove that its second fundamental form grows exponentially.
We prove that if $n$ is even, $(M,g)$ is a compact $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold whose Pfaffian form is a positive multiple of the volume form, and $y\in C^{1,α}(M;\mathbb{R}^{n+1})$ is an isometric immersion with $n/(n+1)< α\leq 1$, then $y(M)$ is a surface of bounded extrinsic curvature. This is proved by showing that extrinsic curvature, defined by a suitable pull-back of the volume form on the $n$-sphere via the Gauss map, is identical to intrinsic curvature, defined by the Pfaffian form. This latter fact is stated in form of an integral identity for the Brouwer degree of the Gauss m…
We $δ$-approximate strictly short (e.g. constant) maps between Riemannin manifolds $f_0:X^m\to Y^N$ for $N>>m^2/2$ by $C^\infty$-smooth isometric immersions $f_δ:X^m\to Y^N$ with curvatures $curv(f_δ) < \frac {\sqrt 3}δ$, for $δ\to 0$
Motivated by the quasi-local mass problem in general relativity, we study the rigidity of isometric immersions with the same mean curvature into a warped product space. As a corollary of our main result, two star-shaped hypersurfaces in a spatial Schwarzschild or AdS-Schwarzschild manifold with nonzero mass differ only by a rotation if they are isometric and have the same mean curvature. We also give similar results if the mean curvature condition is replaced by an $σ_2$-curvature condition.
In this paper, we show the rigidity of isometric immersions for a Riemannian manifold of dimension $n-1$ into the light cone of $n+1$ dimensional Minkowski, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes for $n\geq 3$.
The aim of this short article is to investigate the possibility of existence of totally umbilical isometric immersions in R^3 with isothermal parametrization and harmonic metric.
Using the results of \cite{P1}, we get some estimates of warping functions for isometric immersions by changing the target manifolds by some types of Riemannian manifolds: constant space forms and Hermitian symmetric spaces. And we deal with equality cases and obtain their applications. Finally, we give some open problems.
We introduce a family of variational functionals for spinor fields on a compact Riemann surface $M$ that can be used to find close-to-conformal immersions of $M$ into $\mathbb{R}^3$ in a prescribed regular homotopy class. Numerical experiments indicate that, by taking suitable limits, minimization of these functionals can also yield piecewise smooth isometric immersions of a prescribed Riemannian metric on $M$.
In this paper, we parametrize the space of isometric immersions of the hyperbolic plane into the hyperbolic 3-space in terms of null-causal curves in the space of oriented geodesics. Moreover, we characterize "ideal cones" (i.e., cones whose vertices are on the ideal boundary) by behavior of their mean curvature.
We present a compensated compactness theorem in Banach spaces established recently, whose formulation is originally motivated by the weak rigidity problem for isometric immersions of manifolds with lower regularity. As a corollary, a geometrically intrinsic div-curl lemma for tensor fields on Riemannian manifolds is obtained. Then we show how this intrinsic div-curl lemma can be employed to establish the global weak rigidity of the Gauss-Codazzi-Ricci equations, the Cartan formalism, and the corresponding isometric immersions of Riemannian submanifolds.
In this paper, we study biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface into and biharmonic Riemannian submersion from 3-dimensional Berger spheres. We obtain a classification of proper biharmonic isometric immersions of a surface with constant mean curvature into Berger 3-spheres. We also give a complete classification of proper biharmonic Hopf tori in Berger 3-sphere. For Riemannian submersions, we prove that a Riemannian submersion from Berger 3-spheres into a surface is biharmonic if and only if it is harmonic.
A triharmonic map is a critical point of the 3-energy in the space of smooth maps between two Riemannian manifolds. We study a triharmonic isometric immersion into a space form of non-positively constant curvature. We show that if the domain is complete and both the 4-enegy and the L^4-norm of the tension field are finite, then such an immersion is minimal.
We consider isometric immersions of complete connected Riemannian manifolds into space forms of nonzero constant curvature. We prove that if such an immersion is compact and has semi-definite second fundamental form, then it is an embedding with codimension one, its image bounds a convex set, and it is rigid. This result generalizes previous ones by M. do Carmo and E. Lima, as well as by M. do Carmo and F. Warner. It also settles affirmatively a conjecture by do Carmo and Warner. We establish a similar result for complete isometric immersions satisfying a stronger condition on the second funda…
We produce a new general family of flat tori in R^4, the first one since Bianchi's classical works in the 19th century. To construct these flat tori, obtained via small perturbation of certain Hopf tori in S^3, we first present a global description of all isometric immersions of R^2 into R^4 with flat normal bundle.
In this paper, we give a definition of coherent tangent bundles of space form type, which is a generalized notion of space forms. Then, we classify their realizations in the sphere as a wave front, which is a generalization of a theorem of O'Neill and Stiel: any isometric immersion of the n-sphere into the (n+1)-sphere of the same sectional curvature is totally geodesic.
We provide a local classification of isometric immersions $f\colon L^p\times_ρM^n\to\Q_c^{p+n+k}$ in codimensions $k=1, 2$ of warped products of Riemannian manifolds into space forms, under the assumptions that $n\geq k+1$ and that $N^{p+n}=L^p\times_ρM^n$ has no points with the same constant sectional curvature $c$ as the ambient space form.
For a given simply connected Riemannian surface Sigma, we relate the problem of finding minimal isometric immersions of Sigma into S^2 x R or H^2 x R to a system of two partial differential equations on Sigma. We prove that a constant intrinsic curvature minimal surface in S^2 x R or H^2 x R is either totally geodesic or part of an associate surface of a certain limit of catenoids in H^2 x R. We also prove that if a non constant curvature Riemannian surface admits a continuous one-parameter family of minimal isometric immersions into S^2 x R or H^2 x R, then all these immersions are associate.
In this paper, we obtain a sufficient and necessary condition for a simply connected Riemannian manifold $(M^n, g)$ to be isometrically immersed, as a submanifold with codimension $p\geq 1$, into the product $S^k\times H^{n+p-k}$ of sphere and hyperboloid.
We prove the existence, uniqueness, and $W^{1,2}$-regularity for the solution to the Pfaff system with antisymmetric $L^2$-coefficient matrix in arbitrary dimensions. Hence, we establish the equivalence between the existence of $W^{2,2}$-isometric immersions and the weak solubility of the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci equations on simply-connected domains. The regularity assumptions of these results are sharp. As an application, we deduce a weak compactness theorem for $W^{2,2}_{\rm loc}$-immersions.
In classical surface theory there are but few known examples of surfaces admitting nontrivial isometric deformations and fewer still non-simply-connected ones. We consider the isometric deformability question for an immersion x: M \to R^3 of an oriented non-simply-connected surface with constant mean curvature H. We prove that the space of all isometric immersions of M with constant mean curvature H is, modulo congruences of R^3, either finite or a circle. When it is a circle then, for the immersion x, every cycle in M has vanishing force and, when H is not 0, also vanishing torque. Our work g…
We investigate isometric immersions of locally conformally Kaehler metrics into Hopf manifolds. In particular, we study Hopf-induced metrics on compact complex surfaces.
Several characterizations of umbilic points of submanifolds in arbitrary Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds are given. As a consequence, we obtain new characterizations of spheres in the Euclidean space and of hyperbolic spaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski space. We also prove the Lorentzian version of a classical result by Cartan.
Using a bigraded differential complex depending on the CR and pseudohermitian structure, we give a characterization of three-dimensional strongly pseudoconvex pseudo-hermitian CR-manifolds isometrically immersed in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$ in terms of an integral representation of Weierstrass type. Restricting to the case of immersions in $\mathbb{R}^4$, we study harmonicity conditions for such immersions and give a complete classification of CR-pluriharmonic immersions.
Fractional Sobolev isometric immersions of planar domains
New York University – Shanghai（纽约大学上海分校）；NYU-ECNU Institute of Mathematical Sciences（纽约大学华东师范大学数学科学研究所）；School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学数学科学学院）；IAM, University of Bonn（波恩大学应用数学研究所）；Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh（匹兹堡大学数学系）
We prove that if an RCD space has a regular isometric immersion in a Euclidean space, then the immersion is a locally bi-Lipschitz embedding map. This result leads us to prove that if a compact non-collapsed RCD space has an isometric immersion in a Euclidean space via an eigenmap, then the eigenmap is a locally bi-Lipschitz embedding map to a sphere, which generalizes a fundamental theorem of Takahashi in submanifold theory to a non-smooth setting. Applications of these results include a topological sphere theorem and topological finiteness theorems, which are new even for closed Riemannian m…
The edge of torn elastic sheets and growing leaves often form a hierarchical buckling pattern. Within non-Euclidean plate theory this complex morphology can be understood as low bending energy isometric immersions of hyperbolic Riemannian metrics. With this motivation we study the isometric immersion problem in strip and disk geometries. By finding explicit piecewise smooth solutions of hyperbolic Monge-Ampere equations on a strip, we show there exist periodic isometric immersions of hyperbolic surfaces in the small slope regime. We extend these solutions to exact isometric immersions through …
In this article, we study constant mean curvature isometric immersions into $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ and we classify these isometric immersions when the surface has constant intrinsic curvature. As applications, we use the sister surface correspondence to classify the constant mean curvature surfaces with constant intrinsic curvature in the $3-$dimensional homogenous manifolds $\mathbb{E}(κ, τ)$ and we use the Torralbo-Urbano correspondence to classify the parallel mean curvature surfaces in $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{S}^2$ and $\mathbb{H}^2 \time…
In this paper we investigate the existence of ``partially'' isometric immersions. These are maps f:M->R^q which, for a given Riemannian manifold M, are isometries on some sub-bundle H of TM. The concept of free maps, which is essential in the Nash--Gromov theory of isometric immersions, is replaced here by that of H-free maps, i.e. maps whose restriction to H is free. We prove, under suitable conditions on the dimension q of the Euclidean space, that H-free maps are generic and we provide, for the smallest possible value of q, explicit expressions for H-free maps in the following three setting…
In the theory of minimal submanifold, the following problem is fundamental: when does a given Riemannian manifold admit (or does not admit) a minimal isometric immersion into an Euclidean space form of arbitrary dimension? A partial solution of this problem was obtained by B.Y. Chen as an application of his fundamental inequality [1]. In this paper we obtain another partial solution of this problem.
We consider the class of evolution equations that describe pseudo-spherical surfaces of the form u\_t = F (u, $\partial$u/$\partial$x, ..., $\partial$^k u/$\partial$x^k), k $\ge$ 2 classified by Chern-Tenenblat. This class of equations is characterized by the property that to each solution of a differential equation within this class, there corresponds a 2-dimensional Riemannian metric of curvature-1. We investigate the following problem: given such a metric, is there a local isometric immersion in R 3 such that the coefficients of the second fundamental form of the surface depend on a jet of …
