Nowhere minimal CR submanifolds and Levi-flat hypersurfaces (Q883215)

A real submanifold of \(M \subset \mathbb C^N\) is said to have the modulus uniqueness property if for any pair of holomorphic functions \(f\) and \(g\) on a neighborhood of \(M\), the equality \(| f| = | g| \) at the points of \(M\) implies that \(f = e^{i c} g\) for some constant \(c\). This condition is equivalent to the property that any meromorphic function \(f/g\), which is either unimodular or real valued at all points of \(M\), is necessarily constant. This last condition means that, locally, \(M\) is not contained in any (possibly singular) Levi-flat hypersurface defined by the imaginary part of a meromorphic function. The paper under review determines various conditions for a real analytic submanifold \(M \subset \mathbb C^N\) to satisfy the modulus uniqueness property or the slightly weaker condition of not being included in any Levi-flat hypersurface. In particular, the following result is proved: Let \(M \subset \mathbb C^{n+2}\) be the germ of a generic real analytic submanifold of codimension 2. Assume also that the coordinates \((z,w)\) are normal coordinates w.r.t. \(M\), i.e., that \(M\) is defined by \(w = Q(z, \bar z, w)\) with \(Q(0, \zeta, \omega) = \omega\) and \(Q(z, \zeta, \overline{Q(\zeta, z,w)}) = w\). If \(M\) is nowhere minimal and real-algebraic, then \(M\) is always contained in the closure of the regular points of a (real algebraic) Levi-flat hypersurface. If \(M\) is nowhere minimal and not real algebraic, then \(M\) is contained in the closure of the regular points of a Levi-flat hypersurface if and only if the projection of \(M\) onto the second factor in \((z,w)\) is contained in a germ of a (possibly singular) real analytic hypersurface of \(\mathbb C^{2}\). The author introduces also the concept of almost minimal submanifolds at a point \(x\), i.e. of submanifolds passing through \(x\) so that for any connected neighborhood \(\mathcal U\) of \(0\) there exists a point \(p \in \mathcal U\) such that the CR orbit of \(p\) is not contained in any proper complex analytic subvariety of \(\mathcal U\). An example of a submanifold in \(\mathbb C^{n+2}\), which is nowhere minimal but almost minimal at \(0\), is \[ M_\lambda = \{\overline w_i = e^{i \lambda | z| ^2} w_i,\;i = 1,2\} \] for some irrational real number \(\lambda\). The author shows that no almost minimal submanifold of codimension 2 can be contained in a Levi-flat hypersurface. Hence the nowhere minimal, almost minimal CR manifolds are examples of submanifolds that are not biholomorphic to any real algebraic submanifold.