We study the problem posed by F. Burstall of developing a theory of isothermic Euclidean submanifolds of dimension greater than or equal to three. As a natural extension of the definition in the surface case, we call a Euclidean submanifold {\it isothermic} if it is locally the image of a conformal immersion of a Riemannian product of Riemannian manifolds whose second fundamental form is adapted to the product net of the manifold. Our main result is a complete classification of all such conformal immersions of Riemannian products of dimension greater than or equal to three. We derive several consequences of this result. We also study whether the classical characterizations of isothermic surfaces as solutions of Christoffel's problem and as envelopes of nontrivial conformal sphere congruences extend to higher dimensions.
We extend the classical theory of isothermic surfaces in conformal 3-space, due to Bour, Christoffel, Darboux, Bianchi and others, to the more general context of submanifolds of symmetric $R$-spaces with essentially no loss of integrable structure.
In Part I, we develop the notions of a Moebius structure and a conformal Cartan geometry, establish an equivalence between them; we use them in Part II to study submanifolds of conformal manifolds in arbitrary dimension and codimension. We obtain Gauss-Codazzi-Ricci equations and a conformal Bonnet theorem characterizing immersed submanifolds of the conformal n-sphere. These methods are applied in Part III to study constrained Willmore surfaces, isothermic surfaces, Guichard surfaces and conformally-flat submanifolds with flat normal bundle, and their spectral deformations, in arbitrary codime…
Various transformations of isothermic surfaces are discussed and their interrelations are analyzed. Applications to cmc-1 surfaces in hyperbolic space and their minimal cousins in Euclidean space are presented: the Umehara-Yamada perturbation, the classical and Bryant's Weierstrass type representations, and the duality for cmc-1 surfaces are interpreted in terms of transformations of isothermic surfaces. A new Weierstrass type representation is introduced and a Moebius geometric characterization of cmc-1 surfaces in hyperbolic space and minimal surfaces in Euclidean space is given.
For a submanifold M in a Euclidean space, the tangential component x^T of the position vector field x of M is the most natural vector field tangent to the Euclidean submanifold, called the canonical vector field of M. In this article, first we prove that the canonical vector field of every Euclidean submanifold is always conservative. Then we initiate the study of Euclidean submanifolds with incompressible canonical vector fields. In particular, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for the canonical vector field of a Euclidean submanifold to be incompressible. Further, we provide …
The position vector field x is the most elementary and natural geometric object on a Euclidean submanifold $M$. The position vector field plays very important roles in mathematics as well as in physics. Similarly, the tangential component x^T of the position vector field is the most natural vector field tangent to the Euclidean submanifold $M$. We simply call the vector field x^T the \textit{canonical vector field} of the Euclidean submanifold M. In earlier articles, we investigated Euclidean submanifolds whose canonical vector fields are concurrent, concircular, or torse-forming. In this arti…
The authors obtained the classification theorem for Lagrangian H-umbilical submanifolds in quaternion Euclidean spaces using the idea of quaternion extensors.
In this paper we give local and global parametric classifications of a class of Einstein submanifolds of Euclidean space. The highlight is for submanifolds of codimension two since in this case our assumptions are only of intrinsic nature.
Using the idea of special Legendre curves, the authors obtained the explicit description of flat Lagrangian H-umbilical submanifolds in quaternion Euclidean spaces.
In this short note, we study the asymptotic property of Huisken's functional for mean curvature flow on the minimal submanifolds of Euclidean space. We prove that the limit of Huisken's functional equals to the extrinsic asymptotic volume ratio on the minimal submanifold of Euclidean space.
In this paper we initiate the study of Yamabe and quasi-Yamabe solitons on Euclidean submanifolds whose soliton fields are the tangential components of their position vector fields. Several fundamental results of such solitons were proved. In particular, we classify such Yamabe and quasi-Yamabe solitons on Euclidean hypersurfaces.
It is proved some results about existence and non existence of unit normal sections of submanifolds of the Euclidean space and sphere which associated Gauss maps are harmonic. Some applications to CMC hypersurfaces of the sphere and isoparametric submanifolds are obtained too.
We show that a complete Euclidean submanifold with minimal index of relative nullity $ν_0>0$ and Ricci curvature with a certain controlled decay must be a $ν_0$-cylinder. This is an extension of the classical Hartman cylindricity theorem.
We consider a complete nonnegative biminimal submanifold M (that is, a complete biminimal submanifold with lambda>=0) in a Euclidean space E^N. Assume that the immersion is proper, that is, the preimage of every compact set in E^N is also compact in M. Then, we prove that M is minimal. From this result, we give an affirmative partial answer to Chen's conjecture. For the case of lambda<0, we construct examples of biminimal submanifolds and curves.
We describe several families of Lagrangian submanifolds in the complex Euclidean space which are H-minimal, i.e. critical points of the volume functional restricted to Hamiltonian variations. We make use of various constructions involving planar, spherical and hyperbolic curves, as well as Legendrian submanifolds of the odd-dimensional unit sphere.
We consider a complete biharmonic immersed submanifold $M$ in an Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^N$. Assume that the immersion is proper, that is, the preimage of every compact set in $\mathbb{E}^N$ is also compact in $M$. Then, we prove that $M$ is minimal. It is considered as an affirmative answer to the global version of Chen's conjecture for biharmonic submanifolds.
An isometric immersion $f:M^n\to \tilde M^n$ from a Riemannian $n$-manifold $M^n$ into a Kähler $n$-manifold $\tilde M^n$ is called {\it Lagrangian} if the complex structure $J$ of the ambient manifold $\tilde M^n$ interchanges each tangent space of $M^n$ with the corresponding normal space. In this paper, we completely classify spherical Lagrangian submanifolds in complex Euclidean spaces. Furthermore, we also provide two corresponding classification theorems for Lagrangian submanifolds in the complex pseudo-Euclidean spaces with arbitrary complex index.
We address the study of some curvature equations for distinguished submanifolds in para-Kähler geometry. We first observe that a para-complex submanifold of a para-Kähler manifold is minimal. Next we describe the extrinsic geometry of Lagrangian submanifolds in the para-complex Euclidean space D^n and discuss a number of examples, such as graphs and normal bundles. We also characterize those Lagrangian surfaces of D^2 which are minimal and have indefinite metric. Finally we describe the Lagrangian self-similar solutions of the Mean Curvature Flow which are SO(n)-equivariant.
We obtain the parametric equations of all biharmonic Legendre curves and Hopf cylinders in the 3-dimensional unit sphere endowed with the modified Sasakian structure defined by Tanno.
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.
Let $f\colon M^{2n}\to\mathbb{R}^{2n+\ell}$, $n \geq 5$, denote a conformal immersion into Euclidean space with codimension $\ell$ of a Kaehler manifold of complex dimension $n$ and free of flat points. For codimensions $\ell=1,2$ we show that such a submanifold can always be locally obtained in a rather simple way, namely, from an isometric immersion of the Kaehler manifold $M^{2n}$ into either $\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$ or $\mathbb{R}^{2n+2}$, the latter being a class of submanifolds already extensively studied.
We study the foliation space of complex and invariant (by torsion of intrinsic Hermitian connection) umbilic distribution on an isometric immersion from a nearly Kähler manifold $M$ into the Euclidean space. Under suitable conditions this leaf space is nearly Kähler and $M$ can be decomposed into a product of this leaf space and a 6-dimensional locally homogeneous nearly Kähler manifold.
For an embedded submanifold $Σ\subset\mathbb{R}^{N}$, Belkin and Niyogi showed that one can approximate the Laplacian operator using heat kernels. Using a definition of coarse Ricci curvature derived by iterating Laplacians, we approximate the coarse Ricci curvature of submanifolds $Σ$ in the same way. For this purpose, we derive asymptotics for the approximation of the Ricci curvature proposed in [AW19]. Specifically, we prove Proposition 3.2 in [AW19].
In this paper, we investigate minimal submanifolds in Euclidean space with positive index of relative nullity. Let $M^m$ be a complete Riemannian manifold and let $f\colon M^m\to\R^n$ be a minimal isometric immersion with index of relative nullity at least $m-2$ at any point. We show that if the Omori-Yau maximum principle for the Laplacian holds on $M^m$, for instance, if the scalar curvature of $M^m$ does not decrease to $-\infty$ too fast or if the immersion $f$ is proper, then the submanifold must be a cylinder over a minimal surface.
In this note, we investigate conformally flat submanifolds of Euclidean space with positive index of relative nullity. Let $M^n$ be a complete conformally flat manifold and let $f\colon M^n\to \R^m$ be an isometric immersion. We prove the following results: (1) If the index of relative nullity is at least two, then $M^n$ is flat and $f$ is a cylinder over a flat submanifold. (2) If the scalar curvature of $M^n$ is non-negative and the index of relative nullity is positive, then $f$ is a cylinder over a submanifold with constant non-negative sectional curvature. (3) If the scalar curvature of $…
Let the warped product $M^n=L^m\times_φF^{n-m}$, $n\geq m+3\geq 8$, of Riemannian manifolds be an Einstein manifold with Ricci curvature $ρ$ that admits an isometric immersion into Euclidean space with codimension two. Under the assumption that $L^m$ is also Einstein, but not of constant sectional curvature, it is shown that $ρ=0$ and that the submanifold is locally a cylinder with an Euclidean factor of dimension at least $n-m$. Hence $L^m$ is also Ricci flat. If $M^n$ is complete, then the same conclusion holds globally if the assumption on $L^m$ is replaced by the much weaker condition that…
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…
In this paper we investigate $m$-dimensional complete minimal submanifolds in Euclidean spheres with index of relative nullity at least $m-2$ at any point. These are austere submanifolds in the sense of Harvey and Lawson \cite{harvey} and were initially studied by Bryant \cite{br}. For any dimension and codimension there is an abundance of non-complete examples fully described by Dajczer and Florit \cite{DF2} in terms of a class of surfaces, called elliptic, for which the ellipse of curvature of a certain order is a circle at any point. Under the assumption of completeness, it turns out that a…
In this note, we obtain the sharp estimates for the first eigenvalue of Paneitz operator for $4$-dimensional compact submanifolds in Euclidean space. Since unit spheres and projective spaces can be canonically imbedded into Euclidean space, the corresponding estimates for the first eigenvalue are also obtained.
Submanifolds of coordinate finite-type were introduced in HV1. A submanifold of a Euclidean space is called a coordinate finite-type submanifold if its coordinate functions are eigenfunctions of Δ. In the present study we consider coordinate finite-type surfaces in E^4. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for generalized rotation surfaces in E^4 to become coordinate finite-type. We also give some special examples.
There is a hierarchy of commuting soliton equations associated to each symmetric space U/K. When U/K has rank n, the first n flows in the hierarchy give rise to a natural first order non-linear system of partial diffferential equations in n variables, the so called U/K-system. Let G_{m,n} denote the Grassmannian of n-dimensional linear subspaces in R^{m+n}, and G_{m,n}^1 the Grassmannian of space like m-dimensional linear subspaces in the Lorentzian space R^{m+n,1}. In this paper, we use techniques from soliton theory to study submanifolds in space forms whose Gauss-Codazzi equations are gauge…
In this paper we develop the vectorial Ribaucour transformation for Euclidean submanifolds. We prove a general decomposition theorem showing that under {appropriate} conditions the composition of two or more vectorial Ribaucour transformations is again a vectorial Ribaucour transformation. An immediate consequence of this result is the classical permutability of Ribaucour transformations. Our main application is an explicit local construction of all Euclidean submanifolds with flat normal bundle. Actually, this is a particular case of a more general result. Namely, we obtain a local explicit c…
In the theory of finite type submanifolds, null 2-type submanifolds are the most simple ones, besides 1-type submanifolds (cf. e.g., [3, 12]). In particular, the classification problems of null 2-type hypersurfaces are quite interesting and of fundamentally important. In this paper, we prove that every $δ$(3)-ideal null 2-type hypersurface in a Euclidean space has constant mean curvature and constant scalar curvature.
In this paper, we solve affirmatively B.-Y. Chen's conjecture for hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space, under a generic condition. More precisely, every biharmonic hypersurface of the Euclidean space must be minimal if their principal curvatures are simple, and the associated frame field is irreducible.
It is well known that the space of oriented lines of Euclidean space has a natural symplectic structure. Moreover, given an immersed, oriented hypersurface S the set of oriented lines that cross S orthogonally is a Lagrangian submanifold. Conversely, if \bar{S} an n-dimensional family of oriented lines is Lagrangian, there exists, locally, a 1-parameter family of immersed, oriented, parallel hypersurfaces S_t whose tangent spaces cross orthogonally the lines of \bar{S}. The purpose of this paper is to generalize these facts to higher dimension: to any point x of a submanifold S of R^m of dimen…
In this paper we get a version of mean value inequality for generalized self-expander type submanifolds in Euclidean space. As the application, we prove that if mean curvature flow $M(t)$ on the self-expander in Euclidean space subconverges to an $n$-rectifiable varifold $T$ in weak sense for $t$ goes to the singular time, then $T$ must be the cone.
Our goal is to generalize the Choe-Hoppe helicoid and Clifford cones in Euclidean space. By sweeping out $L$ indpendent Clifford cones in ${\mathbb{R}}^{2N+2}$ via the multi-screw motion, we construct minimal submanifolds in ${\mathbb{R}}^{L(2N+2)+1}$. Also, we sweep out the $L$-rays Clifford cone (introduced in Section 2.3) in ${\mathbb{R}}^{L(2N+2)}$ to construct minimal submanifolds in ${\mathbb{R}}^{L(2N+2)+1}$. Our minimal submanifolds unify various interesting examples: Choe-Hoppe's helicoid of codimension one, cone over Lawson's ruled minimal surfaces in ${\mathbb{S}}^{3}$, Barbosa-Dajc…
A twisted-austere $k$-fold $(M, μ)$ in $\mathbb R^n$ consists of a $k$-dimensional submanifold $M$ of $\mathbb R^n$ together with a closed $1$-form $μ$ on $M$ such that the `twisted conormal bundle' $N^* M + μ$ is a special Lagrangian submanifold of $\mathbb C^n$. The 1-form $μ$ and the second fundamental form of $M$ must satisfy a particular system of coupled nonlinear second order PDE. We first review these twisted-austere conditions and give an explicit example. Then we focus on twisted-austere 3-folds, giving a geometric description of all solutions when the base $M$ is a cylinder and when…
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.
We study biharmonic hypersurfaces and biharmonic submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold. One of interesting problems in this direction is Chen's conjecture which says that any biharmonic submanifold in a Euclidean space is minimal. From the invariant equation for biharmonic submanifolds, we derive a fundamental identity involving the mean curvature vector field, and using this, we prove Chen's conjecture on biharmonic submanifolds in a Euclidean space. More generally, it is proved that any biharmonic submanifold in a space form of nonpositively sectional curvature is minimal. Furthermore we pro…
B.-Y. Chen famously conjectured that every submanifold of Euclidean space with harmonic mean curvature vector is minimal. In this note we establish a much more general statement for a large class of submanifolds satisfying a growth condition at infinity. We discuss in particular two popular competing natural interpretations of the conjecture when the Euclidean background space is replaced by an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. Introducing the notion of epsilon-superbiharmonic submanifolds, which contains each of the previous notions as special cases, we prove that epsilon-superbiharmonic submani…
We investigate minimal helix submanifolds of any dimension and codimension immersed in Euclidean space. Our main result proves that a ruled minimal helix submanifold is a cylinder. As an application we classify complex helix submanifolds of $\mathbb{C}^n$: They are extrinsic products with a complex line as a factor. The key tool is Corollary 1.3 which allows us to classify Riemannian foliations of open subsets of the Euclidean space with minimal leaves. Finally, we consider the case of a helix hypersurface with constant mean curvature and prove that it is either a cylinder or an open part of a…
We generalize the Ruh-Vilms problem by characterizing the submanifolds in Euclidean spaces with proper biharmonic Gauss map and we construct examples of such hypersurfaces.
We provide a classification of compact Euclidean submanifolds $M^n\subset{\mathbb{R}}^{n+2}$ with nonnegative sectional curvature, for $n\ge 3$. The classification is in terms of the induced metric (including the diffeomorphism classification of the manifold), and we study the structure of the immersions as well. In particular, we provide the first known example of a nonorientable quotient $({\mathbb{S}}^{n-1}\times{\mathbb{S}}^1)/{\mathbb{Z}_2}\subset{\mathbb{R}}^{n+2}$ with nonnegative curvature. For the 3-dimensional case, we show that either the universal cover is isometric to ${\mathbb{S}…
If M is a submanifold of a space form, the nullity distribution N of its second fundamental form is (when defined) the common kernel of its shape operators. In this paper we will give a local description of any submanifold of the Euclidean space by means of its nullity distribution. We will also show the following global result: if M is a complete, irreducible submanifold of the Euclidean space or the sphere then N is completely non integrable. This means that any two points in M can be joined by a curve everywhere perpendicular to N. We will finally show that this statement is false for a sub…
We prove a Sobolev inequality which holds on submanifolds in Euclidean space of arbitrary dimension and codimension. This inequality is sharp if the codimension is at most 2. As a special case, we obtain a sharp isoperimetric inequality for minimal submanifolds in Euclidean space of codimension at most 2.
