Uniqueness of volume-minimizing submanifolds calibrated by the first Pontryagin form (Q2731945)

\textit{R. Harvey} and \textit{H. B. Lawson} [Acta Math. 148, 47-157 (1982; Zbl 0584.53021)] suggested to use certain natural differential forms as calibrations in order to determine closed subvarieties of Grassmannians which are volume-minimizing in their respective homology classes. In the paper under review the authors prove that given any \(p_1\)-calibrated oriented 4-plane \(V_g\) in \(T_pG_k(R^{k+n}) \), where \(p_1\) is the first Pontryagin form, there exists a unique maximal connected \(p_1\)-calibrated submanifold in \(G_k(R^{k+n})\) containing \(p\) and tangent to \(V_g\); any connected \(p_1\)-calibrated submanifold lies in a maximal one. From this follows the global uniqueness result: any two maximal connected \(p_1\)-calibrated submanifolds of \(G_k(R^ {k+n})\) are congruent under the ambient isometry group.