Proof of S. P. Novikov's conjecture on the semiclassical motion of an electron (Q1326893)

In the study of the motion of an electron in a crystalline lattice in the presence of a weak homogeneous magnetic field the following topological problem arises: Investigate the structure of level lines of the constant 1-form \(\Omega = H_ 1 dp_ 1 + H_ 2 dp_ 2 + H_ 3 dp_ 3\), restricted to the Fermi surface \(M_ E = \{p \in T^ 3 \mid \varepsilon(p) = E\}\), where \(\varepsilon(p)\) is the dispersion law on the quasimomentum space, which is a torus \(T^ 3\) and the \(p_ i\) are defined \(\bmod Z\). The connected components of the level lines of the form \(\Omega_{| M_ E}\) are trajectories of the semiclassical motion. The S. P. Novikov conjecture [\textit{S. P. Novikov}, ``Quasiperiodic structures in topology'', in: Topological Methods in Modern Mathematics, Stony Brook, New York 1991, Publish or Perish, Houston/Texas, 223--233 (1993; Zbl 0813.57029)] states that any nonsingular closed trajectory on \(\widehat{M}_ E\) lies in a band of finite width and passes through this band. Here the author proves that the conjecture is true for almost all levels of the function \(\varepsilon\) provided that the dispersion law \(\varepsilon\) and the magnetic field satisfy general- position conditions being identified.