Stability of submanifolds with parallel mean curvature in calibrated manifolds (Q611925)

Immersed hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature are known to be critical points of the area functional for all variations with compact supports that leave a certain enclosed volume invariant, [see \textit{J. L.~Barbosa} and \textit{M. P.~do~Carmo}, Math. Z. 173, 13--28 (1980; Zbl 0417.53033); \textit{J. L.~Barbosa, M. P.~do Carmo} and \textit{J. H.~Eschenburg}, Math. Z. 197, No.~1, 123--138 (1988; Zbl 0653.53045); \textit{M.~Ritore} and \textit{A.~Ros}, Comment. Math. Helv. 67, No.~2, 293--305 (1992; Zbl 0760.53037)]. The author asks if somehow one can extend these variational properties to higher codimension submanifolds of Riemannian manifolds. It is suggested to consider an (\(n+m\))-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(\tilde M\) provided with a \textsl{pre-calibration \(\Omega\) of rank \(m+1\)}. Then, given an \(m\)-dimensional submanifold \(M\to \tilde M\), for an arbitrary variation \(\phi: [-\varepsilon,\varepsilon]\times D \to \tilde M\) fixing the boundary of a compact domain \(D\subset M\) one can define the ``enclosed volume'', as \(V_D(t)=\int_{[0,t]\times D}\phi^\star\, \Omega\). The main result states that \(M\) has a constant mean curvature \(| H|\) iff it is a critical point of the area functional for variations that preserve the enclosed \(\Omega\)-volume, provided that \(M\) has calibrated extended tangent space, i.e. there exist a unit normal vector field \(\nu\) such that \(H=| H| \nu\) and \(\mathbb R\nu\oplus TM\) is an \(\Omega\)-calibrated vector bundle. This recovers results from [\textit{J. L.~Barbosa, M. P.~do Carmo} and \textit{J. H.~Eschenburg}, Math. Z. 197, No.~1, 123--138 (1988; Zbl 0653.53045)] for \(n=1\), when \(\Omega\) is the volume element of \(\tilde M\). Moreover, the author derives the second variation formula, associates an \(\Omega\)-Jacobi operator, defines the notion of \(\Omega\)-stability and analyzes \(\Omega\)-stable submanifolds. For instance, it is shown under some natural conditions that the Euclidean \(m\)-spheres are the unique \(\Omega\)-stable submanifolds of \(E^{n+m}\); the \(\Omega\)-stability of geodesic \(m\)-spheres of a fibred space form \(\tilde M\) with totally geodesic (\(m+1\))-dimensional fibres is studied too.