A proof of the Chern-Lashof conjecture in dimensions greater than five (Q1263103)

The main result of the paper is that the best lower bound for the total absolute curvature of a smooth closed manifold \(M^ m\) in \({\mathbb{R}}^ w\), \(m>5\), is the Morse number \(\mu\) (M). This was conjectured by \textit{S. S. Chern} and \textit{R. K. Lashof} [Mich. Math. J. 5, 5-12 (1958; Zbl 0095.358)] without dimension restrictions. Again assuming that \(m>5\), the author shows that the best lower bound within a regular homotopy class of immersions is also \(\mu\) (M) except when \(w=m+1\) and w is even. In this exceptional case the best lower bound is max\(\{\) \(\mu\) (M),2\(| d| \}\), where d is the degree of the Gauss map.