On the index of minimal curvature submanifolds (Q1127977)

Let \(\overline{M}\) be a hypersurface of \(\mathbb{R}^{m+1}\), \(M\) an \(n\)-dimensional minimal, compact, connected submanifold of \(\overline{M}\) and \(\Gamma(N)\) the module of normal vector fields of \(M\) and \(I: \Gamma(N)\times \Gamma(N)\to \mathbb{R}\) the index form corresponding to the volume functional of normal deformations of \(M\). Its index is called the index of the minimal submanifold \(M\). The author proves the following. If the sectional curvature of \(\overline{M}\) is strictly positive and \(M\) is a curvature submanifold of \(\overline{M}\), that means, there exists a function \(\lambda:M\to \mathbb{R}\) such that the space operator \(\overline{A}\) of \(\overline{M}\) satisfies \(\overline{A}X= \lambda X\) for every vector field \(X\in{\mathfrak X}(M)\), then \(\text{index} (M)\geq m-n\); and in the case \(\text{index} (M)= m-n\), the submanifold \(M\) is a totally geodesic submanifold of \(\overline{M}\) which can be described as a connected component of the intersection of \(\overline{M}\) with an \((n+1)\)-dimensional affine subspace of \(\mathbb{R}^{m+1}\). This result is a generalization of J. Simons' index theorem which handles the case \(\overline{M}= S^n\).