Smooth quasiregular mappings with branching (Q1767045)

A continuous mapping \(f: D \to {\mathbb R}^n\) of the class \(W^{1,n}_{\text{loc}}(D)\) in a domain \(D\) of \({\mathbb R}^n\) is said to be quasiregular if \(| f'(x)| \leq KJ(x,f)\) a.e. for some \(K \in [1,\infty)\). For \(n = 2\) and \(K = 1\) these mappings are analytic. Let \(B_f\) denote the branch set of \(f\), i.e. the set of points \(x\) in \(D\) where \(f\) does not define a local homeomorphism. Although it is easy to give examples of non-constant quasiregular mappings \(f\) that are differentiable at some points of \(B_f, n \geq 3\), it has been an open problem for at least 35 years if there exists such a \(C^1\)-mapping \(f\). If \(B_f\) contains a rectifiable curve \(\alpha\) and if \(f\) is differentiable on \(\alpha\), then \(f\) is constant [see \textit{O. Martio}, Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Ser. A I 474,18 p. (1970; Zbl 0202.07402)]. This prevents an easy construction of a quasiregular \(C^1\)-mapping with branching for \(n \geq 3\). The authors go beyond \(C^1\)-mappings and show that for \(n = 3\) there is a quasiregular \(C^{3-\varepsilon}\)-smooth quasiregular mapping \(f: {\mathbb R}^3 \to {\mathbb R}^3\) for every \(\varepsilon > 0\) topologically equivalent to a standard winding mapping whose branch set is a line. This result is quite optimal and the authors also prove similar almost optimal results for \(n \geq 4\). A new qualitatively sharp upper bound \((< n)\) is also provided for the Hausdorff dimension of \(B_f\) of a non-constant quasiregular mapping; this bound does not depend on the multiplicity of the mapping [cf. \textit{J. Sarvas}, Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Ser. A I 1, 297--307 (1975; Zbl 0326.30020)].