Cartan--Whitney Presentation, Non-smooth Analysis and Smoothability of Manifolds: On a theorem of Kondo--Tanaka

Using tools and results from geometric measure theory, we give a simple new proof of the main result (Theorem 1.3) in K. Kondo and M. Tanaka, Approximation of Lipschitz Maps via Immersions and Differentiable Exotic Sphere Theorems, \textit{Nonlinear Anal.} \textbf{155} (2017), 219--249, as well as the converse statement. It explores the connections between the theory of non-smooth analysis {\it \`{a} la} F.~H. Clarke and the existence of special systems of Whitney flat $1$-forms with Sobolev regularity on certain families of homology manifolds.Comment: 9 page

Weak Continuity of the Cartan Structural System and Compensated Compactness on Semi-Riemannian Manifolds with Lower Regularity

We are concerned with the global weak continuity of the Cartan structural system -- or equivalently, the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci system -- on semi-Riemannian manifolds with lower regularity. For this purpose, we first formulate and prove a geometric compensated compactness theorem on vector bundles over semi-Riemannian manifolds with lower regularity (Theorem 3.2), extending the classical quadratic theorem of compensated compactness. We then deduce the $L^p$ weak continuity of the Cartan structural system for $p>2$: For a family $\{\mathcal{W}_\varepsilon\}$ of connection $1$-forms on a semi-Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, if $\{\mathcal{W}_\varepsilon\}$ is uniformly bounded in $L^p$ and satisfies the Cartan structural system, then any weak $L^p$ limit of $\{\mathcal{W}_\varepsilon\}$ is also a solution of the Cartan structural system. Moreover, it is proved that isometric immersions of semi-Riemannian manifolds into semi-Euclidean spaces can be constructed from the weak solutions of the Cartan structural system or the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci system (Theorem 5.1), which leads to the $L^p$ weak continuity of the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci system on semi-Riemannian manifolds. As further applications, the weak continuity of Einstein's constraint equations, general immersed hypersurfaces, and the quasilinear wave equations is also established.Comment: 64 page