New examples of Lagrangian rigidity (Q5951513)

Let \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) be the Euclidean scalar product on \(\mathbb{C}^n\cong\mathbb{R}^{2n}\), \(J\) the canonical complex structure and \(M^n\) a closed, connected, oriented, \(n\)-manifold. An embedding \(j:M^n\to \mathbb{C}^n\) is called totally real (resp. Lagrangian) if \(T_{j(p)}j(M^n)\oplus J'T_{j(p)}j(M^n)=\mathbb{C}^n\) [resp. \(JT_{j(p)}j(M^n)=T^{\perp}_{j(p)}j(M^n)\)] for every \(p\in M^n\). Every manifold admitting a totally real embedding has necessarily a zero Euler-Poincaré characteristic, so that there exists a nowhere vanishing vector field \(v\) on \(M^n\). Given a totally real embedding \(j:M^n\to \mathbb{C}^n\) and a nowhere vanishing vector field \(v\) on \(M^n\), one can build a cohomology class \(\sigma_{n-1}(j,v)\in H^{n-1}(M^n,\mathbb{Z})\) called the linking class of \(j\) associated to \(v\) [see the author, Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 17, 371-384 (1999; Zbl 0939.37034)]. Let \(S^n\) be the unit \(n\)-sphere. Combining results of Gromov-Lees [see \textit{J. A. Lees}, Duke Math. J. 43, 217-224 (1976; Zbl 0329.58006)] and \textit{M. Audin} [Comment. Math. Helv. 63, 593-623 (1988; Zbl 0666.57024)] it follows that the product manifold \(S^1\times S^3\) (resp. \(S^1\times S^7\)) admits a Lagrangian embedding into \(\mathbb{C}^4\) (resp. \(\mathbb{C}^8\)). The author proves the following rigidity result: If \(n=4\) or \(8\), \(j:S^1\times S^{n-1}\to \mathbb{C}^n\) is a Lagrangian embedding and \(v\) a nonvanishing vector field on \(S^1\times S^{n-1}\) tangent to the factor \(S^1\), then \(\sigma_{n-1}(j,v)=0\). The proof is based on techniques developed by \textit{Y. Eliashberg} and \textit{L. Polterovich} [Comment. Math. Helv. 69, 512-522 (1994; Zbl 0853.57012)]. One deduces that there exist two Lagrangian embeddings of \(S^1\times S^3\) into \(\mathbb{C}^4\) such that the images of these maps are not isotopic in \(\mathbb{C}^4\) as nonparameterized submanifolds and that every embedding of \(S^1\times S^3\) into \(\mathbb{C}^4\) is isotopic to a Lagrangian embedding. These last two results are false if \(n=8\).