Lower bounds for contraction constants of non-zero degree mappings onto the sphere (Q5936475)

This paper studies contraction constants of non-zero degree mappings from compact spin Riemannian manifolds onto the Euclidean sphere. The main result of the paper is as follows: Let \((M,g)\) be a compact spin manifold of dimension \(n\) with metric \(g\) and scalar curvature \(\kappa\geq 1\). If \(f:(M,g)\to (S^n,g_0)\) is a non-zero degree \(\varepsilon\)-contracting mapping, then \(\varepsilon\geq 1/\sqrt{n(n-1)}\); in particular, \(\delta\geq 1/\sqrt{n(n-1)}\). Here \(\delta ={\text{sup}}\frac {||f_*v||}{||v||}\) where \(v\) runs through all non-zero tangent vectors to \(M\). Moreover, if \(\varepsilon =1/\sqrt{n(n-1)}\), then \(f\) is a dilation and \(M\equiv S^n_{\sqrt{n(n-1)}}\) (an \(n\)-sphere of radius \(\sqrt{n(n-1)}\)). The above result can be viewed as an extension of the result of \textit{M. Gromov} and \textit{H. B. Lawson jun.} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Etud. Sci. 58, 295-408 (1984; Zbl 0538.53047)].