文摘
Given a compact manifold M and a Riemannian manifold N of bounded geometry, we consider the manifold class="mathmlsrc">class="formulatext stixSupport mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0926224516300614&_mathId=si1.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0926224516300614&_rdoc=1&_issn=09262245&md5=ad2926f49ec90651abcf06bd690df746" title="Click to view the MathML source">Imm(M,N)class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> of immersions from M to N and its subset class="mathmlsrc">class="formulatext stixSupport mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0926224516300614&_mathId=si2.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0926224516300614&_rdoc=1&_issn=09262245&md5=530035d8915c163d9dae87831803bfde" title="Click to view the MathML source">Immμ(M,N)class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> of those immersions with the property that the volume-form of the pull-back metric equals μ . We first show that the non-minimal elements of class="mathmlsrc">class="formulatext stixSupport mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0926224516300614&_mathId=si2.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0926224516300614&_rdoc=1&_issn=09262245&md5=530035d8915c163d9dae87831803bfde" title="Click to view the MathML source">Immμ(M,N)class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> form a splitting submanifold. On this submanifold we consider the Levi-Civita connection for various natural Sobolev metrics, we write down the geodesic equation for which we show local well-posedness in many cases. The question is a natural generalization of the corresponding well-posedness question for the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms, which is of importance in fluid mechanics.