PARTIAL ISOMETRIES OF A SUB-RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLD

Abstract: In this paper, we obtain the following generalisation of isometric

C^{1}

-immersion theorem of Nash and Kuiper. Let

M

be a smooth manifold of dimension

m

and

H

a rank

k

subbundle of the tangent bundle

T M

with a Riemannian metric

g_{H}

. Then the pair

(H, g_{H})

defines a sub-Riemannian structure on

M

. We call a

C^{1}

-map

f : (M, H, g_{H}) o (N, h)

into a Riemannian manifold

(N, h)

a {em partial isometry} if the derivative map

d f

restricted to

H

is isometric; in other words,

f^{*} h |_{H} = g_{H}

. The main result states that if

d i m N > k

then a smooth

H

-immersion

f_{0} : M o N

satisfying

f^{*} h |_{H} < g_{H}

can be homotoped to a partial isometry

f : (M, g_{H}) o (N, h)

which is

C^{0}

-close to

f_{0}

. In particular we prove that every sub-Riemannian manifold

(M, H, g_{H})

admits a partial isometry in

R^{n}

provided

n g e q m + k

.

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