Approximations of Lipschitz maps via Ehresmann fibrations and Reeb's sphere theorem for Lipschitz functions (Q2134217)

A smooth map \(f \colon M \to N\) of smooth manifolds is called an Ehresmann fibration if for each \(x \in N\) there exist an open neighborhood \(U_x\) of \(x\) and a diffeomorphism \(g \colon f^{-1}(U_x) \to U_x \times f^{-1}(x)\) such that \(\pi \circ g \colon f^{-1}(U_x) \to U_x,\) where \(\pi \colon U_x \times f^{-1}(x) \to U_x\) is the natural projection, is equal to the restriction \(f |_{f^{-1}(U_x)}.\) The main result. Let \(F \colon M \to N\) be a Lipschitz map from a compact Riemannian manifold \(M\) to a connected compact Riemannian manifold \(N,\) where \(\dim M \geq \dim N.\) If \(F\) has no singular points on \(M\) in the sense of Clarke, then \(F\) may be approximated by Ehresmann fibrations. As a corollary, the following assertion is obtained. If a closed Riemannian manifold admits a Lipschitz function with exactly two singular points in the sense of Clarke, then this manifold is homeomorphic to the sphere.