Simons-type equation for \(f\)-minimal hypersurfaces and applications (Q253836)

The authors prove a Simons-type equation for immersed \(f\)-minimal hypersurfaces in a smooth metric measure space \((M, \bar g, e^{-f} d \mu)\), that is an identity involving the weighted Laplacian \(\Delta_f\) of the squared norm \(| A|^2\) of the second fundamental form of the immersion (Theorem 3). An immersion \(\Sigma\) with a globally defined Gauss map \(\nu\) is called \(f\)-minimal if the weighted mean curvature \(H_f := H - \left<\overline{\nabla} f, \nu \right>\) vanishes identically. The authors apply the obtained equation to study closed \(f\)-minimal hypersurfaces \(\Sigma\) in the product manifold \(\mathbb S^n \left(\sqrt{2(n - 1)}\right) \times \mathbb R\), \(\bar g = g_{\mathbb S^n \left(\sqrt{2(n - 1)}\right)} + dt^2\), with \(f=t^2/4\). Particularly, as one of the main results, they prove (Theorem 1) that if the second fundamental form of \(\Sigma\) is pinched, i.e., satisfies \[ \frac{1}{4} \left(1 - \sqrt{1 - \frac{8}{n-1} \alpha^2 (1 - \alpha^2)}\right) \leqslant | A|^2 \leqslant \frac{1}{4} \left(1 + \sqrt{1 - \frac{8}{n-1} \alpha^2 (1 - \alpha^2)}\right), \] with \(\alpha = \left<\nu, {\partial}/{\partial t}\right>\), and \(\nu\) being the outward unit normal to \(\Sigma\), then \(\Sigma\) is necessarily a zero slice \(\mathbb S^n \left(\sqrt{2(n - 1)}\right) \times \{0\}\). The second main result which is derived from the proved Simons-type formula states that the \(L_f\)-index of \(\Sigma\) is at least 1, and equals 1 if and only if \(\Sigma\) is a zero slice (Theorem 2). Here the \(L_f\)-index of \(\Sigma\) is defined as the supremum over compact domains \(\Omega\) of \(\Sigma\) of the number of negative eigenvalues of the Dirichlet problem \(L_f u = -\lambda u\), \(u \in \Omega\), \(u |_{\partial \Omega} = 0\), and the (volume stability) operator \(L_f\) is given by \(L_f := \Delta_f + | A|^2 + \overline{\mathrm{Ric}}_f (\nu, \nu)\).