Natural pseudodistances between closed surfaces (Q997831)

For two arbitrary closed surfaces \(M\) and \(N\) of class \(C^1\) two functions \(\varphi: M\to\mathbb R\) and \(\psi: N\to\mathbb R\), called measuring functions, are considered. Then the natural pseudodistance between \((M,\varphi)\) and \((N,\psi)\) is defined as the infimum of \(\Theta(f):=\max_{P\in M}| \varphi(P)-\psi(f(P))| \) as \(f\) varies in the set of all homeomorphisms from \(M\) onto \(N\). Based on a theorem of \textit{J. Jost} and \textit{R. Schoen} [Invent. Math. 66, 353--359 (1982; Zbl 0488.58009)], the authors prove that the natural pseudodistance equals either \(| c_1-c_2| \), \({1 \over 2}| c_1-c_2| \), or \({1 \over 3}| c_1-c_2| \), where \(c_1\) and \(c_2\) are two suitable critical values of the measuring functions. This result improves a relation previously obtained by the authors for general dimension [Forum Math. 16, 695--715 (2004; Zbl 1085.58009)], while specializing to the framework of closed surfaces.