A remark on finite type conditions (Q1711018)

Given a germ \((M, p)\) of a smooth real submanifold of \(\mathbb C^n\), let us denote by \(\Delta(M, p)\) (resp. \(\Delta^{\text{reg}}(M, p)\)) the maximum order of contact of a \(1\)-dimensional, possibly singular, complex analytic variety (resp. of a smooth complex analytic curve) with \(M\) at the point \(p\). Clearly \(\Delta(M, p) \leq \Delta^{\text{reg}}(M, p)\) and there are simple examples for which the strict inequality holds. On the other hand, it is also known that the equality surely holds in diverse situations, as, e.g., when \(M\) bounds a convex domain or a pseudoconvex Reinhardt domain. In this paper, the author shows that under an appropriate positivity condition on \(M\), considerably more general than pseudoconvexity, one has \(\Delta(M, p) = \Delta^{\text{reg}}(M, p)\) when either of these numbers is equal to \(4\).