Mapping \(\mathbb{B}^n\) into \(\mathbb{B}^{3n-3}\) (Q303517)

The study of rational holomorphic maps between unit balls (in different dimensions), and in particular their classification, has attracted much attention in recent years. This paper considers one of the limiting cases in a `gap theorem'. When \(N\in (2n, 3n-3)\) and \(n\geq 4\), any map \(F\in \mathrm{Rat}(\mathbb{B}^{n},\mathbb{B}^{N})\) is sperically equivalent to a map of the form \((G,0)\) with \(G\in \mathrm{Rat}(\mathbb{B}^{n},\mathbb{B}^{2n})\) (i.e., no new maps emerge as the target dimension increases towards the upper bound, whence the name `gap theorem'). Any map in \(\mathrm{Rat}(\mathbb{B}^{n},\mathbb{B}^{2n})\) is spherically equivalent to a map from the D'Angelo family (see (3) in Theorem 1.1 below). The authors now study \(\mathrm{Rat}(\mathbb{B}^{n},\mathbb{B}^{3n-3})\). Their main result is the following theorem. Theorem 1.1. Let \(F\in \mathrm{Rat}(\mathbb{B}^{n}, \mathbb{B}^{3n-3})\) with \(n\geq 4\). Then \(F\) is spherically equivalent to one of the following maps \(G\): (1) \(G(z) = (z, 0, \hdots,0)\). (2) \(G(z) = (z_{2}, z_{3}, \hdots, z_{1}^{2}, z_{1}z_{2}, \hdots, z_{1}z_{n}, 0, \hdots, 0)\) (the Whitney map). (3) \(G(z) = \sqrt{t}z_{1}, z_{2}, \hdots, z_{n}, \sqrt{1-t}z_{1}^{2}, \sqrt{1-t}z_{1}z_{2}, \hdots, \sqrt{1-t}z_{1}z_{n}, 0, \hdots, 0)\), where \(0<t<1\) (the D'Angelo maps). (4) \(G(z) = z_{3}, z_{4}, \hdots, z_{n}, z_{1}^{2}, z_{2}^{2}, \sqrt{2}z_{1}z_{2}, z_{1}z_{3}, \hdots, z_{1}z_{n}, z_{2}z_{3}, z_{2}z_{4}, \hdots, z_{2}z_{n})\) (a generalized Whitney map).