Calibrations and the size of Grassmann faces (Q1188292)

Let \(G(m,\mathbb{R}^ n)\) be the Grassmannian of oriented \(m\)-dimensional subspaces in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\), identified with a compact submanifold of the exterior algebra \(\Lambda^ m\mathbb{R}^ n\) by means of the mapping assigning \(v_ 1\wedge \dots\wedge v_ m\in\Lambda^ m\mathbb{R}^ n=\mathbb{R}^{{n \choose m}}\) to the subspace spanned by \(v_ 1,\dots,v_ m\). Given a continuous function \(\Phi: G(m,\mathbb{R}^ n)\to \mathbb{R}^ +\) and an \(m\)-dimensional surface \(S\) in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\), one defines the \(\Phi\)- Grassmannian as \(G(m,\mathbb{R}^ n,\Phi)=\{\xi/\Phi(\xi)\): \(\xi\in G(m,\mathbb{R}^ n)\}\). The main concern of the paper is the study of the sizes of faces of \(\Phi\)-Grassmannians (a face of a compact subset \(G\) of a Euclidean space is the set of points at which a nonzero linear function attains its maximum on \(G\)). An application is given to the existence of \(\Phi\)-minimizing surfaces \(S\) containing interior singularities (\(S\) is \(\Phi\)-minimizing if \(\int_ S\Phi(\xi)\leq \int_ T\Phi(\xi)\) for any oriented surface \(T\) with the same boundary as \(S\)).