Topology of Sobolev mappings (Q5946659)

This is an exposition of results to appear in part II of this article series [\textit{F.-B. Hang} and \textit{F.-H. Lin}, Acta Math. 191, 55--107 (2003; Zbl 1061.46032); for part III, see Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 56, 1383--1415 (2003; Zbl 1038.46026)]. Let \(M\) be a compact smooth Riemannian manifold with or without boundary and \(N\) be a compact smooth Riemannian manifold without boundary. The authors assume that \(M\) and \(N\) are connected and that \(N\) is isometrically embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^l\) for some large \(l\). They consider the Sobolev space \[ W^{1,p}(M, N) = \{ u \in W^{1,p}(M, \mathbb{R}^l): u \in N \text{ a.e.}\}. \] and the associated weak and strong sequential closures of the \(C^{\infty}(M,N)\) functions, \(H^{1,p}_S(M, N)\), \(H^{1,p}_W(M, N)\). It is clear that \[ H^{1,p}_S(M, N) \subseteq H^{1,p}_W(M, N) \subseteq W^{1,p}(M, N). \] Cases of inequality and equality for special choices of \(M\) and \(N\) are known. Recently, \textit{H. Brezis} and \textit{Y.-Y. Li} [J. Funct. Anal. 183, 321--369 (2001; Zbl 1001.46019)] initiated the study of path connectedness of \(W^{1,p}(M,N)\), proving some results and posing several open problems. The authors of the paper under review undertake to prove some such results. First let us suppose \(\partial M = \emptyset\) (there are also results for manifolds with boundary, which will not be described here). If \(1 \leq p < \dim M\), two maps \(u,v \in W^{1,p}(M,N)\) are \([p] -1\) homotopic if for a generic \([p] -1\) skeleton \(M^{[p] -1}\) of \(M\), \(u| _{M^{[p] -1}}\) and \(v| _{M^{[p] -1}}\) are homotopic. For any \(1 \leq p < \infty, u \sim_p v\) for \(u,v \in W^{1,p}(M, N)\) if one may find a continuous path in \(W^{1,p}(M, N)\) connecting \(u\) and \(v\). They prove that if \(1 \leq p < \dim M\), where \(M\) and \(N\) are compact connected Riemannian manifolds without boundary, then for any \(u, v \in W^{1,p}(M, N), u \sim_p v \Leftrightarrow u \;\text{and} \;v \;\text{are} \;[p] -1 \;\text{homotopic}\). Under the same conditions on \(M, N\), they show that given a \(u \in W^{1,p}(M, N), u\) can be connected to a smooth map by a continuous path in \(W^{1,p}(M, N)\) if and only if for any generic \([p] -1\) skeleton \(M^{[p] -1}, u| _{M^{[p] -1}}\) has a continuous extension to \(M\). The latter condition is also necessary for \(u\) to be in \(H^{1,p}_W(M, N)\). They conjecture that the condition should also be sufficient for \(u\) to be in \(H^{1,p}_W(M, N)\). Their third main result (various corollaries are also deduced) concerns the strong density of smooth maps in \(W^{1,p}(M, N)\). Once again, \(1 \leq p < \dim M\), where \(M\) and \(N\) are compact connected Riemannian manifolds without boundary, and now \(u \in H^{1,p}_S(M, N)\). If \( p \notin \mathbb{Z}\), for any generic \([p]\) skeleton \(M^{[p]}, u| _{M^{[p]}}\) has a continuous extension to \(M\). If \(p \in \mathbb{Z}\), we have for any generic \(p\) skeleton \(M^p, u| _{M^p}\) could be approximated in \(W^{1,p}(M^p, N)\) by a sequence of Lipschitz maps \(f_j \in \text{Lip}(M^p, N)\), where the \(f_j\) has a continuous extension to \(M\). Sketches of the proofs of the main results are given.