A Gauss-Bonnet formula for the renormalized area of minimal submanifolds of Poincaré-Einstein manifolds

Abstract: Assuming the extrinsic $Q$-curvature admits a decomposition into the Pfaffian, a scalar conformal submanifold invariant, and a tangential divergence, we prove that the renormalized area of an even-dimensional minimal submanifold of a Poincar\'e-Einstein manifold can be expressed as a linear combination of its Euler characteristic and the integral of a scalar conformal submanifold invariant. We derive such a decomposition of the extrinsic $Q$-curvature in dimensions two and four, thereby recovering and generalizing results of Alexakis-Mazzeo and Tyrrell, respectively. We also conjecture such a decomposition for general natural submanifold scalars whose integral over compact submanifolds is conformally invariant, and verify our conjecture in dimensions two and four. Our results also apply to the area of a compact even-dimensional minimal submanifold of an Einstein manifold.