An algebraic characterization of holomorphic nondegeneracy for real algebraic hypersurfaces and its application to CR mappings

We give a new algebraic characterization of holomorphic nondegeneracy for embedded real algebraic hypersurfaces in , . We then use this criterion to prove the following result about real analyticity of smooth CR mappings: any smooth CR mapping H between a real analytic hypersurface and a rigid polynomial holomorphically nondegenerate hypersurface is real analytic, provided the map H is not totally degenerate in the sense of Baouendi and Rothschild. Received September 19, 1997