Stable systoles of higher rank in Riemannian manifolds (Q6137570)

Let \(M\) be a smooth compact orientable manifold of dimension \(n\). A Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(M\) induces an associated stable mass norm \(\|.\|\) on the real homology groups \(H_p(M,\mathbb{R})\). Integral homology gives for each \(p\) a lattice in this normed vector space. The volume of the Jacobian variety \(J_p = H_p(M,\mathbb{R})/H_p(M, \mathbb{Z})_\mathbb{R}\) with the (Finsler) metric induced from the stable norm gives an additional invariant. The author uses the Busemann-Hausdorff measure to define the volume of \(J_p\) as well as the higher rank systoles of a Riemannian manifold. Definition. For any integer \(k\) between 1 and the \(p\)-th Betti number \(b_p\) of \(M\), the \(p\)-dimensional stable systole of rank \(k\) is defined to be \(\mathrm{stsys}_{p,k}(M, g) = \triangle(H_p(M, \mathbb{Z})_\mathbb{R}, \|.\|)\), where $\Delta$ of a lattice \(\Lambda\subset V\) is the infimum of the volumes of \(V^\prime/\Lambda^\prime)\) over all rank \(k\) sublattices \(\Lambda^\prime=\Lambda\cap V^\prime\) with \(\mathrm{dim}(V^\prime)=k\). This definition generalizes the usual definition of \(p\)-dimensional stable systole \(\mathrm{stsys}_p(M, g)\). (\(\mathrm{stsys}_{p,1}(M, g)\) is the ordinary stable \(p\)-th systole, and \(\mathrm{stsys}_{p,b_p} (M, g)\) is the Hausdorff-Busemann volume of \(J_p\)). The author proves several inequalities involving these higher rank systoles: Theorem. Let \((M, g)\) be a compact oriented manifold of dimension \(n\) whose first Betti number is \(b\). Then \[\mathrm{stsys}_{1,b}(M, g) \mathrm{stsys}_{n-1,b}(M, g) \leq \,\mathrm{Vol}(M, g),\] and equality holds if and only if there exists a Riemannian submersion of \(M\) onto a flat torus of dimension \(b\) with connected minimal fibers. The author proves a generalization of this result. Theorem. Let \((M, g)\) be a compact oriented manifold of dimension \(n\) whose first Betti number is \(b\). Then, for each \(1\leq k\leq b\) we have \[ \mathrm{stsys}_{1,k}(M, g) \mathrm{stsys}_{n-1,k}(M, g) \leq (\gamma ^{\prime}_{b,k})^ {\frac{1}{k}}\mathrm{Vol}(M, g),\] and equality holds if and only if there exists a Riemannian submersion with connected minimal fibers from \(M\) onto a flat \(b\)-dimensional torus \(\mathbb{R}^b/\triangle\) such that \(\triangle\) is dual \(k\)-critical. In Section 6 the author computes the 2-dimensional systole of rank 6 in flat 4-dimensional tori and proves a new inequality for conformally flat metrics on the 4-dimensional torus: Theorem. Let \((M, g)\) be a conformally flat \(4\)-dimensional torus. Then \[\mathrm{stsys}_{2,6}(M, g)^2 \leq \left(\frac {3\pi }{4}\right)^{\frac{1}{3} }\mathrm{Vol}(M, g),\] and equality holds if and only if \((M, g)\) is flat. In the appendix, the author proves a result needed in Section 5