Affine surfaces with constant affine curvatures

In this paper, we study affine non-degenerate Blaschke immersions from a surface M in ³. We will assume that M has constant affine curvature and constant affine mean curvature, i.e. both the determinant and the trace of the shape operator are constant. Clearly, affine spheres satisfy both these conditions. In this paper, we completely classify the affine surfaces with constant affine curvature and constant affine mean curvature, which are not affine spheres.Research Assistant of the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium).     

The Graded Cobordism Group of Codimension-One Immersions

The cobordism group N(Mⁿ) of codimension-one immersions in the n-manifold Mⁿ has a natural filtration induced by any cellular decomposition. The problem addressed in this paper is the explicit computation of the graded group gr*N(Mⁿ). We introduce some new invariants for immersions enlightening the Atiyah–Hirzebruch spectral sequence associated to N(M), which are of combinatorial-geometric nature. Explicit computations are developed for n 7, and the group structure is also investigated for orientable 4-manifolds.     

Willmore surfaces in the four-sphere

Willmore immersions of an orientable surface X in the n-dimensionalsphere appear as the extremal points of a conformally invariant variational problem in the space of all immersions f: X S ⁿ.In this paper we will study Willmore immersions of the differentiable two-sphere in S ⁴, using the method of moving frames and Cartan's conformal structures.The work on this paper was partially supported by a Fellowship of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.     

On the Blaschke isoparametric hypersurfaces in the unit sphere

Given an immersed submanifold x ： M^M → S^n in the unit sphere S^n without umbilics, a Blaschke eigenvalue of x is by definition an eigenvalue of the Blaschke tensor of x. x is called Blaschke isoparametric if its Mobius form vanishes identically and all of its Blaschke eigenvalues are constant. Then the classification of Blaschke isoparametric hypersurfaces is natural and interesting in the MSbius geometry of submanifolds. When n = 4, the corresponding classification theorem was given by the authors. In this paper, we are able to complete the corresponding classification for n = 5. In particular, we shall prove that all the Blaschke isoparametric hypersurfaces in S^5 with more than two distinct Blaschke eigenvalues are necessarily Mobius isoparametric.     

Many function-spaces are not normal if the domain is not compact

V. Neves [4] has proved that C(M, N) with Whitney's C-topology or Michor's extension of Schwartz's D-topology is not a normal topological space provided that M is not compact. This result was shown by giving a closed embedding of Van Douwen's non-normal space using means of non-standard analysis. In this paper we recover this theorem by standard-techniques and by working in the function-space itself instead of giving an embedding. A similar method is used to obtain the same result for various other function-spaces in the case that the domain is not compact: spaces of continuous functions and C ^k-functions with Whitney's topology and spaces of sections of arbitrary differentiability-classes. Even any subspace of these spaces with non-empty interior is not normal, for example the spaces of immersions, embeddings, Riemannian metrics and symplectic structures. This also answers an open problem posed by Hirsch [2].     

Immersed Hypersurfaces in the Unit Sphere S^m＋1 with Constant Blaschke Eigenvalues

For an immersed submanifold x ： M^m→ Sn in the unit sphere S^n without umbilics, an eigenvalue of the Blaschke tensor of x is called a Blaschke eigenvalue of x. It is interesting to determine all hypersurfaces in Sn with constant Blaschke eigenvalues. In this paper, we are able to classify all immersed hypersurfaces in S^m＋1 with vanishing MSbius form and constant Blaschke eigenvalues, in case （1） x has exact two distinct Blaschke eigenvalues, or （2） m = 3. With these classifications, some interesting examples are also presented.     

Order one invariants of immersions of surfaces into 3-space

We classify all order one invariants of immersions of a closed orientable surface F into ³, with values in an arbitrary Abelian group . We show that for any F and and any regular homotopy class of immersions of F into ³, the group of all order one invariants on is isomorphic to is the group of all functions from a set of cardinality . Our work includes foundations for the study of finite order invariants of immersions of a closed orientable surface into ³, analogous to chord diagrams and the 1-term and 4-term relations of knot theory.Partially supported by the Minerva FoundationMathamatics Subject Classification (2000):57M, 57R42     

Lines of curvature on surfaces immersed in ℝ4

The differential equation of thelines of curvature for immersions of surfaces into ⁴ is established. It is shown that, for a class of generic immersions of a surface into ⁴ in theC ^r -topology,r4, all of the umbilic points are locally topologically stable. This type of umbilic points is described.Dedicated to the memory of Ricardo MañéPart of this work was supported by CNPq-IMPAResearch supported by grant N. 049633GM Universidad de Santiago, Chile.     

A metric on the manifold of immersions and its Riemannian curvature

E. Binz [1] considered two canonical Riemannian metrics on the space of embeddings of a closed (n–1) dimensional manifold into ⁿ , and computed the geodesic sprays. Here we consider the space of immersions Imm (M, N) whereM is without boundary, and we compute the covariant derivative (in the form of its connector) and the Riemannian curvature of one of these metrics, the non trivial one. The setting is close to that used byP. Michor [2], and we refer the reader to this paper for notation.     

Disconnectedness of sublevel sets of some Riemannian functionals

LetM be a compact manifold of dimension greater than four. Denote byRiem(M) the space of Riemannian structures onM (i.e. of isometry classes of Riemannian metrics onM) endowed with the Gromov-Hausdorff metric. LetRiem (M) Riem(M) be its subset formed by all Riemannian structures such that vol()=1 andinj() , whereinj() denotes the injectivity radius of.We prove that for all sufficiently small positive the spaceRiem (M) is disconnected. Moreover, if is sufficiently small, thenRiem (M) is representable as the union of two non-empty subsetsA andB such that the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between any element ofA and any element ofB is greater than/9. We also prove a more general result with the following informal meaning: There exist two Riemannian structures of volume one and arbitrarily small injectivity radius onM such that any continuous path (and even any sequence of sufficiently small jumps) in the space of Riemannian structures of volume one onM connecting these Riemannian structures must pass through Riemannian structures of injectivity radius uncontrollably smaller than the injectivity radii of these two Riemannian structures.These results can be generalized for at least some four-dimensional manifolds. The technique used in this paper can also be used to prove the disconnectedness of many other subsets of the space of Riemannian structures onM formed by imposing various constraints on curvatures, volume, diameter, etc.This work was partially supported by the New York University Research Challenge Fund grant, by NSF grant DMS 9114456 and by the NSERC operating grant OGP0155879.     

A geometric classification of immersions of 3-manifolds into 5-space

In this paper we define two regular homotopy invariants c and i for immersions of oriented 3-manifolds into ⁵ in a geometric manner. The pair (c(f), i(f)) completely describes the regular homotopy class of the immersion f. The invariant i corresponds to the 3-dimensional obstruction that arises from Hirsch-Smale theory and extends the one defined in [10] for immersions with trivial normal bundle.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 57N35, 57R45, 57R42     

Irreducibility of moduli space of harmonic 2-spheres in S4

In this paper we prove that ford3, the moduli spaces of degreed branched superminimal immersions of the 2-sphere intoS ⁴ has 2 irreducible components. Consequently, the moduli space of degreed harmonic 2-spheres inS ⁴ has 3 irreducible components.     

Prescribing the Maslov Form of Lagrangian Immersions

We formulate and apply a modified Lagrangian mean curvature flow to prescribe the Maslov form of Lagrangian immersions in ⁿ . We prove longtime existence results and derive optimal results for curves.     

Parallel surfaces in affine 4- space

We study affine immersions as introduced by Nomizu and Pinkall. We classify those affine immersions of a surface in R⁴ which are degenerate and have vanishing cubic form (i.e. parallel second fundamental form). This completes the classification of parallel surfaces of which the first results were obtained in the beginning of this century by Blaschke and his collaborators.     

Lefschetz Complex Conditions for Complex Manifolds

For any compact complex manifold M with a compatible symplectic form, we consider the homomorphisms L _1,0: H ^1,0(M) H ^{{n, n–1}(M) and L _{0, 1}: H ^{0, 1}(M) H ^{n – 1, n} (M) given by the cup product with [] ^{n – 1}, n being the complex dimension of M andH ^{*, *}(M) the Dolbeault cohomology of M. We say that Mhas Lefschetz complex type (1, 0) (resp. (0, 1)) if L _{1, 0} (resp.L _{0, 1}) is injective. Such conditions can be considered as complexversions of the (real) Lefschetz condition studied by Benson and Gordonin [Topology 27 (1988), 513–518]for symplectic manifolds. Within the class of compactcomplex nilmanifolds, we prove that the injectivity of L _{1, 0}characterizes those complex structures which are Abelian in the sense ofBarberis et al. [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 13 (1995), 289–301]. In contrast, complex tori are the only nilmanifolds having Lefschetz complex type (0, 1).     

Spin structures and spectra of ℤ<Subscript>2</Subscript><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis></Superscript>-manifolds

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of pin^± and spin structures on Riemannian manifolds with holonomy group ₂^k. For any n4 (resp. n6) we give examples of pairs of compact manifolds (resp. compact orientable manifolds) M₁, M₂, non homeomorphic to each other, that are Laplace isospectral on functions and on p-forms for any p and such that M₁ admits a pin^± (resp. spin) structure whereas M₂ does not.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):58J53, 57R15, 20H15Partially supported by Conicet and grants from SecytUNC, Foncyt and AgCba.     

Totally geodesic immersions of Kähler manifolds and Kähler Frenet curves

In a given Kähler manifold (M,J) we introduce the notion of Kähler Frenet curves, which is closely related to the complex structure J of M. Using the notion of such curves, we characterize totally geodesic Kähler immersions of M into an ambient Kähler manifold and totally geodesic immersions of M into an ambient real space form of constant sectional curvature .     

Incidence Structures of Type (p, n)

Every incidence structure (understood as a triple of sets (G, M, I), I G×M) admits for every positive integer p an incidence structure where G ^p (M ^p) consists of all independent p-element subsets in G (M) and I ^p is determined by some bijections. In the paper such incidence structures are investigated the 's of which have their incidence graphs of the simple join form. Some concrete illustrations are included with small sets G and M.     

Submanifolds with constant Möbius scalar curvature in <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>

 Let M ^m be a m-dimensional submanifold in the n-dimensional unit sphere S ⁿ without umbilic point. Two basic invariants of M ^m under the M?bius transformation group of S ⁿ are a 1-form Φ called M?bius form and a symmetric (0,2) tensor A called Blaschke tensor. In this paper, we prove the following rigidity theorem: Let M ^m be a m-dimensional (m≥3) submanifold with vanishing M?bius form and with constant M?bius scalar curvature R in S ⁿ , denote the trace-free Blaschke tensor by . If , then either ||?||≡0 and M ^m is M?bius equivalent to a minimal submanifold with constant scalar curvature in S ⁿ ; or and M ^m is M?bius equivalent to in for some c≥0 and . Received: 15 May 2002 / Revised version: 3 February 2003 Published online: 19 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*" Partially supported by grants of CSC, NSFC and Outstanding Youth Foundation of Henan, China. RID="†" ID="†" Partially supported by the Alexander Humboldt von Stiftung and Zhongdian grant of NSFC. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): Primary 53A30; Secondary 53B25     

Orientation reversing involutions and the first betti number for finite coverings of 3-manifolds

LetMS ³,P ³ be a closed, orientable irreducible 3-manifold which admits an orientation reversing involution :MM. If dim(Fix )=0, suppose ₁ (M) has a subgroup of even index. We show thatM has finite coverMMM} with ₁(M<0). As an application we show that the hyperbolic dodecahedral space has a finite cover with positive 1st betti number.