Given a vector field $X$ in a Riemannian manifold, a hypersurface is said to have a canonical principal direction relative to $X$ if the projection of $X$ onto the tangent space of the hypersurface gives a principal direction. We give different ways for building these hypersurfaces, as well as a number of useful characterizations. In particular, we relate them with transnormal functions and eikonal equations. With the further condition of having constant mean curvature (CMC) we obtain a characterization of the canonical principal direction surfaces in Euclidean space as Delaunay surfaces. We also prove that CMC constant angle hypersurfaces in a product $\mathbb{R}\times N$ are either totally geodesic or cylinders.
In this paper, we study the relationship between isoparametric hypersurfaces and hypersurfaces with constant principal curvatures in Finsler spaces. We give some examples of isoparametric hypersurfaces with (non)constant principal curvatures on Randers manifolds with nonconstant flag curvatures. Furthermore, we construct an example of a conformally flat Randers manifold which admits a family of nonisoparametric hyperplanes with constant principal curvatures.
In this paper, we study hypersurfaces of Euclidean spaces with arbitrary dimension. First, we obtain some results on $\mbox{H}$-hypersurfaces. Then, we give the complete classification of $\mbox{H}$-hypersurfaces with 3 distinct curvatures. We also give explicit examples.
We find the first examples of real hypersurfaces with two nonconstant principal curvatures in complex projective and hyperbolic planes, and we classify them. It turns out that each such hypersurface is foliated by equidistant Lagrangian flat surfaces with parallel mean curvature or, equivalently, by principal orbits of a cohomogeneity two polar action.
In this note we construct an explicit example of a (compact) conformally flat Riemannian manifold which admits a totally geodesic foliation of codimension one with no isoparametric leaves. This answers negatively the question: is every hypersurface with constant principal curvatures isoparametric?
Let $x$ be an $m$-dimensional umbilic-free hypersurface in an $(m+1)$-dimensional unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^{m+1}(m\geq3)$. One of important questions is to classify hypersurfaces with two distinct principal curvatures. In this paper, we classify and explicitly express the hypersurfaces with two distinct principal curvatures and closed Moebius form, and then we characterize and classify conformally flat hypersurfaces of dimension larger than 3.
It is known that hypersurfaces in $CP^n$ or $CH^n$ for which the number $g$ of distinct principal curvatures satisfied $g \le 2$ must belong to a standard list of Hopf hypersurfaces with constant principal curvatures, provided that $n \ge 3$. In this paper, we construct a 2-parameter family of non-Hopf hypersurfaces in $CP^2$ and $CH^2$ with $g=2$ and show that every non-Hopf hypersurface with $g=2$ is locally of this form.
In this paper, we have studied biharmonic hypersurfaces in space form $\bar{M}^{n+1}(c)$ with constant sectional curvature $c$. We have obtained that biharmonic hypersurfaces $M^{n}$ with at most three distinct principal curvatures in $\bar{M}^{n+1}(c)$ has constant mean curvature. We also obtain the full classification of biharmonic hypersurfaces with at most three distinct principal curvatures in arbitrary dimension space form $\bar{M}^{n+1}(c)$.
We classify real hypersurfaces in complex space forms with constant principal curvatures and whose Hopf vector field has two nontrivial projections onto the principal curvature spaces. In complex projective spaces such real hypersurfaces do not exist. In complex hyperbolic spaces these are holomorphically congruent to open parts of tubes around the ruled minimal submanifolds with totally real normal bundle introduced by Berndt and Bruck. In particular, they are open parts of homogenous ones.
We obtain a complete classification of proper biharmonic hypersurfaces with at most three distinct principal curvatures in sphere spaces with arbitrary dimension. Precisely, together with known results of Balmuş-Montaldo-Oniciuc, we prove that compact orientable proper biharmonic hypersurfaces with at most three distinct principal curvatures in sphere spaces $\mathbb S^{n+1}$ are either the hypersphere $\mathbb S^n(1/\sqrt2)$ or the Clifford hypersurface $\mathbb S^{n_1}(1/\sqrt2)\times\mathbb S^{n_2}(1/\sqrt2)$ with $n_1+n_2=n$ and $n_1\neq n_2$. Moreover, we also show that there does not exi…
We study the principal configurations around an isolated $η$-umbilical point on a generic spacelike surface $S$ immersed in a null hypersurface $M$ of Minkowski space $\mathbb{R}_1^4$ relative to a well-defined null vector field $η$ orthogonal to the surface $S$. In the particular case of $M$ being a null rotation hypersurface of $\mathbb{R}_1^4$ we also recover the local Darbouxian principal configurations around that kind of $η$-umbilical points.
The well known Chen's conjecture on biharmonic submanifolds states that a biharmonic submanifold in a Euclidean space is a minimal one ([10-13, 16, 18-21, 8]). For the case of hypersurfaces, we know that Chen's conjecture is true for biharmonic surfaces in $\mathbb E^3$ ([10], [24]), biharmonic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb E^4$ ([23]), and biharmonic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb E^m$ with at most two distinct principal curvatures ([21]). The most recent work of Chen-Munteanu [18] shows that Chen's conjecture is true for $δ(2)$-ideal hypersurfaces in $\mathbb E^m$, where a $δ(2)$-ideal hypersurface i…
A triharmonic map is a critical point of the tri-energy in the space of smooth maps between two Riemannian manifolds. In this paper, we prove that if $M^n (n\ge 4)$ is a CMC proper triharmonic hypersurface in a space form $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}(c)$ with four distinct principal curvatures and the multiplicity of the zero principal curvature is at most one, then $M$ has constant scalar curvature. In particular, we obtain any CMC proper triharmonic hypersurface in $\mathbb{R}^5(c)$ is minimal when $c\le 0$, which supports the generalized Chen's conjecture. We also give some characterizations of CMC pr…
In this paper, we classify the hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{S}^{n}\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^{n}\times\mathbb{R}$, $n\neq 3$, with $g$ distinct constant principal curvatures, $g\in\{1,2,3\}$, where $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ and $\mathbb{H}^{n}$ denote the sphere and hyperbolic space of dimension $n$, respectively. We prove that such hypersurfaces are isoparametric in those spaces. Furthermore, we find a necessary and sufficient condition for an isoparametric hypersurface in $\mathbb{S}^{n}\times \mathbb{R}\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+2}$ and $\mathbb{H}^{n}\times\mathbb{R}\subset \mathbb{L}^{n+2}$ with f…
In this paper, we study hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{H}^2$. We first classify the hypersurfaces with constant principal curvatures and constant product angle function. Then, we classify homogeneous hypersurfaces and isoparametric hypersurfaces, respectively. Finally, we classify the hypersurfaces with at most two distinct constant principal curvatures, as well as those with three constant principal curvatures under some additional conditions.
In [16] there was proved that any biharmonic hypersurface with at most three distinct principal curvatures in space forms has constant mean curvature. At the very last step of the proof, the argument relied on the fact that the resultant of two polynomials is a non-zero polynomial. In this paper we point out that, in fact, there is a case, and only one, when this resultant is the zero polynomial and therefore the original proof is not fully complete. Further, we prove that in this special case we still obtain that the hypersurface has constant mean curvature.
We classify the homogeneous and isoparametric hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2$. In the classification, besides the hypersurfaces $\mathbb{S}^1(r)\times\mathbb{S}^2,\,r\in (0,1]$, it appears a family of hypersurfaces with three different constant principal curvatures and zero Gauss-Kronecker curvature. Also we classify the hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2$ with at most two constant principal curvatures and, under certain conditions, with three constant principal curvatures.
We prove that an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicity pair $(7,8)$ is either the one constructed by Ozeki and Takeuchi, or one of the two constructed by Ferus, Karcher, and Münzner. This completes the classification of isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres that É. Cartan initiated in the late 1930s.
We construct uncountably many isoparametric families of hypersurfaces in Damek-Ricci spaces. We characterize those of them that have constant principal curvatures by means of the new concept of generalized Kahler angle. It follows that, in general, these examples are inhomogeneous and have nonconstant principal curvatures. We also find new cohomogeneity one actions on quaternionic hyperbolic spaces, and an isoparametric family of inhomogeneous hypersurfaces with constant principal curvatures in the Cayley hyperbolic plane.
A $k$-harmonic map is a critical point of the $k$-energy in the space of smooth maps between two Riemannian manifolds. In this paper, we prove that if $M^{n} (n\ge 3)$ is a CMC proper triharmonic hypersurface with at most three distinct principal curvatures in a space form $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}(c)$, then $M$ has constant scalar curvature. This supports the generalized Chen's conjecture when $c\le 0$. When $c=1$, we give an optimal upper bound of the mean curvature $H$ for a non-totally umbilical proper CMC $k$-harmonic hypersurface with constant scalar curvature in a sphere. As an application, we …
In this article we classify the conformally flat Euclidean hypersurfaces of dimension three with three distinct principal curvatures of $\mathbb{R}^4$, $\mathbb{S}^3\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^3\times \mathbb{R}$ with the property that the tangent component of the vector field $\partial/\partial t$ is a principal direction at any point. Here $\partial/\partial t$ stands for either a constant unit vector field in $\mathbb{R}^4$ or the unit vector field tangent to the factor $\mathbb{R}$ in the product spaces $\mathbb{S}^3\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{H}^3\times \mathbb{R}$, respectivel…
In this paper, we study biconservative hypersurfaces of index 2 in $\mathbb E^{5}_{2}$. We give the complete classification of biconservative hypersurfaces with diagonalizable shape operator at exactly three distinct principal curvatures. We also give an explicit example of biconservative hypersurfaces with four distinct principal curvatures.
In this paper, we investigate Einstein hypersurfaces of the warped product $I\times_{f}\mathbb{Q}^{n}(c)$, where $\mathbb{Q}^{n}(c)$ is a space form of curvature $c$. We prove that $M$ has at most three distinct principal curvatures and that it is locally a multiply warped product with at most two fibers. We also show that exactly one or two principal curvatures on an open set imply constant sectional curvature on that set. For exactly three distinct principal curvatures this is no longer true, and we classify such hypersurfaces provided it does not have constant sectional curvature and a cert…
We consider convex hypersurfaces for which the ratio of principal curvatures at each point is bounded by a function of the maximum principal curvature with limit 1 at infinity. We prove that the ratio of circumradius to inradius is bounded by a function of the circumradius with limit 1 at zero. We apply this result to the motion of hypersurfaces by arbitrary speeds which are smooth homogeneous functions of the principal curvatures of degree greater than one. For smooth, strictly convex initial hypersurfaces with ratio of principal curvatures sufficiently close to one at each point, we prove th…
Using the Blaschke-Berwald metric and the affine shape operator of a hypersurface M in the (n+1)-dimensional real affine space we can define some generalized curvature tensor named the Opozda-Verstraelen affine curvature tensor. In this paper we determine curvature conditions of pseudosymmetry type expressed by this tensor for locally strongly convex hypersurfaces M, n>2, with two distinct affine principal curvatures or with three distinct affine principal curvatures assuming that at least one affine principal curvature has multiplicity 1.
The notion of ideal immersions was introduced by the author in 1990s. Roughly speaking, an ideal immersion of a Riemannian manifold into a real space form is a nice isometric immersion which produces the least possible amount of tension from the ambient space at each point. In this paper, we classify all ideal hypersurfaces with two distinct principal curvatures in the Euclidean 4-space $\mathbb E^4$. Moreover, we prove that such ideal hypersurfaces are always rigid. Furthermore, we show that non-minimal ideal hypersurfaces with three distinct principal curvatures in $\mathbb E^4$ are also rig…
The classification work [5], [9] left unsettled only those anomalous isoparametric hypersurfaces with four principal curvatures and multiplicity pair $\{4,5\},\{6,9\}$ or $\{7,8\}$ in the sphere. By systematically exploring the ideal theory in commutative algebra in conjunction with the geometry of isoparametric hypersurfaces, we show that an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicities $\{4,5\}$ in $S^{19}$ is homogeneous, and, moreover, an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicities $\{6,9\}$ in $S^{31}$ is either the inhomogen…
In this sequel, employing more commutative algebra than that explored in \cite{CCJ}, we show that an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicities $(3,4)$ in $S^{15}$ is one constructed by Ozeki-Takeuchi \cite[I]{OT} and Ferus-Karcher-Münzner \cite{FKM}, referred to collectively as of OT-FKM type. In fact, this new approach also gives a considerably simpler, both structurally and technically, proof \cite{CCJ} that an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures in spheres with the multiplicity constraint $m_2\geq 2m_1-1$ is of OT-FKM type, which left…
A hypersurface $M$ in ${\bf R}^n$ is said to be Dupin if along each curvature surface, the corresponding principal curvature is constant. A Dupin hypersurface is said to be proper Dupin if the number of distinct principal curvatures is constant on $M$, i.e., each continuous principal curvature function has constant multiplicity on $M$. These conditions are preserved by stereographic projection, so this theory is essentially the same for hypersurfaces in ${\bf R}^n$ or $S^n$. The theory of compact proper Dupin hypersurfaces in $S^n$ is closely related to the theory of isoparametric hypersurface…
A Hopf hypersurface in complex hyperbolic space CH^n is one in which the complex structure applied to the normal vector is a principal direction at each point. In this paper, Hopf hypersurfaces for which the corresponding principal curvature is small (relative to the ambient sectional curvature) are studied by means of a generalized Gauss map into a product of spheres, and it is shown that the hypersurface may be recovered from the image of this map, via an explicit formula.
Consider a complete Riemannian manifold $M^n$ and let $Σ^n$ be an orientable hypersurface of the product manifold $M\times\mathbb{R}$ endowed with its standard product metric $\langle \,,\, \rangle.$ Let $\nablaξ$ denote the gradient of the height function $ξ$ of $Σ.$ In this note, we characterize the hypersurfaces $Σ$ which have $\nablaξ$ as a principal direction. Our approach is based on the work of R. Tojeiro, who considered the case where $M$ is a constant sectional curvature space form.
A hypersurface $M$ in ${\bf R}^n$ or $S^n$ is said to be Dupin if along each curvature surface, the corresponding principal curvature is constant. A Dupin hypersurface is said to be proper Dupin if each principal curvature has constant multiplicity on $M$, i.e., the number of distinct principal curvatures is constant on $M$. The notions of Dupin and proper Dupin hypersurfaces in ${\bf R}^n$ or $S^n$ can be generalized to the setting of Lie sphere geometry, and these properties are easily seen to be invariant under Lie sphere transformations. This makes Lie sphere geometry an effective setting …
We prove that, in Minkowski space, if a spacelike, $(n-1)$-convex hypersurface $M$ with constant $σ_{n-1}$ curvature has bounded principal curvatures, then $M$ is convex. Moreover, if $M$ is not strictly convex, after an $\mathbb{R}^{n,1}$ rigid motion, $M$ splits as a product $M^{n-1}\times\mathbb{R}.$ We also construct nontrivial examples of strictly convex, spacelike hypersurface $M$ with constant $σ_{n-1}$ curvature and bounded principal curvatures.
This paper explains the construction of all hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature -- cmc -- and exactly two principal curvatures on any space form endowed with a semi-riemannian metric. Here we will consider riemannian hypersurfaces as well as hypersurfaces with semi-riemannian metrics induced by the ambient space. We show explicit immersions for all these hypersurfaces. We will see that for any given ambient space, the family of cmc hypersurfaces with two principal curvatures depends on two parameters, $H$ and $C$. We describe the range for all possible $(H,C)$ associated with complete c…
Let M be a closed minimal hypersurface in 5-dimensional Euclidean sphere with constant nonnegative scalar curvature. We prove that, if the sum of the cubes of all principal curvatures and the number of distinct principal curvatures are constant, then M is isoparametric. Moreover, We give all possible values for squared length of the second fundamental form of M. This result provides another piece of supporting evidence to the Chern conjecture.
The aim of this paper is to prove that there exists no cohomogeneity one $G-$invariant proper biharmonic hypersurface into the Euclidean space ${\mathbb R}^n$, where $G$ denotes a tranformation group which acts on ${\mathbb R}^n$ by isometries, with codimension two principal orbits. This result may be considered in the context of the Chen conjecture, since this family of hypersurfaces includes examples with up to seven distinct principal curvatures. The paper uses the methods of equivariant differential geometry. In particular, the technique of proof provides a unified treatment for all these …
Integral invariants obtained from Principal Component Analysis on a small kernel domain of a submanifold encode important geometric information classically defined in differential-geometric terms. We generalize to hypersurfaces in any dimension major results known for surfaces in space, which in turn yield a method to estimate the extrinsic and intrinsic curvature of an embedded Riemannian submanifold of general codimension. In particular, integral invariants are defined by the volume, barycenter, and the EVD of the covariance matrix of the domain. We obtain the asymptotic expansion of such in…
We study conformally flat hypersurfaces $f\colon M^{3} \to \Q^{4}(c)$ with three distinct principal curvatures and constant mean curvature $H$ in a space form with constant sectional curvature $c$. First we extend a theorem due to Defever when $c=0$ and show that there is no such hypersurface if $H\neq 0$. Our main results are for the minimal case $H=0$. If $c\neq 0$, we prove that if $f\colon M^{3} \to \Q^{4}(c)$ is a minimal conformally flat hypersurface with three distinct principal curvatures then $f(M^3)$ is an open subset of a generalized cone over a Clifford torus in an umbilical hypers…
In this paper, we investigate the contracting curvature flow of closed, strictly convex axially symmetric hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ and $\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ by $σ_k^α$, where $σ_k$ is the $k$-th elementary symmetric function of the principal curvatures and $α\ge 1/k$. We prove that for any $n\geq3$ and any fixed $k$ with $1\leq k\leq n$, there exists a constant $c(n,k)>1/k$ such that that if $α$ lies in the interval $[1/k,c(n,k)]$, then we have a nice curvature pinching estimate involving the ratio of the biggest principal curvature to the smallest principal curvature of the flow hyper…
Motivated by the theory of isoparametric hypersurfaces, we study submanifolds whose tubular hypersurfaces have some constant "higher order mean curvatures". Here a $k$-th order mean curvature $Q_k$ ($k\geq1$) of a hypersurface $M^n$ is defined as the $k$-th power sum of the principal curvatures, or equivalently, of the shape operator. Many necessary restrictions involving principal curvatures, higher order mean curvatures and Jacobi operators on such submanifolds are obtained, which, among other things, generalize some classical results in the theory of isoparametric hypersurfaces given by E. …
In this paper, we study biconservative hypersurfaces in $\mathbb S^{n}$ and $\mathbb H^{n}$. Further, we obtain complete explicit classification of biconservative hypersurfaces in $4$-dimensional Riemannian space form with exactly three distinct principal curvatures.
In this paper we develop the notion of screen isoparametric hypersurface for null hypersurfaces of Robertson-Walker spacetimes. Using this formalism we derive Cartan identities for the screen principal curvatures of null screen hypersurfaces in Lorentzian space forms and provide a local characterization of such hypersurfaces.
The study of real hypersurfaces in pseudo-Riemannian complex space forms and para-complex space forms, which are the pseudo-Riemannian generalizations of the complex space forms, is addressed. It is proved that there are no umbilic hypersurfaces, nor real hypersurfaces with parallel shape operator in such spaces. Denoting by $J$ be the complex or para-complex structure of a pseudo-complex or para-complex space form respectively, a non-degenerate hypersurface of such space with unit normal vector field $N$ is said to be \em Hopf \em if the tangent vector field $JN$ is a principal direction. It …
