Min-max hypersurface in manifold of positive Ricci curvature (Q516139)

Given a Riemannian manifold \(M\), \(\dim M = n+1\), \({\mathcal Z}_n(M)\) denotes the space of all closed hypersurfaces with the natural (called ``flat'') topology arising from geometric measure theory. Given a curve \(\Phi\) in \({\mathcal Z}_n(M)\), denote by \([\Phi ]\) the set of all curves \(\Psi\) in \({\mathcal Z}_n(M)\) homotopic to \(\Phi\) and define the min-max functional \(L\) by \(L([\Phi ]) = \inf \{\max _{t} \mathrm{Area} (\Psi(t)); \Psi\in [\Phi]\}\). The Jacobi operator \(J_\Sigma\) corresponding to \(L\) and a hypersurface \(\Sigma\) with the second fundamental form \(A\) in the direction of a unit normal vector field \(\nu\) is given by \(J_\Sigma\phi = \Delta_\Sigma\phi + (\mathrm{Ric} (\nu, \nu) + \| A\|^2)\phi\). The Morse index of \(\Sigma\) is defined, roughly speaking, as the number of negative eigenvalues of \(J_\Sigma\) corresponding to eigenvectors \(\phi\) supported in an open set \(\Omega\subset\Sigma\) with smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\). The main theorem (Theorem 1.1.) provides values of the Morse index and the \(n\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure of min-max hypersurfaces (either orientable or not) on Riemannian manifolds of positive Ricci curvature. The paper contains a number of interesting and technical results related to the main problem. All of that is related to earlier research by several authors: F. Almgren, J. Pitts, R. Schoen, L. Simon and others.