On the nonexistence of stable minimal submanifolds and the Lawson-Simons conjecture
Let M̅ be a compact Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature satisfying (resp. ), which can be isometrically immersed as a hypersurface in the Euclidean space (resp. the unit Euclidean sphere). Then there exist no stable compact minimal submanifolds in M̅. This extends Shen and Xu’s result for 1/4-pinched Riemannian manifolds and also suggests a modified version of the well-known Lawson-Simons conjecture.