A subset S of a Riemannian manifold N is called extrinsically homogeneous if S is an orbit of a subgroup of the isometry group of N. Thorbergsson proved the remarkable result that every complete, connected, full, irreducible isoparametric submanifold of a finite dimensional Euclidean space of rank at least 3 is extrinsically homogeneous. This result, combined with results of Palais-Terng and Dadok, finally classified irreducible isoparametric submanifolds of a finite dimensional Euclidean space of rank at least 3. While Thorbergsson's proof used Tits buildings, a simpler proof without using Tits buildings was given by Olmos. The main purpose of this paper is to extend Thorbergsson's result to the infinite dimensional case.
We show that an isoparametric submanifold of a complex hyperbolic plane, according to the definition of Heintze, Liu and Olmos', is an open part of a principal orbit of a polar action. We also show that there exists a non-isoparametric submanifold of the complex hyperbolic plane that is isoparametric according to the definition of Terng's. Finally, we classify Terng-isoparametric submanifolds of two-dimensional complex space forms.
This paper is a continuation of [TY12] and [QTY13]. We show that both focal submanifolds of each isoparametric hypersurface in the sphere with six distinct principal curvatures are Willmore.
In this paper, we prove that, if a full irreducible infinite dimensional anti-Kaehler isoparametric submanifold of codimension greater than one has $J$-diagonalizable shape operators, then it is homogeneous.
A submanifold in space forms is isoparametric if the normal bundle is flat and principal curvatures along any parallel normal fields are constant. We study the mean curvature flow with initial data an isoparametric submanifold in Euclidean space and sphere. We show that the mean curvature flow preserves the isoparametric condition, develops singularities in finite time, and converges in finite time to a smooth submanifold of lower dimension. We also give a precise description of the collapsing.
In this paper, we prove that full irreducible curvature-adapted isoparametric submanifolds of codimension greater than one in a symmetric space of non-compact type are principal orbits of Hermann actions on the symmetric spaces under certain conditions.
The focal submanifolds of isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres are all minimal Willmore submanifolds, mostly being $\mathcal{A}$-manifolds in the sense of A.Gray but rarely Ricci-parallel (\cite{QTY},\cite{LY},\cite{TY3}). In this paper we study the geometry of the focal submanifolds via Simons formula. We show that all the focal submanifolds with $g\geq3$ are not normally flat by estimating the normal scalar curvatures. Moreover, we give a complete classification of the semiparallel submanifolds among the focal submanifolds.
It is known that principal orbits of Hermann actions on a symmetric space of non-compact type are curvature-adapted isoparametric submanifolds having no focal point of non-Euclidean type on the ideal boundary of the ambient symmetric space. In this paper, we investigate the mean curvature flows for such a curvature-adapted isoparametric submanifold and its focal submanifold. Concretely the investigation is performed by investigating the mean curvature flows for the lift of the submanifold to an infinite dimensional pseudo-Hilbert space through a pseudo-Riemannian submersion.
In this paper, we assume that all isoparametric submanifolds have flat section. The main purpose of this paper is to prove that, if a full irreducible complete isoparametric submanifold of codimension greater than one in a symmetric space of non-compact type admits a reflective focal submanifold and if it of real analytic, then it is a principal orbit of a Hermann type action on the symmetric space. A hyperpolar action on a symmetric space of non-compact type admits a reflective singular orbit if and only if it is a Hermann type action. Hence is not extra the assumption that the isoparametric …
In this paper, we prove that, if a full irreducible infinite dimensional anti-Kaehler isoparametric submanifold of codimension greater than one has $J$-diagonalizable shape operators, then it is an orbit of the action of a Banach Lie group generated by one-parameter transformation groups induced by holomorphic Killing vector fields defined entirely on the ambient Hilbert space.
This paper is a continuation of a paper with the same title of the last two authors. In the first part of the present paper, we give a unified geometric proof that both focal submanifolds of every isoparametric hypersurface in spheres with four distinct principal curvatures are Willmore. In the second part, we completely determine which focal submanifolds are Einstein except one case.
We define and study isoparametric submanifolds of general ambient spaces and of arbitrary codimension. In particular we study their behaviour with respect to Riemannian submersions and their lift into a Hilbert space. These results are used to prove a Chevalley type restriction theorem which relates by restriction eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a compact Riemannian manifold which contains an isoparametric submanifold with flat sections to eigenfunctions of the Laplacian of a section. A simple example of such an isoparametric foliation is given by the conjugacy classes of a compact Lie grou…
Atiyah's formulation of what is nowadays called the convexity theorem of Atiyah-Guillemin-Sternberg has two parts: (a) the image of the moment map arising from a Hamiltonian action of a torus on a symplectic manifold is a convex polytope, and (b) all preimages of the moment map are connected. Part (a) was generalized by Terng to the wider context of isoparametric submanifolds in euclidean space. In this paper we prove a generalization of part (b) for a certain class of isoparametric submanifolds (more precisely, for those with all multiplicities strictly greater than 1). For generalized real f…
Mean curvature flow for isoparametric submanifolds in Euclidean spaces and spheres was studied by the authors in [LT]. In this paper, we will show that all these solutions are ancient solutions. We also discuss rigidity of ancient mean curvature flows for hypersurfaces in spheres and its relation to the Chern's conjecture on the norm of the second fundamental forms of minimal hypersurfaces in spheres.
An isometric immersion $x:M^n\rightarrow S^{n+p}$ is called Willmore if it is an extremal submanifold of the Willmore functional: $W(x)=\int_{M^n} (S-nH^2)^{\frac{n}{2}}dv$, where $S$ is the norm square of the second fundamental form and $H$ is the mean curvature. Examples of Willmore submanifolds in the unit sphere are scarce in the literature. The present paper gives a series of new examples of Willmore submanifolds in the unit sphere via isoparametric functions of FKM-type.
An isoparametric hypersurface in unit spheres has two focal submanifolds. Condition A plays a crucial role in the classification theory of isoparametric hypersurfaces in [CCJ07], [Chi16] and [Miy13]. This paper determines $C_A$, the set of points with Condition A in focal submanifolds. It turns out that the points in $C_A$ reach an upper bound of the normal scalar curvature $ρ^{\bot}$ (sharper than that in DDVV inequality [GT08], [Lu11]). We also determine the sets $C_P$ (points with parallel second fundamental form) and $C_E$ (points with Einstein condition), which achieve two lower bounds of…
We study isoparametric submanifolds of rank at least two in a separable Hilbert space, which are known to be homogeneous by a result of Heintze and Liu, and associate to such a submanifold M and a point x in M a canonical homogeneous structure (a certain bilinear map on the tangent space). We prove that the homogeneous structure together with the second fundamental form encodes all the information about M, and deduce from this the rigidity result that M is completely determined by the second fundamental form and its covariant derivative, thereby making such submanifolds accessible to classific…
In this paper, we give global expressions of geodesics and isoparametric functions on a Randers sphere by navigation. We obtain isoparametric families and focal submanifolds in (S^{n}; F; dμ_{BH}) by Cartan-Münzner polynomials. Further more, we construct some examples of closed and non-closed geodesics, isoparametric functions, isoparametric families and focal submanifolds.
We find many examples of compact Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ whose closed minimal hypersurfaces satisfy a lower bound on their index that is linear in their first Betti number. Moreover, we show that these bounds remain valid when the metric $g$ is replaced with $g'$ in a neighbourhood of $g$. Our examples $(M,g)$ consist of certain minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces of spheres; their focal manifolds; the Lie groups $SU(n)$ for $n\leq 17$, and $Sp(n)$ for all $n$; and all quaternionic Grassmannians.
Let $π:P\to B$ be a smooth $G$-bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold $B$ and $c$ a smooth loop in $B$ of constant seed $a(>0)$, where $G$ is compact semi-simple Lie group. In this paper, we prove that the holonomy map ${\rm hol}_c:\mathcal A_P^{H^s}\to G$ is a homothetic submersion of coefficient $a$, where $s$ is a non-negative integer, $\mathcal A_P^{H^s}$ is the Hilbert space of all $H^s$-connections of the bundle $P$. In particular, we prove that, if $s=0$, then ${\rm hol}_c$ has minimal regularizable fibres. From this fact, we can derive that each component of the inverse image of any…
Associated with isoparametric foliations of unit spheres, there are two classes of minimal surfaces $-$ minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds. By virtue of their rich structures, we find new series of minimizing cones. They are cones over focal submanifolds and cones over suitable products among these two classes. Except in low dimensions, all such cones are shown minimizing.
We solve the problem raised by Hsiang, Palais and Terng in [The topology of isoparametric submanifolds, JDG, 27(1988), 423-460]: Is it possible to have an isoparametric foliation on R^{52} whose marked Dynkin giagram is of type D_4 and with all multiplicities uniformly equal to 4?
In this paper, we study isoparametric hypersurfaces in Finsler space forms by investigating focal points, tubes and parallel hypersurfaces of submanifolds. We prove that the focal submanifolds of isoparametric hypersurfaces are anisotropic-minimal and obtain the Cartan-type formula in a Finsler space form with vanishing reversible torsion, from which we give some classifications on the number of distinct principal curvatures or their multiplicities.
A new proof of the homogeneity of isoparametric hypersurfaces with six simple principal curvatures (Dorfmeister-Neher's theorem) is given in a method applicable to the multiplicity two case.
The classification of isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres with four or six different principal curvatures is still not complete. In this paper we develop a structural approach that may be helpful for a classification. Instead of working with the isoparametric hypersurface family in the sphere, we consider the associated Lagrangian submanifold of the real Grassmannian of oriented $2$-planes in $\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$. We obtain new geometric insights into classical invariants and identities in terms of the geometry of the Lagrangian submanifold.
In this paper, two sequences of minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces are constructed via representations of Clifford algebras. Based on these, we give estimates on eigenvalues of the Laplacian of the focal submanifolds of isoparametric hypersurfaces in unit spheres. This improves results of [TY13] and [TXY14]. Eells and Lemaire [EL83] posed a problem to characterize the compact Riemannian manifold M for which there is an eigenmap from M to S^n. As another application of our constructions, the focal maps give rise to many examples of eigenmaps from minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces to unit sph…
We propose a method to extend submanifolds, singular Riemannian foliations and isometric actions from a boundary component of a noncompact symmetric space to the whole space. This extension method preserves minimal submanifolds, isoparametric foliations and polar actions, among other properties. One of the several applications yields the first examples of inhomogeneous isoparametric hypersurfaces in noncompact symmetric spaces of rank at least two.
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. …
The $n$-dimensional complex hyperquadric is a compact complex algebraic hypersurface defined by the quadratic equation in the $(n+1)$-dimensional complex projective space, which is isometric to the real Grassmann manifold of oriented 2- planes and is a compact Hermitian symmetric space of rank 2. In this paper we study geometry of compact Lagrangian submanifolds in complex hyperquadrics from the viewpoint of the theory of isoparametric hypersurfaces in spheres. From this viewpoint we provide a classification theorem of compact homogeneous Lagrangian submanifolds in complex hyperquadrics by usi…
We study curvature-adapted submanifolds of general symmetric spaces. We generalize Cartan's theorem for isoparametric hypersurfaces of spheres and Wang's classification of isoparametric Hopf hypersurfaces in complex projective spaces to any compact symmetric space. Our second objective is to investigate such hypersurfaces in some specific symmetric spaces. Various classification results in the Cayley projective and hyperbolic planes and in complex two-plane Grassmannians are obtained under some additional assumptions.
Jakobson and Nadirashvili \cite{JN} constructed a sequence of eigenfunctions on $T^2$ with a bounded number of critical points, answering in the negative the question raised by Yau \cite{Yau1} which asks that whether the number of the critical points of eigenfunctions for the Laplacian increases with the corresponding eigenvalues. The present paper finds three interesting eigenfunctions on the minimal isoparametric hypersurface $M^n$ in $S^{n+1}(1)$. The corresponding eigenvalues are $n$, $2n$ and $3n$, while their critical sets consist of $8$ points, a submanifold(infinite many points) and $8…
In this note, we study properties of the gradient map of the isoparametric polynomial. For a given isoparametric hypersurface in sphere, we calculate explicitly the gradient map of its isoparametric polynomial which turns out many interesting phenomenons and applications. We find that it should map not only the focal submanifolds to focal submanifolds, isoparametric hypersurfaces to isoparametric hypersurfaces, but also map isoparametric hypersurfaces to focal submanifolds. In particular, it turns out to be a homogeneous polynomial automorphism on certain isoparametric hypersurface. As an imme…
We use the octonionic multiplication $\cdot$ of $\mathbb{S}^{7}$ to associate, to each unit normal section $η$ of a submanifold $M$ of $\mathbb{S}^{7},$ an octonionic Gauss map $γ_η:M\rightarrow\mathbb{S}^{6},$ $γ_η(x)=x^{-1}\cdotη(x),$ $x\in M,$ where $\mathbb{S}^{6}$ is the unit sphere of $T_{1}\mathbb{S}^{7},$ $1$ is the neutral element of $\cdot$ in $\mathbb{S}^{7}.$ Denoting by $\mathcal{N}(M)$ the vector bundle of normal sections of $M$ we set, for $η$ $\in\mathcal{N}(M),$ $S_η(X)=-\left(\nabla_{X}η\right) ^{\top},$ $X\in TM.$ Considering the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product on the vector b…
The image of the Gauss map of any oriented isoparametric hypersurface of the unit standard sphere $S^{n+1}(1)$ is a minimal Lagrangian submanifold in the complex hyperquadric $Q_n({\mathbf C})$. In this paper we show that the Gauss image of a compact oriented isoparametric hypersurface with $g$ distinct constant principal curvatures in $S^{n+1}(1)$ is a compact monotone and cyclic embedded Lagrangian submanifold with minimal Maslov number $2n/g$. The main result of this paper is to determine completely the Hamiltonian stability of all compact minimal Lagrangian submanifolds embedded in complex…
In this paper, we show that an irreducible proper complex equifocal submanifold of codimension greater than one in a symmetric space of non-compact type. The proof is performed by showing the homogeneity of the lift of the complexification of the original submanifold to some infinite dimensional anti-Kahelerian space.
This is a continuation of Tang and Yan, which investigated the first eigenvalues of minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces with $g=4$ distinct principal curvatures and focal submanifolds in unit spheres. For the focal submanifolds with $g=6$, the present paper obtains estimates on all the eigenvalues, among others, giving an affirmative answer in one case to the problem posed in Tang and Yan, which may be regarded as a generalization of Yau's conjecture. In two of the four unsettled cases in Tang and Yan for focal submanifolds $M_1$ of OT-FKM-type, we prove the first eigenvalues to be their dimen…
In this survey article we provide an introduction to submanifold geometry in symmetric spaces of noncompact type. We focus on the construction of examples and the classification problems of homogeneous and isoparametric hypersurfaces, polar and hyperpolar actions, and homogeneous CPC submanifolds.
Isoparametric submanifolds and hypersurfaces in space forms are geometric objects that have been studied since E. Cartan. Another important class of geometric objects is the orbits of a polar action on a Riemannian manifold,e.g., the orbits of the adjoint action of a Lie group on itself. These two classes of submanifolds share comon properties. For example, they are leaves of a singular Riemannian foliation with sections (s.r.f.s. for short). The purpose of this paper is to review some results of the theory of s.r.f.s., which have been developed by the author. In addition, we give an alternati…
We prove that a maximal totally complex submanifold $N^{2n}$ of the quaternionic projective space $\mathbb{H}\mathbb{P}^n$ ($n\geq 2$) is a parallel submanifold, provided one of the following conditions is satisfied: (1) $N$ is the orbit of a compact Lie group of isometries, (2) the restricted normal holonomy is a proper subgroup of ${\rm U}(n)$.
We prove that a submanifold with parallel focal structure, which is a generalization of isoparametric and equifocal submanifolds, induces a singular Riemannian foliation of the ambient space by its parallel and focal manifolds.
We consider parallel submanifolds $M$ of a Riemannian symmetric space $N$ and study the question whether $M$ is extrinsically homogeneous in $N$\,, i.e.\ whether there exists a subgroup of the isometry group of $N$ which acts transitively on $M$\,. First, given a "2-jet" $(W,b)$ at some point $p\in N$ (i.e. $W\subset T_pN$ is a linear space and $b:W\times W\to W^\bot$ is a symmetric bilinear form)\,, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a parallel submanifold with extrinsically homogeneous tangent holonomy bundle which passes through $p$ and whose 2-jet at $p$ is …
A very short proof of the following smooth homogeneity theorem of D. Repovs, E. V. Scepin and the author is presented. Let N be a locally compact subset of a smooth manifold M. Assume that for each two points x,y in N there exist their neighborhoods Ux and Uy in M and a diffeomorphism h : Ux \to Uy such that h(x)=y and h (Ux \cap N) = Uy \cap N. Then N is a smooth submanifold of M.
We classify compact 2-connected homogeneous spaces with the same rational cohomology as a product of spheres. This classification relies on spectral sequences, homotopy theory, and representation theory. We then apply this classification to two geometric problems. The first problem is the classification of all isoparametric hypersurfaces which admit a transitive isometry group on at least one focal manifold. This generalizes the classification of homogeneous isoparametric hypersurfaces by Hsiang and Lawson and gives a new, independent proof of their result. Secondly, we classify certain compac…
We investigate the homogeneity of certain kind of slices of the complete complexification of a proper complex equifocal submanifold in a symmetric space of non-compact type.
It was conjectured, twenty years ago, the following result that would generalize the so-called rank rigidity theorem for homogeneous Euclidean submanifolds: let M^n, n>=2, be a full and irreducible homogeneous submanifold of the sphere $S^{N-1}\subset R^N$ and such that the normal holonomy group is not transitive (on the unit sphere of the normal space to the sphere). Then M^n must be an orbit of an irreducible s-representation (i.e. the isotropy representation of a semisimple Riemannian symmetric space). If n=2, then the normal holonomy is always transitive, unless M is a homogeneous isoparam…
