Topology of Sobolev mappings. IV (Q2574720)

This paper is a sequel to the same authors' series [Math.\ Res.\ Lett.\ 8, No.~3, 321--330 (2001; Zbl 1049.46018), Acta Math.\ 191, No.~1, 55--107 (2003; Zbl 1061.46032), Commun.\ Pure Appl.\ Math.\ 56, No.~10, 1383--1415 (2003; Zbl 1038.46026)]. The main purpose of the present paper is to classify the path connected components of spaces of Sobolev maps between manifolds and to study the strong and weak density of smooth maps in the space of Sobolev mappings for the case when the domain manifold has nonempty boundary, as well as Dirichlet problems. The authors emphasize those analytical techniques different from the non-boundary cases. These techniques command their own interest in variational problems for mappings between manifolds.