Topology of Sobolev mappings. II. (Q1886150)

This paper contains the proofs of results announced in [Math. Res. Lett. 8, No. 3, 321--330 (2001; Zbl 1049.46018)]. Let \(M\) be a compact smooth Riemannian manifold with or without boundary and \(N\) be a compact smooth Riemannian manifold without boundary. The authors assume that \(M\) and \(N\) are connected and that \(M\) is isometrically embedded in \(\mathbb R^l\) for some large \(l\), while \(N\) is isometrically embedded in \(\mathbb R^{l_1}\) for some large \(l_1\). The first two results are stated precisely as in the previous paper. Their third main result (various corollaries are also deduced) now reads: If \(1 \leq p < \dim M\), where \(M\) and \(N\) are as above, smooth maps between \(M\) and \(N\) are dense in \(W^{1,p}(M, N)\) if and only if \(\pi_{[p]}(N) = 0\), and \(M\) satisfies the \([p] - 1\)-extension property with respect to \(N\). Here \([p]\) denotes the greatest integer in \(p\). They remark that this corrects an earlier result of \textit{F. Bethuel} [Acta Math. 167, No. 3/4, 153--206 (1991; Zbl 0756.46017)].