Topology and curvature of isoparametric families in spheres (Q6113644)

An isoparametric hypersurface in the unit sphere \(S^{n+1}(1)\) is a hypersurface \(M^n\) with constant principal curvatures. Isoparametric hypersurfaces always occur as part of a family of the level hypersurfaces of an isoparametric function \(f\). Such an isoparametric family consists of regular parallel hypersurfaces with constant mean curvatures and two singular level sets carrying a manifold structure, which are called focal submanifolds. \textit{É. Cartan} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 17, 177--191 (1938; Zbl 0020.06505); Math. Z. 45, 335--367 (1939; Zbl 0021.15603); Rev., Ser. A, Univ. Nac. Tucumán 1, 5--22 (1940; Zbl 0025.22603); C. R. Congr. Sci. Math. 30--41 (1939; Zbl 0025.36601)] was the pioneer who made a comprehensive study of isoparametric hypersurfaces in the unit spheres. Denote the number of distinct principal curvatures of \(M^n\) by \(g\), and the principal curvatures by \(\lambda_1>\lambda_2>\cdots>\lambda_g\) with multiplicity \(m_1,\ldots, m_g\). \textit{H. F. Münzner} [Math. Ann. 251, 57--71 (1980; Zbl 0417.53030); Math. Ann. 256, 215--232 (1981; Zbl 0438.53050)] proved that \(g\) can be only \(1, 2, 3, 4\) or \(6\), \(m_i=m_{i+2}\) (subscripts mod \(g\)), the principal curvatures could be written as \(\lambda_i=\cot(\theta+\frac{i-1}{g}\pi)\) with \(\theta\in (0, \frac{\pi}{g})\) \((i=1,\ldots,g)\), and the isoparametric function \(f\) must be the restriction to \(S^{n+1}(1)\) of a homogeneous polynomial \(F: \mathbb{R}^{n+2} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) of degree \(g\) satisfying the Cartan-Münzner equations \[ \begin{cases} |\nabla F|^2= g^2|x|^{2g-2}, \\ \triangle F=\frac{m_2-m_1}{2}g^2|x|^{g-2}. \end{cases}\tag{1} \] The polynomial \(F\) is called the Cartan-Münzner polynomial, and \(f=F~|_{S^{n+1}(1)}\in [-1, 1]\). For \(-1 < t < 1\), \(f^{-1}(t)\) is an isoparametric hypersurface. The level sets \(M_+=f^{-1}(1)\) and \(M_-=f^{-1}(-1)\) are the two focal submanifolds with codimensions \(m_1+1\) and \(m_2+1\) in \(S^{n+1}\), respectively. The classification of isoparametric hypersurfaces in unit spheres is an intriguing and challenging problem, which is the 34th problem in [\textit{S. T. Yau}, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 54, 1--28 (1993; Zbl 0801.53001)]. Very recently, the classification of the isoparametric hypersurfaces in \(S^{n+1}(1)\) was accomplished. To be more precise, for \(g\leq3\), E. Cartan showed that isoparametric hypersurfaces must be homogeneous. For \(g=4\), \textit{T. E. Cecil} et al. [Ann. Math. (2) 166, No. 1, 1--76 (2007; Zbl 1143.53058)] and \textit{Q.-S. Chi} [J. Differ. Geom. 115, No. 2, 225--301 (2020; Zbl 1455.53081)] proved that the isoparametric hypersurfaces are either of OT-FKM type or homogeneous with \((m_1, m_2) =(2, 2), (4, 5)\). For \(g=6\), \(m_1=m_2=1\) or \(2\) and the isoparametric hypersurfaces must be homogeneous thanks to results in [\textit{J. Dorfmeister} and \textit{E. Neher}, Commun. Algebra 13, 2299--2368 (1985; Zbl 0578.53041); \textit{R. Miyaoka}, Ann. Math. (2) 177, No. 1, 53--110 (2013; Zbl 1263.53049)]. In this paper, the authors' main motivation is to show that there are still many interesting problems related to the theory of isoparametric foliations although the classification of isoparametric hypersurfaces in unit spheres has been completed. They aim to give a comprehensive study for topological and geometric properties of isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds. In the first part, the authors study the topology of the isoparametric families, namely the homotopy, homeomorphism, or diffeomorphism types, parallelizability, as well as the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. This part extends substantially the results of \textit{Q.-M. Wang} [J. Differ. Geom. 27, No. 1, 55--66 (1988; Zbl 0647.53041)]. Now we recall the isoparametric family of OT-FKM type, which yields almost all the cases with \(g=4\). For a symmetric Clifford system \(\{P_0,\cdots,P_m\}\) on \(\mathbb{R}^{2l}\), i.e., \(P_{\alpha}\)'s are symmetric matrices satisfying \(P_{\alpha}P_{\beta}+P_{\beta}P_{\alpha}=2\delta_{\alpha\beta}I_{2l}\), \textit{D. Ferus} et al. [Math. Z. 177, 479--502 (1981; Zbl 0443.53037)] generalized a result in [\textit{H. Ozeki} and \textit{M. Takeuchi}, Tôhoku Math. J. (2) 27, 515--559 (1975; Zbl 0359.53011)] to construct a Cartan-Münzner polynomial \(F\) of degree \(4\) on \(\mathbb{R}^{2l}\): \begin{align*} &\qquad F:\quad \mathbb{R}^{2l}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\\ &F(x) = |x|^4 - 2\sum_{\alpha = 0}^{m}{\langle P_{\alpha}x,x\rangle^2}.\tag{2} \end{align*} It is easy to verify that \(f=F|_{S^{2l-1}(1)}\) is an isoparametric function on \(S^{2l-1}(1)\), which is called OT-FKM type after Ozeki, Takeuchi, Ferus, Karcher and Münzner. The multiplicity pair is \((m_1, m_2)=(m, l-m-1)\) provided \(m>0\), \(l-m-1>0\), where \(l=k\delta(m)\), \(k\) is an positive integer and \(\delta(m)\) is the dimension of the irreducible module of the Clifford algebra \(\mathcal{C}_{m-1}\). The focal submanifolds are \(M_+=f^{-1}(1)\), \(M_-=f^{-1}(-1)\), which are minimal submanifolds of \(S^{2l-1}(1)\). Q.-M. Wang [loc. cit.] began to study the homotopy, homeomorphism and diffeomorphism types of isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds of OT-FKM type. However, his results for the focal submanifold \(M_+\) are not complete. The present authors make progress on this problem. Theorem. The focal submanifold \(M_+\) of OT-FKM type is homotopy equivalent (resp., homeomorphic, diffeomorphic) to \(S^{l-1}\times S^{l-m-1}\) if and only if \[(m_1, m_2) = (1, 2), (2, 1), (1, 6), (6, 1), (2, 5), (5, 2), (3, 4),\] or the indefinite case of \((4, 3).\) Since the isoparametric hypersurface \(M\) of OT-FKM type is diffeomorphic to \(M_+\times S^m\), the authors also obtain the following: Theorem. An isoparametric hypersurface \(M\) of OT-FKM type is homotopy equivalent (resp., homeomorphic, diffeomorphic) to \(S^{l-1} \times S^{l-m-1} \times S^m\) if and only if \[(m_1, m_2) = (1, 2), (2, 1), (1, 6), (6, 1), (2, 5), (5, 2), (3, 4),\] or the indefinite case of \((4, 3)\). As another aspect of topological properties, the authors compute the Lusternik- Schnirelmann category of isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds of OT-FKM type. Theorem. Let \(M, M_+, M_-\) be a isoparametric hypersurface and focal submanifolds of OT-FKM type in the unit sphere, respectively. Then \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(\mathrm{cat}(M_-) = 2; \mathrm{cat}(M_+) = 2\), if \((m_1, m_2)\neq(8, 7), (9, 6)\), and \(M_+\) is not in the following two cases: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \((m_1, m_2) = (1, 1), \mathrm{cat}(M_+) = \mathrm{cat}(\mathrm{SO}(3)) = 3\); \item[(b)] \((m_1, m_2) = (4, 3)\) in the definite case, \(\mathrm{cat}(M_+) = \mathrm{cat}(\mathrm{Sp}(2)) = 3\). \end{itemize} \item[(ii)] \(\mathrm{cat}(M) = 3\), if \((m_1, m_2)\neq(8, 7), (9, 6)\), and \(M\) is not in the following two cases: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \((m_1, m_2) = (1, 1), \mathrm{cat}(M) = 4\); \item[(b)] \((m_1, m_2) = (4, 3)\) in the definite case, \(\mathrm{cat}(M) = 4\). \end{itemize} \end{itemize} The authors also determine the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds with \(g=3\) or \(g=6\) (see Propositions 1.7 and 1.9). It is interesting to point out that it is still an open problem to determine the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of the focal submanifold \(M_+\) of OT-FKM type with \((g, m_1, m_2) = (4, 8, 7)\) or \((4, 9, 6)\). The focal submanifolds \(M_-\) of OT-FKM type are known to be \(S^{l-1}\)-bundles over \(S^m\). Denote the associated vector bundle by \(\xi\), then \(M_-\) is diffeomorphic to \(S(\xi)\). Considering the parallelizability of the isoparametric family of OT-FKM type, the authors establish what follows: Theorem. Let \(M, M_+, M_-\) be a isoparametric hypersurface and focal submanifolds of OT-FKM type, respectively. Then: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(M_-\) is parallelizable if and only if \(M_-\) is s-parallelizable; \item[(ii)] \(M_+\) is parallelizable; \item[(iii)] \(M\) is parallelizable. \end{itemize} In the second part, the authors investigate the intrinsic curvature properties of isoparametric hypersurfaces and focal submanifolds in unit spheres with induced metrics. For the case of sectional curvature, they prove the following: Theorem. For the focal submanifolds of an isoparametric hypersurface in \(S^{n+1}(1)\) with \(g=4\) or \(6\) distinct principal curvatures: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)]When \(g=4\), the sectional curvatures of a focal submanifold with induced metric are non-negative if and only if the focal submanifold is one of the following: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \(M_+\) of OT-FKM type with multiplicities \((m_1, m_2) = (2, 1), (6, 1)\) or \((4, 3)\) in the definite case; \item[(b)] \(M_-\) of OT-FKM type with multiplicities \((m_1, m_2) = (1, k)\); \item[(c)] The focal submanifold with multiplicities \((m_1, m_2) = (2, 2)\) and diffeomorphic to the oriented Grassmannian \(\widetilde{G}_2(\mathbb{R}^5)\); \end{itemize} \item[(ii)] When \(g = 6\), the sectional curvatures of all focal submanifolds with induced metric are not non-negative. \end{itemize} The authors also investigate Ricci curvatures of isoparametric families (see Propositions 3.4 and 3.6).