Isotropic submanifolds of pseudo-Riemannian spaces (Q442537)

Let \(M^m_\nu\) be an \(m\)-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold with metric tensor \(g\) of signature \((\nu,m-\nu)\). Let \(\phi:N^n_s\to M^m_\nu\) be an isometric immersion of a connected pseudo-Riemannian manifold \(N^n_s\) of dimension \(n\geqslant 2\) and signature \((s,n-s)\), and let \(h\) denote the second fundamental form of \(\phi\). \(\phi\) is called isotropic at \(p\in N^n_s\) if \(g(h(u,u),h(u,u))=\lambda(p) \in\mathbb R\) does not depend on the choice of the unit tangent vector \(u\in T_pN^n_s\), and \(\phi\) is said to be isotropic if \(\phi\) is isotropic at each point of \(N^n_s\). Here, the authors study relationships of the class of isotropic submanifolds with other families of submanifolds such as minimal, pseudo-umbilical, Einstein ones, etc. They obtain a useful formula for the Ricci tensor of an isotropic pseudo-Riemannian submanifold \(N^n_s\) of a pseudo-Riemannian space form \(M^m_\nu(c)\) and prove that, if \(n\geqslant 3\), then \(\phi\) is pseudo-umbilical if and only if \(N^n_s\) is an Einstein manifold. Next, the authors consider isotropic space-like submanifolds \(N^n\;(n\geqslant 3)\) of a pseudo-Riemannian space form \(M^m_\nu(c)\) and show that, if the isotropic function \(\lambda\) is appropriately bounded above, then \(N^n\) satisfies strong topological conditions. The last section of the reviewed paper is devoted to Lorentzian isotropic submanifolds in pseudo-Riemannian space forms.