Isoperimetric inequalities, isometric actions and the higher Newman numbers (Q1105209)

This paper mainly deals with isoperimetric inequalities for Riemannian submanifolds. Let M be a compact connected n-dimensional Riemannian manifold. If M contains a closed connected k-dimensional, \(2\leq k\leq n\), minimal submanifold, the authors define the k-th isoperimetric number of M, denoted by \(\tilde N_ k(M)\), as the infimum of the volumes of all such submanifolds. Then, a number of interesting estimates of \(\tilde N_ k(M)\) are given for both general Euclidean submanifolds and special minimal submanifolds, which appear to be new. From these the authors propose the following conjecture: \(\tilde N_ k(M)\geq Vol S^ k(i(M)/\pi)\), \(2\leq k\leq n\), where i(M) denotes the radius of injectivity of M and \(S^ k(r)\) denotes the standard k-sphere of radius r. They verify the conjecture for various special cases. The remainder of this paper turns to isometric actions and the higher Newman numbers \(N_ k(M)\), \(1\leq k\leq n\). The latter is introduced by the present authors. At the end of this paper they study Newman's theorem for compact connected Lie groups with invariant metrics.