V.I. Arnold's conjecture on avoidance of intersection, Hausdorff codimension, and a structure theorem for finite index maps (Q509736)

The article deals with smooth finite index maps between Hilbert spaces. The main results are concerned with the description of the images for such operators and the avoidance of intersection problems. The article consists of six sections. Section 1, \textsc{Introduction}, presents the description of the problems under consideration and some history of these problems. In Section 2, \textsc{Linear maps, differentiable maps, Hausdorff measure, Hausdorff codimension, structure theorem}, the main notions used in this article are clarified. Among them it is offered a new definition of Hausdorff codimension of sets (\(H\)-\text{codim}) playing a fundamental role in the authors' arguments. Section 3, \textsc{Hausdorff codimension}, is devoted to the general properties of the Hausdorff codimension. The main aim of Section 4, \textsc{Proof of structure theorem}, is the following. Structure theorem: Suppose that \(F:\;X \to H\) is \(r \geq 1\) times continuously differentiable with finite index between Hilbert spaces, \(\ell = \min\limits_{x \in X}\;\text{codim}\, R_{df(x)}\) and \(A = \{x \in X:\;\text{codim}\, R_{df(x)}\} = \ell\). Then \(f(X) = f(A) \cup f(A')\), where \(f(A)\) is a nonempty countable union of \(\ell\)-codimensiomal \(C^r\) submanifolds \(S_l \subset H\) with \(H\text{-codim}\, \bigg(\bigcup\limits_{i=1}^m A_l\bigg) = \ell\) for any \(m\), and if \(r > 1 + \text{ind}\, f \, (l + 1)^{-1}\), then \(f(A')\) is a countable union of closed subsets \(B_l\) of \(H\) with \(H\text{-codim}\, (B_l) \geq \ell + 1 - (\ell + 1 + \text{ind}\, f) \, \dfrac1r\). Section 5, \textsc{Avoidance of intersection}, presents five avoidance of intersection theorems. In particular, the authors prove the following one: Let \(u: [0,1] \to H\) be regular non-closed curve. Then there is in \(H\) a neighborhood \(U\) that contains the origin so that \(f(t,v) = u(t) + t(1 - t)v\), \((t,v) \in [0,1] \times U\), is a family of regular curves in \(H\) connecting \(u(0)\) with \(u(1)\), and \(f((0,1)),U) = V\) is open in \(H\). Let \(E\) be a countable union of \(C^r\) submanifolds of \(H\) each with codimension at least \(2\). Then, for all \(v \in V\) except for a countable union of \(C^r\) submanifolds \(S_l\) with \(H\text{-codim}\, \bigg(\bigcup\limits_{l=1}^m S_l\bigg) \geq 1\) for any \(m\), and a countable union of closed sets with Hausdorff codimension at least \(2 - r^{-1}\), the regular curves \(f([0,1],v)\) do not intersect \(E\) except possibly at the end points. A similar theorem is proved for the map \(u:\;S^1 \to H\), and, at the end of section, for maps \(u:\;B \to H\) (\(B\) is a unit ball of \({\mathbb R}^d\)). Section 6, \textsc{Transversality of smooth finite index map with \(W_m\) set in \(H\)}, deals with the following theorem: If \(f: X \to H\) is a \(C^r\) map with \(df(x)\) onto \(H\) for all \(x \in X\) and \(E\) is a countable union of \(W_m\) sets, then \(f^{-1}(E)\) is a countable union of \(W_m\) sets. (A set \(M \subset H\) is a \(W_m\) set if \(M = p(S)\), where \(S\) is a \(C^r\) codimension \(m + d\) submanifold of \(H \times {\mathbb R}^d\) and \(p: H \times {\mathbb R}^d \to H\) is the projection \(p(h,t) = h\).) The results of the present article are essential developments of classical theorems by J. von Neumann and E. Wigner, A. Sard, S. Smale, and V. I. Arnold.