Topology and Sobolev spaces (Q5944124)

Let two compact connected oriented smooth Riemannian manifolds \(M\) and \(N\) (with or without boundary) be given. It is supposed that \(\dim M\geq 2\); the example \(N=S^1\) is of importance. Let \(W^{1,p}(M,N)\) be the Sobolev space of functions \(u\in W^{1,p} (M,\mathbb{R}^k)\) with \(u(x)\in N\) a.e. First it is proved thatNEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE1) if \(p\geq\dim M\) then \(W^{1,p}(M,N)\) is path-connected if and only if \(C^0(M,N)\) is path-connected, andNEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE2) if \(1\leq p<2\) then \(W^{1,p}(M,N)\) is path-connected.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINENext the following conjecture 1 is formulated: if \(u\in W^{1,p}(M,N)\) (any \(1\leq p<\infty\), any \(M\) and \(N)\) then there exist \(v\in C^\infty (M,N)\) and a path \(u'EC([0,1], W^{1,p} (M,N))\) such that \(u^0=u\), and \(u^1=v\). It is proved that:NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE3) if \(\dim M=3\) and \(\partial M \neq 0\) (any \(N\) and \(p)\), then conjecture 1 holds, andNEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE4) if \(N=S^1\) (any \(M\) and \(p)\), then conjecture 1 holds also.