Critical-exponent Sobolev norms and the slice theorem for the quotient space of connections. (Q700581)

In a series of papers, \textit{C. H. Taubes} [see, for instance, Invent. Math. 94, No. 2, 327--402 (1988; Zbl 0665.58006)] used certain ``critical-exponent'' Sobolev norms to solve the anti-self-dual and related nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations. The estimates obtained using these critical-exponent norms are the best possible when one needs to bound the norm of a Green's operator for a Laplacian, depending on a connection varying in a non-compact family, in terms of minimal data such as the first positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian or the \(L^2\) norm of the curvature of the connection. In the paper under review, following Taubes, the author describes a collection of critical-exponent Sobolev norms and investigates their embeddings and multiplication properties. The general Green's operator estimates depending only on first positive eigenvalues or the \(L^2\) norm of the connection's curvature are obtained. The main purpose of the present article is to prove a global analogue of \textit{K. K. Uhlenbeck's} local Coulomb gauge-fixing theorem [Commun. Math. Phys. 83, 31--42 (1982; Zbl 0499.58019)] and a corresponding slice theorem for the quotient space of connections. The result is optimal in the sense that if a point \([A]\) in the quotient space is \(L^2_1\)-close enough to a reference point \([A_0]\), then \(A\) can be placed in Coulomb gauge relative to \(A_0\), with all constants depending at most on the first positive eigenvalue of the covariant Laplacian defined by \(A_0\) and the \(L^2\) norm of the curvature of \(A_0\). For simplicity, the author considers only connections over 4-dimensional manifolds, but the methods and results can be adapted to the case of manifolds with arbitrary dimensions.