Rectifiable-Reifenberg and the Regularity of Stationary and Minimizing Harmonic Maps

Abstract

In this paper we study the regularity of stationary and minimizing harmonic maps $f:B_2(p)\subseteq M\to N$ between Riemannian manifolds. If $S^k(f)\equiv\{x\in M: \text{ no tangent map at $x$ is }k+1\text{-symmetric}\}$ is $k^{th}$-stratum of the singular set of $f$, then it is well known that $\dim S^k\le k$, however little else about the structure of $S^k(f)$ is understood in any generality. Our first result is for a general stationary harmonic map, where we prove that $S^k(f)$ is $k$-rectifiable. In the case of minimizing harmonic maps we go further, and prove that the singular set $S(f)$, which is well known to satisfy $\dim S(f)\le n-3$, is in fact $n-3$-rectifiable with uniformly {\it finite} $n-3$-measure. An effective version of this allows us to prove that $|\nabla f|$ has estimates in $L_{weak}^3$, an estimate which is sharp as $|\nabla f|$ may not live in $L^3$. The above results are in fact just applications of a new class of estimates we prove on the {\it quantitative} stratifications $S_{\epsilon ,r}^k(f)$ and $S_{\epsilon }^k(f)\equiv S_{\epsilon ,0}^k(f)$. Roughly, $S_{\epsilon }^k\subseteq M$ is the collection of points $x\in S_{\epsilon }^k$ for which no ball $B_r(x)$ is $\epsilon$-close to being $k+1$-symmetric. We show that $S_{\epsilon }^k$ is $k$-rectifiable and satisfies the Minkowski estimate $Vol(B_r{S}_{\epsilon }^k)\le C{r}^{n-k}$. The proofs require a new $L^2$-subspace approximation theorem for stationary harmonic maps, as well as new $W^{1,p}$-Reifenberg and rectifiable-Reifenberg type theorems. These results are generalizations of the classical Reifenberg, and give checkable criteria to determine when a set is $k$-rectifiable with uniform measure estimates. The new Reifenberg type theorems may be of some independent interest.

Some more details added in the proofs

References in corpus (1)

• The Singular Structure and Regularity of Stationary and Minimizing Varifolds

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