Mappings of finite distortion: compactness of the branch set (Q2046131)

Let \(\Omega\) be a domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) and \(f: \Omega \rightarrow\mathbb R^n\) a continuous, open and discrete mapping. Discrete means that for each \(y \in\mathbb R^n\), \(f^{-1}(y)\) is a discrete set in \(\Omega\). The branch set \(B_f\) of \(f\) consists of points \(x \in \Omega\) such that in no neighborhood \(U\) of \(x\), \(f|U\) is a homeomorphism onto \(f(U)\). For \(n =1, \,2\) the structure of \(B_f\) is well understood but for \(n \geq 3\) rather little is known. By the result of \textit{A. V. Chernavskij} [Mat. Sb., Nov. Ser. 66(108), 471--472 (1965; Zbl 0129.15101)] the topological dimension of \(B_f\) is at most \(n-2\), see also \textit{J. Väisälä} [Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Ser. A I 392, 10 p. (1966; Zbl 0144.22202)] and slightly more is known about the image set \(f(B_f)\), see [the reviewer et al., Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Ser. A I 488, 31 p. (1971; Zbl 0223.30018)]. The authors study these mappings under an additional analytic condtion: \(f\) is assumed to have finite distortion, i.e., the Jocobian determinant \(J_f(x) \in L^1_{\mathrm{loc}}(\Omega)\) and \(> 0\) a.e. on the set where \(|f^{'}(x)|> 0\). The outer distortion function, defined as \(K_O(f)(x) = |f^{'}(x)|^n/J_f(x)\) and \(=1\) if \(J_f(x) =0\) or not defined, is supposed to be finite a.e. in \(\Omega\). If \(K_O(f) \in L^{\infty}(\Omega)\), then \(f\) is called quasiregular, see [\textit{S. Rickman}, Quasiregular mappings. Berlin: Springer-Verlag (1993; Zbl 0816.30017)]. For \(n \geq 3\) the smallness of \(K_O(f)\) restricts the behvior of \(f\). If for each \(C > 0\) there exists \(r > 0\) such that \(f_r = f\big\vert(\mathbb R^n \setminus \overline{B}(0,r))\) satisfies \(K_O(x,f_r) \leq C \log(|x|)\) for a.e. \(x \in\mathbb R^n \setminus \overline{B}(0,r)\), then \(B_f\) is either empty or unbounded. This result is essentially sharp. For continuous, open and discrete maps \(f\) the distortion assumption can be replaced by the condition that \(f\) extends continuously to \(\infty\). There is also a counterpart for a degree theory of rational functions in the plane: If \(f :(\mathbb R^n \setminus \{a_1, \, ... \, , \, a_k \}) \rightarrow\mathbb R^n\) is continuous, open, discrete and \(\lim_{x \rightarrow a_i} |f(x)| = \infty\) for each \(i\), then there is \(r_0> 0\) such that no continuous, open and discrete map \(g :(\mathbb R^n \setminus \{a_2, \, ... \, , \, a_k \}) \rightarrow\mathbb R^n\) with the same property as \(f\) at the points \(a_2, \, ... \, ,\, a_k\) coincides with \(f\) in \(\mathbb R^n \setminus B(a_1,r_0)\). The effect of the inner distortion instead of \(K_O(f)\) is also studied.