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Title: The p-widths of a surface
Abstract The $$p$$ p -widths of a closed Riemannian manifold are a nonlinear analogue of the spectrum of its Laplace–Beltrami operator, which corresponds to areas of a certain min-max sequence of possibly singular minimal submanifolds. We show that the $$p$$ p -widths of any closed Riemannian two-manifold correspond to a union of closed immersed geodesics, rather than simply geodesic nets. We then prove optimality of the sweepouts of the round two-sphere constructed from the zero set of homogeneous polynomials, showing that the $$p$$ p -widths of the round sphere are attained by $$\lfloor \sqrt{p}\rfloor $$ ⌊ p ⌋ great circles. As a result, we find the universal constant in the Liokumovich–Marques–Neves–Weyl law for surfaces to be $$\sqrt{\pi }$$ π . En route to calculating the $$p$$ p -widths of the round two-sphere, we prove two additional new results: a bumpy metrics theorem for stationary geodesic nets with fixed edge lengths, and that, generically, stationary geodesic nets with bounded mass and bounded singular set have Lusternik–Schnirelmann category zero.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2147521 2050120 2016403
PAR ID:
10437025
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Publications mathématiques de l'IHÉS
Volume:
137
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0073-8301
Page Range / eLocation ID:
245 to 342
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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