Pinching rigidity of surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector in spheres
Inspired by the Simon conjecture for minimal surfaces in spheres, we study closed surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector and positive Gaussian curvature immersed in unit spheres. Let $h$ be the second fundamental form, let $\mathbf{H}$ be the mean curvature vector field, and set $\tilde h=h-\mathbf{H}g$ and $\tilde S=|\tilde h|^2=|h|^2-2H^2$, where $H=|\mathbf{H}|$ and $g$ is the induced Riemannian metric on the surface $M$. We establish three Simons-type integral identities for $\tilde S$, which extend the first, second and third gap identities in the minimal case. As applications, we obtain the first two sharp endpoint gaps and several rigidity and oscillation estimates in the third interval. We further characterize the endpoint cases by combining these identities with the classification theorems of Calabi and Yau.