Inequalities of Simons type and gaps for Yang-Mills fields (Q500369)

The aim of the article is to derive an inequality of Simons type for Yang-Mills fields. The setup is the following: Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold and consider the Yang-Mills functional \[ S(\nabla)=\frac{1}{2}\int_M|R^\nabla|^2, \] where \(R^\nabla\in\Omega^2(\mathfrak g_E)\) denotes the corresponding curvature operator. A critical point of \(S(\nabla)\) is called a Yang-Mills connection and satisfies \(\delta^\nabla R^\nabla=0\). For \(\dim M\geq 3\) and \(C\geq\lambda\), where \(C\) is a constant depending on geometric data of \(M\), it is shown that each Yang-Mills connection satisfies \[ \int_M|\nabla R^\nabla|^2\leq\int_M\big(\frac{4(n-2)}{\sqrt{n(n-1)}}|R^\nabla|-\lambda\big)|R^\nabla|^2. \] Moreover, for \(n\geq 5\) equality holds if and only if \(R^\nabla=0\). As an application of the inequality a gap property is proven. In addition, the main result reproves an estimate from \textit{J.-P. Bourguignon} and \textit{H. B. Lawson jun.} [Commun. Math. Phys. 79, 189--230 (1981; Zbl 0475.53060)] for Yang-Mills connections over \(S^n\) with \(n\geq 5\).