Rigidity estimates for isometric and conformal maps from $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$

Abstract

We investigate both linear and nonlinear stability aspects of rigid motions (resp. M\"obius transformations) of $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ among Sobolev maps from $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ into $\mathbb{R}^n$. Unlike similar in flavour results for maps defined on domains of $\mathbb{R}^n$ and mapping into $\mathbb{R}^n$, not only an isometric (resp. conformal) deficit is necessary in this more flexible setting, but also a deficit measuring the distortion of $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ under the maps in consideration. The latter is defined as an associated isoperimetric type of deficit. We mostly focus on the case $n=3$, where we also explain why the estimates are optimal in their corresponding settings. In the isometric case the estimate holds true also when $n=2$ and generalizes in dimensions $n\geq 4$ as well, if one requires apriori boundedness in a certain higher Sobolev norm. We also obtain linear stability estimates for both cases in all dimensions. These can be regarded as Korn-type inequalities for the combination of the quadratic form associated with the isometric (resp. conformal) deficit on $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ and the isoperimetric one.