Symmetric submanifolds and generalized Gauss maps (Q2640911)

Let M be a Riemannian symmetric space with curvature tensor R. A vector subspace V of \(T_ pM\) is said to be strongly curvature-invariant if \(R_ p(V,V)V\subset V\) and \(R_ p(V^{\perp},V^{\perp})V^{\perp}\subset V^{\perp}\) where \(V^{\perp}\) is the orthogonal complement of V. Strongly curvature- invariant subspaces \(V\subset T_ pM,\) \(W\subset T_ qM\) are said to be equivalent to each other if there exists an isometry \(\phi\) of M such that \(\phi (p)=q,\quad \phi_*(V)=W.\) Denote by [V] the equivalence class containing a strongly curvature-invariant subspace V and by \({\mathcal S}(M)\) the set of all the equivalence classes. For \({\mathcal V}\in {\mathcal S}(M)\) a connected submanifold S of M is called a \({\mathcal V}\)-submanifold if \([T_ pS]={\mathcal V}\) for any \(p\in S.\) The author defines a generalized Gauss map associated with a connected \({\mathcal V}\)-manifold S of M. At first he constructs the target space \(M^*\). Put \(V=T_ oS\) for a fixed point \(o\in S\). Let \(F_ S\) be the set of the strongly curvature-invariant subspaces which are equivalent to V by isometries in the identity component of the isometries of M. He defines an equivalence relation \(\sim\) on \(F_ S:\) Let \(W\subset T_ pM,\) \(U\subset T_ qN\) be subspaces in \(F_ S\). Then \(W\sim U\) if and only if there exists a complete connected totally geodesic submanifold \(N^{\perp}\) of M such that \(p,q\in N^{\perp}\) and \(T_ pN^{\perp}=W^{\perp},\) \(T_ qN^{\perp}=U^{\perp}.\) Denote by \(<W>\) the equivalence class of \(W\in F_ S\) and by \(M^*\) the set of all the equivalence classes. The author shows: Let M be a simply connected Riemannian symmetric space without Euclidean factor and let \({\mathcal V}\in {\mathcal S}(M)\). Then the target space \(M^*\) is a pseudo- Riemannian symmetric space. Moreover if M is compact, \(M^*\) is a compact Riemannian symmetric space. Now the author defines a Gauss map \(\kappa: S\to M^*\) by \(k(p)=<T_ pS>\in M^*\) for \(p\in S\) and proves: Let M be a simply connected Riemannian symmetric space without Euclidean factor and let \({\mathcal V}\in {\mathcal S}(M)\). If S is a symmetric \({\mathcal V}\)-manifold of M, the generalized Gauss map is a totally geodesic immersion of S to \(M^*\). Moreover it is isometric if and only if S is a totally geodesic submanifold. Finally the list of target spaces for considerable classes of submanifolds of simply connected irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces is given.