Quasiregular curves of small distortion in product manifolds (Q2091064)

The paper focuses on the stability in Liouville's theorem and in Reshetnyak's theorem for quasiregular curves of small distortion. Let \(M\) and \(N\) be Riemannian manifolds of dimensions \(n=\dim M\leq\dim N\). An \(n\)-form \(\omega\in\Omega^n(N)\) is a calibration of \(N\) if \(\omega\) is a non-vanishing closed \(n\)-form with \(\|\omega\|=1\), where, at \(p\in N\), \[ \|\omega_p\|=\max\{\omega_p(v_1,\dots,v_n):|v_1|\leq1,\dots,|v_n|\leq1\}. \] A continuous mapping \(F:M\to N\) in \(W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,n}(M,N)\), \(n=\text{dim}M\), is an \(\omega\)-calibrated curve for a calibration \(\omega\in\Omega^n(N)\) on \(N\) if \(\|DF\|^n=\star F^*\omega\) almost everywhere in \(M\), and \(\|DF\|\) is the operator norm of the differential and \(\star\) is the Hodge star operator. The first main theorem is a Liouville theorem for calibrated curves \(M\to N=N_1\times\dots\times N_k\). The manifold \(N\) carries a canonical \(n\)-form \[ \mathrm{vol}_N^{\times}=\sum_{i=1}^k\pi_i^*\mathrm{vol}_{N_i}\in\Omega^n(N), \] where each \(\mathrm{vol}_{N_i}\) is the Riemannian volume form of \(N_i\) and each \(\pi_i:N\to N_i\) is a projection \((p_1,\dots,p_k)\mapsto p_i\). Theorem 1.5. Let \(M\) be an oriented, connected Riemannian \(n\)-manifold, \(n\geq3\), and let \(N=N_1\times\dots\times N_k\) be a Riemannian product of oriented Riemannian \(n\)-manifolds. Then, for each non-constant \(\mathrm{vol}_N^{\times}\)-calibrated curve \(F=(f_1,\dots,f_k):M\to N\), there exists \(i_0\in\{1,\dots,k\}\) for which \newline (1) the coordinate map \(f_{i_0}:M\to N_{i_0}\) is a conformal map and \newline (2) for \(i\neq i_0\) the coordinate map \(f_i:M\to N_i\) is constant. Also, the authors show that quasiregular \(\mathrm{vol}_N^{\times}\)-curves \(M\to N\) of small distortion are local quasiconformal embeddings. These curves do not change their direction in the Grassmannian.