A space curve in a Euclidean 3-space $\mathbb E^3$ is called a rectifying curve if its position vector field always lies in its rectifying plane. This notion of rectifying curves was introduced by the author in [Amer. Math. Monthly {\bf 110} (2003), no. 2, 147-152]. In this present article, we introduce and study the notion of rectifying submanifolds in Euclidean spaces. In particular, we prove that a Euclidean submanifold is rectifying if and only if the tangential component of its position vector field is a concurrent vector field. Moreover, rectifying submanifolds with arbitrary codimension are completely determined.
Submanifold theory is a very active vast research field which plays an important role in the development of modern differential geometry. This branch of differential geometry is still so far from being exhausted; only a small portion of an exceedingly fruitful field has been cultivated, much more remains to be discovered. In this article, the author provides a broad review of Riemannian submanifolds in differential geometry.
We derive Frenet-type results and invariants of spatial curves immersed in $3$-dimensional generalized Minkowski spaces, i.e., in linear spaces which satisfy all axioms of finite dimensional real Banach spaces except for the symmetry axiom. Further on, we characterize cylindrical helices and rectifying curves in such spaces, and the computation of invariants is discussed, too. Finally, we study how translations of unit spheres influence invariants of spatial curves.
In this paper we describe the algebra of differential invariants for GL(n,C)-structures. This leads to classification of almost complex structures of general positions. The invariants are applied to the existence problem of higher-dimensional pseudoholomorphic submanifolds.
The principal theory of this paper comprises a technique for constructing associative, coassociative and Cayley submanifolds of Euclidean space with symmetries, using first-order ordinary differential equations. Explicit examples of U(1)-invariant associative cones in R^7 and SU(2)-invariant Cayley 4-folds in R^8 are then produced using this method. Further examples of associative 3-folds are presented, which are ruled, and other systems of differential equations defining calibrated submanifolds in R^7 and R^8 are given.
The purpose of the present paper is to study the differential geometric properties of a quaternion CR-submanifold in a locally conformal quaternion Kaehler manifold.
We prove a conjecture formulated by Pablo M. Chacon and Guillermo A. Lobos in [Pseudo-parallel Lagrangian submanifolds in complex space forms, Differential Geom. Appl.] stating that every Lagrangian pseudo-parallel submanifold of a complex space form of dimension at least 3 is semi-parallel.
This paper belongs to the realm of conformal geometry and deals with Euclidean submanifolds that admit smooth variations that are infinitesimally conformal. Conformal variations of Euclidean submanifolds is a classical subject in differential geometry. In fact, already in 1917 Cartan classified parametrically the Euclidean hypersurfaces that admit nontrivial conformal variations. Our first main result is a Fundamental theorem for conformal infinitesimal variations. The second is a rigidity theorem for Euclidean submanifolds that lie in low codimension.
In this paper we study the deformation theory of submanifolds characterized by a system of differential forms and provide a criterion for deformations of such submanifolds to be unobstructed. We apply this deformation theory to special Legendrian submanifolds in Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. In general, special Legendrian deformations have the obstruction. However, we show that the deformation space of special Legendrian submanifolds is the intersection of two larger smooth deformation spaces of different types. We also prove that any special Legendrian submanifold admits smooth deformations, whi…
These are lecture notes on the rigidity of submanifolds of projective space "resembling" compact Hermitian symmetric spaces in their homogeneous embeddings. Recent results are surveyed, along with their classical predecessors. The notes include an introduction to moving frames in projective geometry, an exposition of the Hwang-Yamaguchi ridgidity theorem and a new variant of the Hwang-Yamaguchi theorem.
We construct examples of cohomogeneity one special Lagrangian submanifolds in the cotangent bundle over the complex projective space, whose Calabi-Yau structure was given by Stenzel. For each example, we describe the condition of special Lagrangian as an ordinary differential equation. Our method is based on a moment map technique and the classification of cohomogeneity one actions on the complex projective space classified by Takagi.
This paper deals with the subject of infinitesimal variations of Euclidean submanifolds with arbitrary dimension and codimension. The main goal is to establish a Fundamental theorem for these geometric objects. Similar to the theory of isometric immersions in Euclidean space, we prove that a system of three equations for a certain pair of tensors are the integrability conditions for the differential equation that determines the infinitesimal variations. In addition, we give some rigidity results when the submanifold is intrinsically a Riemannian product of manifolds.
The space of embedded submanifolds plays an important role in applications such as computational anatomy and shape analysis. We can define two different classes on Riemannian metrics on this space: so-called outer metrics are metrics that measure shape changes using deformations of the ambient space and they find applications mostly in computational anatomy; the second class that are defined directly on the space of embeddings using intrinsic differential operations and they are used in shape analysis. In this paper we compare for the first time the topologies and the geodesic distance functio…
For this quarter of century, differential operators in a lower dimensional submanifold embedded or immersed in real $n$-dimensional euclidean space $\EE^n$ have been studied as quantum mechanical models, which are realized as restriction of the operators in $\EE^n$ to the submanifold. For this decade, the Dirac operators in the submanifold have been investigated in such a scheme , which are identified with operators of the Frenet-Serret relation for a space curve case and of the generalized Weierstrass relation for a conformal surface case. These Dirac operators are concerned well in the diffe…
The warped product $N_1\times_f N_2$ of two Riemannian manifolds $(N_1,g_1)$ and $(N_2,g_2)$ is the product manifold $N_1\times N_2$ equipped with the warped product metric $g=g_1+f^2 g_2$, where $f$ is a positive function on $N_1$. Warped products play very important roles in differential geometry as well as in physics. A submanifold $M$ of a Kaehler manifold $\tilde M$ is called a $CR$-warped product if it is a warped product $M_T\times_f N_\perp$ of a complex submanifold $M_T$ and a totally real submanifold $M_\perp$ of $\tilde M$. In this article we survey recent results on warped product …
The purpose of these notes is to explain parts of Gromov's survey of Carnot-Carathedory spaces, in the light of subsequent results of M. Rumin. Among the rich material provided by Gromov, most of which pertains to analysis on metric spaces, we choose to concentrate on the H{ö}lder equivalence problem for Carnot manifolds. The notes go to some extent into the PDE technique used by Gromov in order to construct horizontal submanifolds. Rumin's complex is explained too. The upshot is that both methods yield more or less the same conclusions as far as the H{ö}lder equivalence problem is concerned.
We uncover the lowest order differential invariants of Lagrangian submanifolds under affine symplectic maps, and find out what happens when they are constant.
The warped product $N_1\times_f N_2$ of two Riemannian manifolds $(N_1,g_1)$ and $(N_2,g_2)$ is the product manifold $N_1\times N_2$ equipped with the warped product metric $g=g_1+f^2 g_2$, where $f$ is a positive function on $N_1$. The notion of warped product manifolds is one of the most fruitful generalizations of Riemannian products. Such notion plays very important roles in differential geometry as well as in physics, especially in general relativity. Warped product manifolds have been studied for a long period of time. In contrast, the study of warped product submanifolds was only initia…
We obtain a reduction of the vectorial Ribaucour transformation that preserves the class of submanifolds of constant sectional curvature of space forms, which we call the $L$-transformation. It allows to construct a family of such submanifolds starting with a given one and a vector-valued solution of a system of linear partial differential equations. We prove a decomposition theorem for the $L$-transformation, which is a far-reaching generalization of the classical permutability formula for the Ribaucour transformation of surfaces of constant curvature in Euclidean three space. As a consequenc…
Tubular neighborhoods play an important role in differential topology. We have applied these constructions to geometry of almost Hermitian manifolds. At first, we consider deformations of tensor structures on a normal tubular neighborhood of a submanifold in a Riemannian manifold.Further, an almost hyperHermitian structure has been constructed on the tangent bundle TM with help of the Riemannian connection of an almost Hermitian structure on a manifold M then, we consider an embedding of the almost Hermitian manifold M in the corresponding normal tubular neighborhood of the null section in the…
A world sheet in Lorentz-Minkowski space is a timelike submanifold consisting of a one-parameter family of spacelike submanifolds in Lorentz-Minkowski space. In this paper we investigate differential geometry of world sheets in Lorentz-Minkowski space as an application of the theory of big wave fronts.
Following an earlier paper on the differential-geometric structure of the moduli space of special Lagrangian submanifolds in a Calabi-Yau manifold, we follow an analogous approach for compact complex Lagrangian submanifolds of a (Kählerian) complex symplectic manifold. The natural geometric structure on the moduli space is a special Kähler metric, but we offer a different point of view on the local differential geometry of these, based on the structure of a submanifold of $V\times V$ (where $V$ is a symplectic vector space) which is Lagrangian with respect to two constant symplectic forms. As …
Special Lagrangian submanifolds are submanifolds of a Calabi-Yau manifold calibrated by the real part of the holomorphic volume form. In this paper we use elliptic theory for edge-degenerate differential operators on singular manifolds to study the moduli space of deformations of special Lagrangian submanifolds with edge singularities. We obtain a general theorem describing the local structure of the moduli space. When the obstruction space vanishes the moduli space is a smooth, finite dimensional manifold.
Systems of ordinary differential equations (or dynamical forms in Lagrangian mechanics), induced by embeddings of smooth fibered manifolds over one-dimensional basis, are considered in the class of variational equations. For a given non-variational system, conditions assuring variationality (the Helmholtz conditions) of the induced system with respect to a submanifold of a Euclidean space are studied, and the problem of existence of these "variational submanifolds" is formulated in general and solved for second-order systems. The variational sequence theory on sheaves of differential forms is …
We define two new notions of projection of a stochastic differential equation (SDE) onto a submanifold: the Ito-vector and Ito-jet projections. This allows one to systematically develop low dimensional approximations to high dimensional SDEs using differential geometric techniques. The approach generalizes the notion of projecting a vector field onto a submanifold in order to derive approximations to ordinary differential equations, and improves the previous Stratonovich projection method by adding optimality analysis and results. Indeed, just as in the case of ordinary projection, our definit…
We define and study noncommutative generalizations of submanifolds and quotient manifolds, for the derivation-based differential calculus introduced by M.~Dubois-Violette and P.~Michor. We give examples to illustrate these definitions.
This article is one of a series of papers. For this decade, the Dirac operator on a submanifold has been studied as a restriction of the Dirac operator in $n$-dimensional euclidean space $\EE^n$ to a surface or a space curve as physical models. These Dirac operators are identified with operators of the Frenet-Serret relation for a space curve case and of the generalized Weierstrass relation for a conformal surface case and completely represent the submanifolds. For example, the analytic index of Dirac operator of a space curve is identified with its writhing number. As another example, the ope…
The geometry of symmetric spaces, polar actions, isoparametric submanifolds and spherical buildings is governed by spherical Weyl groups and simple Lie groups. A natural generalization of semisimple Lie groups are affine Kac-Moody groups as they mirror their structure theory and have good explicitely known representations as groups of operators. In this article we describe the infinite dimensional differential geometry associated to Kac-Moody groups: Kac-Moody symmetric spaces, isoparametric submanifolds in Hilbert space, polar actions on Hilbert spaces and universal geometric twin buildings.
Albeverio, Kondratiev, and Röckner have introduced a type of differential geometry, which we call lifted geometry, for the configuration space $Γ_X$ of any manifold $X$. The name comes from the fact that various elements of the geometry of $Γ_X$ are constructed via lifting of the corresponding elements of the geometry of $X$. In this note, we construct a general algebraic framework for lifted geometry which can be applied to various ``infinite dimensional spaces'' associated to $X$. In order to define a lifted geometry for a ``space'', one dose not need any topology or local coordinate system …
A Koszul-Vinberg manifold is a manifold $M$ endowed with a pair $(\nabla,h)$ where $\nabla$ is a flat connection and $h$ is a symmetric bivector field satisfying a generalized Codazzi equation. The geometry of such manifolds could be seen as a type of bridge between Poisson geometry and pseudo-Riemannian geometry, as has been highlighted in our previous article [\textit{Contravariant Pseudo-Hessian manifolds and their associated Poisson structures}. \rm{Differential Geometry and its Applications} (2020)]. Our objective here will be to pursue our study by focusing in this setting on submanifold…
We consider in this paper an area functional defined on submanifolds of fixed degree immersed into a graded manifold equipped with a Riemannian metric. Since the expression of this area depends on the degree, not all variations are admissible. It turns out that the associated variational vector fields must satisfy a system of partial differential equations of first order on the submanifold. Moreover, given a vector field solution of this system, we provide a sufficient condition that guarantees the possibility of deforming the original submanifold by variations preserving its degree. As in the…
We develop a holonomy reduction procedure for general Cartan geometries. We show that, given a reduction of holonomy, the underlying manifold naturally decomposes into a disjoint union of initial submanifolds. Each such submanifold corresponds to an orbit of the holonomy group on the modelling homogeneous space and carries a canonical induced Cartan geometry. The result can therefore be understood as a `curved orbit decomposition'. The theory is then applied to the study of several invariant overdetermined differential equations in projective, conformal and CR-geometry. This makes use of an eq…
Let $σ$ be an involution of a real semi-simple Lie group $U$, $U_0$ the subgroup fixed by $σ$, and $U/U_0$ the corresponding symmetric space. Ferus and Pedit called a submanifold $M$ of a rank $r$ symmetric space $U/U_0$ a {\it curved flat} if $T_pM$ is tangent to an $r$-dimensional flat of $U/U_0$ at $p$ for each $p\in M$. They noted that the equation for curved flats is an integrable system. Bryant used the involution $σ$ to construct an involutive exterior differential system $\ci_σ$ such that integral submanifolds of $\ci_σ$ are curved flats. Terng used $r$ first flows in the $U/U_0$-hiera…
We consider the equivalence problem for symplectic and conformal symplectic group actions on submanifolds and functions of symplectic and contact linear spaces. This is solved by computing differential invariants via the Lie-Tresse theorem.
In this short note, we hope to give a rapid induction for non-experts into the world of Differential Harnack inequalities, which have been so influential in geometric analysis and probability theory over the past few decades. At the coarsest level, these are often mysterious-looking inequalities that hold for `positive' solutions of some parabolic PDE, and can be verified quickly by grinding out a computation and applying a maximum principle. In this note we emphasise the geometry behind the Harnack inequalities, which typically turn out to be assertions of the convexity of some natural object…
We study the cohomology of the complexes of differential, integral and pseudo forms on odd symplectic manifolds taking the wedge product with the symplectic form as differential. We show that the cohomology classes are in correspondence with inequivalent Lagrangian submanifolds and that they all define semidensities on them. Further, we introduce new operators that move from one Lagragian submanifold to another and we investigate their relation with the so-called picture changing operators for the de Rham differential. Finally, we prove the isomorphism between the cohomology of the de Rham dif…
A well known Conjecture due to Beloshapka asserts that all totally nondegenerate polynomial models with the length $l\geq 3$ of their Levi-Tanaka algebra are {\em rigid}, that is, any point preserving automorphism of them is completely determined by the restriction of its differential at the fixed point onto the complex tangent space. For the length $l=3$, Beloshapka's Conjecture was proved by Gammel and Kossovskiy in 2006. In this paper, we prove the Conjecture for arbitrary length $l\geq 3$. As another application of our method, we construct polynomial models of length $l\geq 3$, which are n…
Let $Z \to Y^{2n+1}$ be the bundle of Legendrian $n$-planes over a contact manifold $Y$. We consider a foliation of $Z$ by canonical lifts of Legendrian submanifolds, called \emph{Legendrian submanifold path geometry}, whose flat model is \[ Sp(n+1, R) \to RP^{2n+1}. \] The equivalence problem provides an $sp(n+1, R)$ valued Cartan connection form that captures the geometry of such foliations. Two special cases are considered. The first case is characterized by having a well defined conformal class of symmetric $(n+1)$ differentials on the space of leaves of the foliation $X$. The $G$ structur…
We introduce a class of k-potential submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean spaces and prove that for an arbitrary positive integer k and an arbitrary nonnegative integer p, each N-dimensional Frobenius manifold can always be locally realized as an N-dimensional k-potential submanifold in ((k + 1) N + p)-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean spaces of certain signatures. For k = 1 this construction was proposed by the present author in a previous paper (2006). The realization of concrete Frobenius manifolds is reduced to solving a consistent linear system of second-order partial differential equations.
We show the intersection of a compact almost complex subvariety of dimension $4$ and a compact almost complex submanifold of codimension $2$ is a $J$-holomorphic curve. This is a generalization of positivity of intersections for $J$-holomorphic curves in almost complex $4$-manifolds to higher dimensions. As an application, we discuss pseudoholomorphic sections of a complex line bundle. We introduce a method to produce $J$-holomorphic curves using the differential geometry of almost Hermitian manifolds. When our main result is applied to pseudoholomorphic maps, we prove the singularity subset o…
We introduce a class of potential submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean spaces (each N-dimensional potential submanifold is a special flat torsionless submanifold in a 2N-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean space) and prove that each N-dimensional Frobenius manifold can be locally represented as an N-dimensional potential submanifold. We show that all potential submanifolds bear natural special structures of Frobenius algebras on their tangent spaces. These special Frobenius structures are generated by the corresponding flat first fundamental form and the set of the second fundamental forms of the submani…
This is an introduction to the subject of the differential topology of the space of smooth loops in a finite dimensional manifold. It began as the background notes to a series of seminars given at NTNU and subsequently at Sheffield. I am posting them in the hope that they will be useful to people wishing to know a little about the basics of the subject. I have tried to make them readable by anyone with a good grounding in finite dimensional differential topology. Any comments and suggestions for improvement will be very welcome. The topics covered are: the smooth structure of the space of smoo…
Y. Eliashberg and N. Mishachev introduced the notion of wrinkled embedding to show that any tangential homotopy can be approximated by a homotopy of topological embeddings with mild singularities. This concept plays an important role in Contact Topology: The loose legendrian h-principle of E. Murphy relies on wrinkled embeddings to manipulate the legendrian front. Similarly, the simplification of legendrian front singularities was proven by D. Álvarez-Gavela by defining the notion of wrinkled legendrian. This paper and its sequel generalise these ideas to general jet spaces. The main theorem i…
We prove the simultaneous (k,n-k)-systolic freedom, for a pair of adjacent integers k smaller than n/2, of a simply connected n-manifold X. Our construction, related to recent results of I. Babenko, is concentrated in a neighborhood of suitable k-dimensional submanifolds of X. We employ calibration by differential forms supported in such neighborhoods, to provide lower bounds for the (n-k)-systoles. Meanwhile, the k-systoles are controlled from below by the monotonicity formula combined with the bounded geometry of the construction in a neighborhood of suitable (n-k+1)-dimensional submanifolds…
Let $\OO$ be an orbit of the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms acting on the space of Lagrangian submanifolds of a symplectic manifold $(X,ω).$ We define a functional $\CC:\OO \to \R$ for each differential form $β$ of middle degree satisfying $β\wedge ω= 0$ and an exactness condition. If the exactness condition does not hold, $\CC$ is defined on the universal cover of $\OO.$ A particular instance of $\CC$ recovers the Calabi homomorphism. If $β$ is the imaginary part of a holomorphic volume form, the critical points of $\CC$ are special Lagrangian submanifolds. We present evidence that $…
We propose a general procedure to construct noncommutative deformations of an embedded submanifold $M$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$ determined by a set of smooth equations $f^a(x)=0$. We use the framework of Drinfel'd twist deformation of differential geometry of [Aschieri et al., Class. Quantum Gravity 23 (2006), 1883]; the commutative pointwise product is replaced by a (generally noncommutative) $\star$-product determined by a Drinfel'd twist. The twists we employ are based on the Lie algebra $Ξ_t$ of vector fields that are tangent to all the submanifolds that are level sets of the $f^a$; the twisted C…
