Scalar curvature and harmonic maps to \(S^1\) (Q2103550)

A harmonic map from a closed oriented Riemannian manifold \(M\) to \(S^1\) can be characterized by the harmonicity (in the Hodge sense) of its gradient one form. It minimizes the Dirichlet energy in its homotopy class and is unique up to isometries. The geometric idea behind this interesting paper is that every \((n-1)\)-homology class \(\alpha\in H_{n-1}(M,{\mathbb Z})\) is Poincaré-dual to a homotopy class of \(S^1\)-valued maps whose level-sets represent \(\alpha\). Area-minimizing hypersurfaces, which are distinguished representatives of classes like \(\alpha\), play a role in understanding scalar curvature. The author of the current paper raises the question if an \(S^1\)-valued harmonic map, representing the dual, may likewise provide an interesting link between scalar curvature and topology. The paper presents a first result towards that goal. Let \(M\) be a closed oriented \(3\)-manifold and \(u:M\to S^1\) a nontrivial harmonic maps. Let \(\Sigma_\theta\) be the level set \(u^{-1}\{\theta\}\), \(\chi(\Sigma_\theta)\) the sum of the Euler characteristics of its components. These sums are related to the scalar curvature of \(M\) by the formula \[ 2\pi\int_{S^1}\chi(\Sigma_\theta)\,d\theta\ge\frac12\int_{S^1}\int_{\Sigma_\theta}(|du|^{-2}|D^2u|^2+R_M)\,dA\,d\theta. \] An application of this formula relates Thurston norms to scalar curvature. Another application is a short proof of a rigidity result by Bray, Brendle, and Neves.