Approximation by continuous rational maps into spheres (Q466904)

The paper is devoted to the approximation of continuous maps of nonsingular compact algebraic sets into a sphere by continuous rational maps. Let \(X\subset \mathbb{R}^k\) and \(Y\subset \mathbb{R}^l\) be nonsingular algebraic sets and let \(X\) be compact. A map \(f:X\to Y\) is said to be \textit{continuous rational} if it is continuous and there exist a Zariski open and dense subset \(U\) of \(X\) and a regular map \(\varphi:U\to Y\) such that \(f|_U=\varphi\). Denote by \(P(f)\) the indeterminacy locus of the rational map from \(X\) into \(Y\) represented by \(\varphi\). It is called the \textit{irregularity locus} of \(f\). Maps with \(f(P(f))\neq Y\) are said to be \textit{nice}. The set of all continuous rational maps from \(X\) to \(Y\) is denoted by \(\mathcal{R}^0(X,Y)\). The space \(\mathcal{C}(X,Y)\) of all continuous maps from \(X\) into \(Y\) is endowed with the compact-open topology. By definition, a continuous map from \(X\) into \(Y\) can be \textit{approximated by continuous rational maps} if it belongs to the closure of \(\mathcal{R}^0(X,Y)\) in \(\mathcal{C}(X,Y)\). A continuous map \(h:X\to Y\) is said to be \textit{transverse to a point} \(y\in Y\) if it is smooth in an open neighbourhood \(U\subset X\) of \(h^{-1}(y)\) and the restriction map \(h|_U:U\to Y\) is transverse to \(y\) in the usual sense. If \(h\) is transverse to some point \(y\in Y\) and \(h^{-1}(y)=\text{Reg}(V)\) for some algebraic subset \(V\) of \(X\), then \(h\) is said to be \textit{adapted}. The map \(h:X\to Y\) is said to be \textit{weakly adapted} if there exists a point \(y\in Y\) such that \(h\) is transverse to \(y\) and the submanifold \(h^{-1}(y)\) of \(X\) admits a weak algebraic approximation in \(X\), i.e., each neighbourhood of the inclusion map \(M \hookrightarrow X\) in the space \(\mathcal{C}^{\infty}(h^{-1}(y),X)\) contains a smooth embedding \(e:h^{-1}(y)\to X\) with \(e(h^{-1}(y))=\text{Reg}(V)\) for some algebraic subset \(V\) of \(X\). The main result of this article is the following theorem. Theorem 1.2. For a continuous map \(h:X\to \mathbb{S}^p\), where \(\mathbb{S}^p=\{(u_1,\ldots,\) \(u_{p+1})\in\mathbb{R}^{p+1}:u^2_1+\cdots+u^2_{p+1}=1\}\) is the unit sphere, the following conditions are equivalent: (a) \(h\) can be approximated by nice continuous rational maps with irregularity locus of dimension at most \(\dim X-p\). (b) \(h\) can be approximated by nice continuous rational maps. (c) \(h\) can be approximated by adapted continuous maps. (d) \(h\) can be approximated by adapted smooth maps. (e) \(h\) can be approximated by weakly adapted continuous maps. (f) \(h\) can be approximated by weakly adapted smooth maps. As corollaries, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for a continuous map to be approximable by continuous rational maps. In particular the author proves Theorem 1.5 asserting that each continuous map between unit spheres can be approximated by continuous rational maps.