On the volume of unit vector fields on spaces of constant sectional curvature (Q1881552)

Let \(M\) be a compact \(n\) dimensional Riemannian manifold and let \(X\) be a unit vector field. Give the tangent bundle \(TM\) the Sasaki metric and let \(\text{vol}(X)= \text{vol}(X(M))\) be the associated volume of the submanifold \(X(M)\) in \(TM\). Let \(\sigma_{2i}(X^\perp)\) be the \(2i\)-th elementary symmetric function of the second fundamental form of the distribution orthogonal to \(X\). The authors show the following main theorem: Let \(X\) be a unit vector field on a compact Riemannian oriented manifold of dimension \(n=2k+1\). Then \[ \text{vol}(M)\geq\int_M \left(1+\sum_{i=1}^k{{k}\choose{i}}{{2k}\choose{2i}}^{-1} | \sigma_{2i}(X^\perp)| \right)\text{dvol}. \] When \(k\geq2\), equality holds if and only if \(X\) is totally geodesic and \(X^\perp\) is integrable and umbilic. For a sphere, the lower bound is independent of the dimension and leads to the following estimate: Corollary: Let \(X\) be a unit vector field on \(S^{2k+1}\). Then \[ \text{vol}(X)>\sum_{i=0}^k{{k}\choose{i}}^2{{2k}\choose{2i}}^{-1} \text{vol}(S^{2k+1}). \] Note that the corollary confirms the lower bound appearing in [\textit{H. Gluck} and \textit{W. Ziller}, Comment. Math. Helv. 61, 177--192 (1986; Zbl 0605.53022)]. Other useful results concerning unit vector fields on the sphere and compact hyperbolic spaces are also derived.