Rectifiability and Minkowski bounds for the zero loci of \(\mathbb{Z}/2\) harmonic spinors in dimension \(4\) (Q6101610)

Let \(X\) be a Riemannian four-manifold. Let \(\mathcal{V}\) be a Clifford bundle over \(X\). This means that \(\mathcal{V}\) is a unitary vector bundle equipped with a Clifford structure \(\rho\in \mathrm{Hom}(TX,\mathrm{Hom}(\mathcal{V},\mathcal{V}))\) such that \(\rho^{2}(e)=-\Vert e\Vert^{2}\cdot \mathrm{Id}\) and \(\Vert\rho(e)(u)\Vert=\Vert e\Vert \cdot\Vert u\Vert\) for every \(e\in T_{p}X\) and \(u\in\mathcal{V}|_{p}\). The Dirac operator on \(\mathcal{V}\) is defined by \[ D(u)=\sum_{i=1}^{4}\rho(e_{i})\cdot \nabla_{e_{i}}u. \] Let $Q$ be a natural number and let $E$ be a vector space. Define \(\mathcal{A}_{Q}(E)\) to be the set of unordered $Q$-tuples of points in $E$. Given a collection \(P_{1},\dots,P_{Q}\) of points in $E$, we denote the corresponding $Q$-tuple in \(\mathcal{A}_{Q}(E)\) by \(\sum_{i=1}^{Q}[[P_{i}]]\). If \(E\) is endowed with a Euclidean metric, one can define a metric on \(\mathcal{A}_{Q}(E)\) by \[ \mathrm{dist}\left(\sum_{i}[[P_{i}]],\sum_{j}[[S_{j}]]\right)=\min_{\sigma\in\mathcal{P}_{Q}}\sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^{Q}\vert P_{i}-S_{\sigma(i)}\vert^{2}}, \] where \(\mathcal{P}_{Q}\) is the permutation group of a set of $Q$ elements. Given \(T\in\mathcal{A}_{Q}(E)\), define the norm \(\vert T\vert=\mathrm{dist}(T,Q[[0]])\), where \(Q[[0]]\) is the $Q$-tuple associated to the $Q$-collection \(0,\overset{Q}{\dots},0\). A map from $X$ is called a $Q$-valued section of \(\mathcal{V}\) if it maps every \(x\in X\) to an element of \(\mathcal{A}_{Q}(\mathcal{V}|_{x})\). A $Q$-valued section is called continuous if it is continuous under local trivializations of \(\mathcal{V}\). Let $U$ be a continuous 2-valued section of \(\mathcal{V}\). Then $U$ is called a \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinor if the following conditions hold: (1) $U$ is not identically \(2[[0]]\); (2) Let \(Z\subset U\), where $U=2[[0]]$. For every \(x\in (X - Z)\), there exists a neighborhood of $x$ such that, on this neighborhood, $U$ can be written as $U=[[u]]+[[-u]]$; where u is a smooth section of \(\mathcal{V}\) satisfying $D(u)=0$; (3) Near a point \(x\in (X - Z)\), write $U$ as $[[u]] + [[-u]]$, then the function \(\nabla u\) is a well defined smooth function on $(X-Z)$. The section $U$ satisfies \[ \int_{X-Z}\vert\nabla u\vert^{2}dx<\infty. \] For \(x\in X\) and \(r>0\), let \(B_{x}(r)\subset X\) be the closed ball of radius $r$ centered at $x$. The following additional assumption on $U$ is assumed along the article. Assumption A. There exists a constant \(\epsilon>0\) such that the following holds: for every \(x\in X\) with $U(x)=2[[0]]$, there exist constants $C$, \(r_{0}>0\), depending on \(x\), such that \[ \int_{B_{x}(r)}\vert U(y)\vert^{2}\,dy<Cr^{4+\epsilon},\text{ for every }r\in (0,r_{0}). \] Assume $U$ is a \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinor, and let $Z$ be the set of $U$ where $U=2[[0]]$. \textit{C. Taubes} [``The zero loci of \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinors in dimension 2, 3 and 4'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1407.6206}] proved the following theorem: Theorem. If $U$ satisfies Assumption A, then the Hausdorff dimension of $Z$ is at most 2. The main theorem of the present paper improves Taubes' theorem as follows. Theorem. If $U$ satisfies Assumption A, then $Z$ is a 2-rectifiable set. Moreover, for every compact subset \(A\subset X\), there exist constants $C$ and \(r_{0}\) depending on $A$ and $Z$, such that for every \(r<r_{0}0\) \[ \mathrm{Vol}\big(x: \mathrm{dist}(x,A \cap Z) < r\big)< Cr^{2}. \] It follows from the main theorem that $Z$ is a 2-rectifiable set with locally finite 2-dimensional Minkowski content. The Minkowski content controls the Hausdorff measure, therefore, the theorem implies that $Z$ has locally finite 2-dimensional Hausdorff measure. \textit{C. Taubes} [loc. cit.] defined and studied the zero loci of \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinors on three- and two-dimensional manifolds. Since every \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinors on a 3-manifold \(Y\) with zero locus \(Z\) induces an \(\mathbb{R}\)-invariant \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinors on \(\mathbb{R}\times Y\) with zero locus \(\mathbb{R}\times Z\), the main theorem implies that the zero locus of a \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinor on a 3-manifold is 1-rectifiable and has locally finite Minkowski content. A further dimension reduction argument implies that the zero locus of a \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\)-harmonic spinor on a 2-manifold is locally a finite set of points, which was known from [\textit{C. Taubes}, loc. cit.].