Smooth maps into quaternionic Grassmannians inducing a prescribed 4-form (Q2417655)

In a previous article [Geom. Funct. Anal. 14, No. 6, 1219--1237 (2004; Zbl 1072.57020)] the author proved that any closed differential $2i$-form $\omega$ on a manifold $M$ can be obtained as the pullback of a differential form $\sigma_i$ of degree $2i$ on a Grassmannian $G_k(\mathbb{C}^n)$ by a smooth map $f:M\rightarrow G_k(\mathbb{C}^n)$ (for sufficient large $n$ ) provided there is a continuous map $f_0:M\rightarrow G_k(\mathbb{C}^n)$ which pulls back the de Rham cohomology class of $\sigma_i$ onto that of $\omega$. In the present article the author generalizes this result for the quaternionic Grassmannians $G_k(\mathbb{H}^n)$, in the sense that there are certain 4-forms on $G_k(\mathbb{H}^n)$ which also have similar universal property. The main result is the following theorem. Theorem 1.1. Let $M$ be a closed mainfold of dimension $m$ and let $\sigma$ be a closed 4-form on it. Suppose there exists a continuous map $f_0:M\rightarrow G_k(\mathbb{H}^n)$ which pulls the de Rham cohomology class of the first symplectic Pontrjagin form $p$ onto that of $\sigma$. Then there exists a smooth map $f:M\rightarrow G_k(\mathbb{H}^n)$ such that $f^\ast p=\sigma$, provided $k\geq m\geq_0+\frac{m(m+1)}{4}$ and $n\geq k(m+1)(4mk^2+2mk+1)$ where $m_0=[(m+1)/4]-1$. An equivalent form of Theorem 1.1 is the following: Theorem 1.2. Let $P$ be a $\mathrm{Sp}(k)$-bundle over a closed manifold $M$ of dimension $m$. Then given a 4-form $\sigma$ representing the first symplectic Pontrjagin class of $P$, there is a connection $\alpha$ on $P$ such that the symplectic Pontrjagin form of $\alpha$ is $\sigma$, provided $k\geq m_0+\frac{m(m+1)}{4}$ where $m_0=[(m+1)/4]-1$. And finally the following stronger result is given: Theorem 1.3. Let $P_0\rightarrow M$ be a principal $\mathrm{Sp}(k_0)$-bundle over a closed manifold $M$ and $\omega_0$ a connection on $P_0$. Given any differential 3-form $\tau$ on $M$, there exists a connection $\omega$ on the trivial $\mathrm{Sp}(k)$-bundle $P$ such that the secondary characteristic form of the pair $(\omega_0\oplus 0,\omega_0\oplus \omega)$ on $P_0\oplus P$ is congruent to $\tau$ modulo an exact 3-form when $k\geq\frac{m(m+1)}{4}$. The section of preliminaries contains references and explanations for universal connections on Stiefel bundles, symplectic Pontrjagin classes and secondary characteristic forms. Then a consistent section refers to the decomposition of 4-forms into sums of squares, used in the last section for the proof of Theorem 1.3. For the proof of the other two theorems only some indications are given in connection with two previous articles of the author: [loc. cit.] and [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 355, No. 9, 3813--3824 (2003; Zbl 1043.53021)].