Index estimates for closed minimal submanifolds of the sphere

Abstract

In this paper we are interested in comparing the spectra of two elliptic operators acting on a closed minimal submanifold of the Euclidean unit sphere. Using an approach introduced by Savo in [A Savo. Index Bounds for Minimal Hypersurfaces of the Sphere. Indiana Univ. Math. J. 59 (2010), 823-837.], we are able to compare the eigenvalues of the stability operator acting on sections of the normal bundle and the Hodge Laplacian operator acting on $1$ -forms. As a byproduct of the technique and under a suitable hypothesis on the Ricci curvature of the submanifold we obtain that its first Betti's number is bounded from above by a multiple of the Morse index, which provide evidence for a well-known conjecture of Schoen and Marques & Neves in the setting of higher codimension.