Variational formulas for submanifolds of fixed degree (Q2240696)

In this article, the authors investigate the critical points of an area functional for submanifolds of fixed degree immersed into a graded manifold equipped with a Riemannian metric. Given a submanifold of degree \(d\) immersed into a graded manifold, the authors define the area of degree \(d\) for such submanifold. This is done as a limit of Riemannian areas. Since the expression of this area depends on the degree, not all variations are admissible. The authors prove that the associated variational vector fields must satisfy a system of partial differential equations of first order on the submanifold. Given a vector field solution of this system, the authors provide a sufficient regularity condition that guarantees the possibility of deforming the original submanifold by variations preserving its degree. As in the case of singular curves in sub-Riemannian geometry, the authors show that there are examples of isolated surfaces that cannot be deformed in any direction. Consequently the authors focus on smooth submanifolds of fixed degree and admissible variations which preserve the degree. When the deformability condition holds, they compute the Euler-Lagrange equations. It is remarkable that the resulting mean curvature operator can be of third order.