Connecting rational homotopy type singularities (Q926021)

Let \((N,g)\) be a closed Riemannian manifold isometrically embedded in Euclidean space \(\mathbb R^ k\). For any \(m\in \mathbb N\) and \(p\geq 1\), the space of Sobolev maps is defined as \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^ m,N)=\{u\in L^{p}_{\text{loc}}(\mathbb R^ m,\mathbb R^ k);\;u(x)\in N,\;x\in \mathbb R^ m\}\). An important issue regarding the description of these nonlinear function spaces is the problem of the density in \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^ m,N)\). In case \(p>m\), any map in \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^ m,N)\) is continuous. In case \(p=m\), the continuity of a Sobolev map is no longer automatically true. Nevertheless, \(C^\infty (\mathbb R^ p, N)\) is still strongly dense in \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^ p,N)\). Also, any map \(u\in W^{1,p}(S^ p,N)\) admits a strong \(W^{1,p}\) approximation by maps in \(C^\infty(S^ p,N)\). In case \(p<m\), the strong \(W^{1,p}\)-density of \(C^\infty (\mathbb R^ p, N)\) in \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^ p,N)\) may fail. For a map \(u\in W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^{p+1},N)\), for each center \(c\in \mathbb R^ m\) and almost every radius \(r>0\), the restriction of \(u\) to the \(p\)-sphere \(\partial B(r,c)\) belongs to \(W^{1,p}(\partial B(r,c),N)\). Thus the map \(u_{c,r}: S^ p\to N\), \(u_{c,r}(x)=u(c+rx)\), gives a homotopy class in \(\pi_ p(N)\). The map \(u\) is strongly \(W^{1,p}\)-approximable by smooth maps if and only if the homotopy class of such a restriction \(u_{c,r}\) is zero for almost every \((c, r)\). In this paper, the authors describe how big the obstruction to strong approximability is for an arbitrary map in \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^{p+1},N)\). They prove that if \(N\) is a compact simply connected Riemannian manifold, \(p\in \{2, 3, \dots\}\), and \(z\) is an element of \(\text{Hom}(\pi_ p(N), \mathbb R)\), then there exist a non-negative integer \(n_ z\) and a positive constant \(C_ z\) such that for any map \(u\in W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^{p+1},N)\) which is the weak \(W^{1,p}\)-limit of a sequence of smooth maps, there exists a countable union \(\Gamma\) of \(C^ 1\)-curves with measurable orientation \(\vec{\Gamma}\) and a non-negative \({\mathcal H}^ 1\)-measurable multiplicity function \(\theta\) from \(\Gamma\) into \(z(\pi_ p(N))\) such that \[ \Phi_{z,u}(c,r)=z([u_{c,r}])= \sum\limits_{a\in\Gamma\cap\partial B(r,c)}\text{sgn}\left(\vec{\Gamma}(a)\cdot(a-c)\right)\theta(a) \] for almost every \((c,r)\in\mathbb R^{p+1}\times\mathbb R\).