Abstract
Let Σ be a simply connected rational homology sphere. A pair of disjoint closed submanifolds M +,M - ⊂ Σ are called dual to each other if the complement Σ − M + strongly homotopy retracts onto M - or vice-versa. In this paper, we are concerned with the basic problem of which integral triples (n;M +,M -) ∈ ℕ3 can appear, where n = dimΣ − 1 and m ± = codimm ± − 1. The problem is motivated by several fundamental aspects in differential geometry.
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(i)
The theory of isoparametric/Dupin hypersurfaces in the unit sphere Sn+1 initiated by ÉLie Cartan, where m ± are the focal manifolds of the isoparametric/Dupin hypersurface M ⊂ Sn+1, and m ± coincide with the multiplicities of principal curvatures of M.
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(ii)
The Grove-Ziller construction of non-negatively curved Riemannian metrics on the Milnor exotic spheres Σ, i.e., total spaces of smooth S3-bundles over S4 homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to S7, where m ± = P ± × SO(4) S3, P → S4 the principal SO(4)-bundle of Σ and P ± the singular orbits of a cohomogeneity one SO(4) × SO(3)-action on P which are both of codimension 2.
Based on the important result of Grove-Halperin, we provide a surprisingly simple answer, namely, if and only if one of the following holds true:
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m + = m - = n
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m + = m - = 1/3n ∈ {1, 2, 4, 8}
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m + = m - = 1/4n ∈ {1, 2}
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m + = m - = 1/6n ∈ {1, 2}
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\(\frac{n}{m_{+}+m_{-}}\) = 1 or 2, and for the latter case, m + + m - is odd if min(m +,m -) ≥ 2.
In addition, if Σ is a homotopy sphere and the ratio \(\frac{n}{m_{+}+m_{-}}\) = 2 (for simplicity let us assume 2 6 m - ≤ m +), we observe that the work of Stolz on the multiplicities of isoparametric hypersurfaces applies almost identically to conclude that, the pair can be realized if and only if, either (m +,m -) = (5, 4) or m + +m - +1 is divisible by the integer δ(m -) (see the table on page 3), which is equivalent to the existence of (m -−1) linearly independent vector fields on the sphere \(\mathbb{S}^{m_ + + m_ - }\) by Adams’ celebrated work. In contrast, infinitely many counterexamples are given if Σ is a rational homology sphere.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11431009), the Ministry of Education in China, and the Municipal Administration of Beijing. The author thanks Karsten Grove for useful discussions which motivated the corollaries in the paper. The author is also very grateful to the referees for correcting a mistake and a few valuable comments.
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Fang, F. Dual submanifolds in rational homology spheres. Sci. China Math. 60, 1549–1560 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11425-017-9130-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11425-017-9130-9