A new gap phenomenon for proper holomorphic mappings from \(\mathbb B^n\) into \(\mathbb B^N\) (Q2471519)

The authors study the normalization problem for proper rational maps from \(\mathbb{B}^{n}\) to \(\mathbb{B}^{N}\), where \(\mathbb{B}^{m}\) denotes the unit ball in \(\mathbb{C}^{m}\). The main result states that when \(3 \leq n \leq N\), and \(F\) is a nonlinear such map that is \(C^{3}\) up to the boundary and has geometric rank \(\kappa_{0} \leq n-2\), then \(F\) is equivalent to a proper holomorphic map of the form \(H:=(z_{1}, \cdots, z_{k^{0}}, H_{1}, \cdots, H_{N-k^{0}})\), where \(k^{0}=n-\kappa_{0}\) and \(H_{j}=\sum_{l=k^{0}+1}^{n}z_{l}H_{j,l}\), with \(H_{j,l}\) holomorphic over \(\overline{\mathbb{B}^{n}}\). Here, equivalence is understood as usual modulo automorphisms of \(\mathbb{B}^{n}\) and \(\mathbb{B}^{N}\), respectively. The authors combine this theorem with known results to give a still simpler description of all \(F\) when \(4 \leq n \leq N \leq 3n-4\). It turns out that no new maps appear as \(N\) runs from \(2n\) to \(3n-4\); this is the gap phenomenon referred to in the title. Another application of the main result is to the case where the geometric rank of \(F\) is \(1\). In this case, the authors obtain the sharp upper bound for the degree of \(F\) of \(\frac{N-1}{n-1}\), thus verifying a conjecture of D'Angelo for a special case. (For more on this conjecture, see also [\textit{J.~D'Angelo, J.~Lebl}, and \textit{P.~Han}, Mich. Math. J. 55, No.~3, 693--713 (2007; Zbl 1165.32005)]).