Scalar curvature and harmonic maps to S¹

Abstract: For a harmonic map

u : M^{3} o S^{1}

on a closed, oriented

3

--manifold, we establish the identity

2pi int_{ hetain S^1}chi(Sigma_{ heta})geq frac{1}{2}int_{ hetain S^1}int_{Sigma_{ heta}}(|du|^{-2}|Hess(u)|^2+R_M)

relating the scalar curvature

R_{M}

of

M

to the average Euler characteristic of the level sets

S i g m a_{h e t a} = u^{- 1} h e t a

. As our primary application, we extend the Kronheimer--Mrowka characterization of the Thurston norm on

H_{2} (M; m a t h b b Z)

in terms of

| R_{M}^{-} |_{L^{2}}

and the harmonic norm to any closed

3

--manifold containing no nonseparating spheres. Additional corollaries include the Bray--Brendle--Neves rigidity theorem for the systolic inequality

(m i n R_{M}) s y s_{2} (M) l e q 8 p i

, and the well--known result of Schoen and Yau that

T^{3}

admits no metric of positive scalar curvature.

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