On the degenerate Weyl problem on isometric immersions

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the Weyl problem, \emph{i.e.}, the existence of isometric immersions or embeddings of two-spheres into the three-dimensional Euclidean space or general ambient three-manifolds. We establish two results on the degenerate Weyl problem, namely when the Gaussian curvature $K_g$ is only nonnegative rather than strictly positive. First, for a smooth metric $g$ on the two-sphere, if $K_g$ is strictly positive except at finitely many points where the Hessian of $K_g$ is positive definite, then $g$ admits a global $C^{2,1}$-isometric embedding into $\mathbb{R}^3$. It appears to be the first result on the degenerate Weyl problem with purely intrinsic conditions on $g$. Second, for a general simply-connected ambient three-manifold $(\mathcal{M},{\overline{g}})$, if $K_g \geq K_0 \geq {\rm sec}_{\overline{g}}$ for some constant $K_0$, $(K_g-K_0)^{-1/2} \in L^p$ with $p \geq 2$, and a certain uniform pinching condition holds for approximate nondegenerate isometric immersions, then there exists a $W^{3,p}$-isometric immersion. Alongside we also resolve the nondegenerate Weyl problem (\emph{i.e.}, when $K_g>0$) into general simply-connected ambient three-manifolds for $g$, ${\overline{g}} \in C^{2,1}$.